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NASB | Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature of the field which the LORD God had made. And the serpent (Satan) said to the woman, "Can it really be that God has said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" [Rev 12:9-11] |
Subject: Distiction in "will" not "rationality" |
Bible Note: Hi Bob! Do animals choose or not? You now say that they do, but that they don't make the _kind_ of choices man does. If choice is based on volition, then animals have it, because they make choices. And so man is not distinguished from the beasts by his ability to choose but by the kind of choices he makes. May I submit that the difference in kind is because animals do _not_ have (and Scripture says they do not have) reason. Man can make a reasoned choice; animals only make instinctive choices. The image of God is reason, the ability to use logic, to think discursively. By having a rational mind in the image of God man can know the commands of God. Man is moral by virtue of reason. Animals cannot sin, are amoral because not having a rational mind in the image of God they cannot know or understand the commands of God. It is the image of God that distinguishes the creature man from other earthly creatures, and the image of God is not volition but rationality, by which we can make rational choices, moral or otherwise, and the animals can't. |