As promised a few months ago, I intend to pursue the debate of our DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) human proximity to the chimpanzee and other creatures, and the theory that all forms of life have common DNA features. At that time I pointed out the established fact that the chimpanzee’s DNA is 97.8 per cent that of the human being. So close that sometimes I wonder if the process is complete in everyone.
Now, human beings are supposed to have a soul. Throughout the ages of medical anatomy and physiology so far, no scientist or doctor has discovered the exact location of the soul. They have made progress with mapping the mind (brain), but the soul has proven elusive.
There are some dealers in theology who say that they have been successful in pinpointing the exact position of the soul with frightening results that have left many people cowed and penniless.
Let us look even further than the poor chimpanzee. Let us look at the ant that has 30 per cent of the human DNA. Does the ant have a soul?
According to scientific studies reproduced on the Internet, “the presence of monocellelic DNA methylation and the methylation of non-CpG sites in all samples (of ants), suggest roles in genome (chromosome) regulation in these social insects, including the intriguing specific possibility of parental or caste genomic imprinting”. This simply means organisation and socialisation abilities in ants, as we well know.
If that is the case, don’t we human beings too have a parental or caste specific genome imprinting? This raises the question as to whether like human beings, the ants (considered wise in the Good Book) also have a soul. If we spray some Bagon on an ants nest, are we not destroying hundreds of souls?
This raises a further question. The idea of saving our souls is linked to the hope of enjoying heavenly bliss with milk and honey after departing this world. Well, will we be accompanied by the common stinging ants also enjoying heavenly bliss in their afterlife? Frightening!
The possibility that ants will also be in Heaven, having had their souls saved, opens the floodgates for “santape” and snakes also making it to the portals of the pearly gates above. It will be hell in Heaven with snakes running around after we humans thought that we had gotten rid of them having departed this earth.
People speak of the soul as if it were a body part. All body parts so far identified function in maintaining metabolic processes in the survival needs, and are within certain limits or optimal levels. The same applies to ants. So I ask again, does an ant have a soul, and would that qualify it to go to Heaven . . . or hell? For example, if it gives you a wicked sting on a sensitive part, will it still go to Heaven, will its soul be saved?
Now politicians who do evil here on earth or are obstreperous and defiant to the public, like the thief on the left hand side of the cross, experience a catharsis on their deathbed. They say: “Save our souls for we have sinned and done hurtful things in our lives that have destroyed others.” They appeal to the theological gurus who give them solace and absolution. But they will have to confront ants in Heaven. Despite the act of repentance before carried on the shoulders of six strong men. Having reached Heaven, they will be crying to the rocks, as the ants will not forgive.
But Wild Coot, how is it that we humans feel that we alone have this elusive thing called a soul? Does just the difference of a mere 2.2 per cent in DNA justify the mystic concept of a soul if we feel that the chimps only like bananas? All the explanations so far only exude extemporaneous verbal evaporations and expatiations that seem to lack lucidity and logic.
The ant might still go to Heaven. It is not a sluggard. It does not say “yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep”.
Harry Russell is a banker. Email quijote70@gmail.com