 Hello, my name is Brian Cannelly and I'm the editor of Tan Books Foundations of Science Curriculum. As the editor, that means I went behind our author, Dr. Tim, after he wrote the book to check it for mistakes and typos, and helped to make sure it read in a fun and exciting way. This of course means I read the whole book, Animals, Creatures of the Wild, from cover to cover. And let me tell you, it was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had editing a book. And that's saying something, because I've edited hundreds of books in the last ten years. I learned so much cool stuff about animals, and I hope you did too. Now these videos that I'll be hosting are going to be a little different from the book and the workbook. Obviously in those, we tried to teach you about science, focusing on all the different kinds of animals there are in the world, what they eat and how they capture it, where they live, how they live in communities with other animals, and so much else. But here we're going to shift our focus a bit. It'll be my job here to take something you learn from the text and use it to transition to a broader point about the world, more specifically about God and His truths that lay hidden all around us. We'll still be talking about animals and reviewing some of the things you learned in the text, but we'll use that discussion to make deeper points about God, about the Catholic faith, about saints, about virtues and vices, and so much more. I've always had a mind that liked to dig deeper, to try to make connections between things, to try and make analogies. Some of the things that I'll be teaching may seem a bit random, they may seem a bit disconnected from our study of animals, but the beauty of God's world is that everything, even the smallest thing, points back to Him. But we may only discover these cool things if we take the time to investigate and think deeply. It should be a lot of fun. So without further ado, let's dive right in. One of the first things that struck me when I began to read this book about animals is that we human beings are considered animals. I suppose I was taught that in my studies growing up, but I still don't think of us as animals, and my guess is that you might not either. You might be surprised to think of us as animals, but it's true. What were the three features that make an animal? Do you remember that from the text from chapter one? Let's review them again. First, animals eat things. Last time I checked, we humans eat things. We would be considered omnivores, right? Because we eat meat, like hamburgers and turkey, but we also eat plants, like veggies. Now I personally only eat veggies when my wife makes me and our kids eat them. But they are healthy, and you should eat them too. The second feature of animals is that they're mobile. And yes, we humans move around, right? And the third feature is us being multicellular. And again, our bodies are made up of lots of tiny cells. So whether you believe it or not, human beings are a type of animal. But while it's true from a scientific standpoint that we're animals, it's important to understand how different we are from other animals. To show this, let's go back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. After the creation of the world and all the animals, God creates Adam from the dust of the earth and breathes the breath of life into him. But we read that even though the world was filled with other creatures, Adam could not find a suitable partner. Only when Eve was pulled from his side did he find someone that he could share his life with. Our clue for as to why this is comes from the part of the story where God breathed that breath of life into Adam. Right after that, Scripture says, man became a living soul. This breath of life is the Holy Spirit, the very life of God. It refers to how God gave us not just a body, but a soul as well. We were the only creatures to be a composite. That means a combination of both body and soul, physical and spiritual. As such, we were the pinnacle of God's creation, made in his image and likeness. This means we are the only animals who can have a relationship with God. We can think about him. We can talk to him. We can be in communion with him. We can share his life. Having a soul gives us the ability to be open to the transcendent, meaning we can think beyond this world. You might say that we can live horizontally with our bodies. We can go out and eat and sleep and play. But we also have the ability to live vertically, to strive for communion with God, to think about heaven, to pray, and to receive the sacraments. We can do this because God blessed us with traits like a rational will and an intellect that allows us to use reason, traits that he did not give to the other animals. The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that, quote, of all visible creatures only man is able to know and love his Creator. He is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake. And he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity. My daughter asked me the other day why our golden retriever couldn't come to mass with us. Now, there are several reasons for this. I don't think Father would appreciate a barking dog in church. But the main reason was that our dog can't understand what's going on at mass. My daughter asked, why not? I said, well, try to teach her right now about Jesus. I saw the gears churning in her mind. She was trying to think of how to start. But then she just smiled, hugged our dog, and walked away. She knew well enough to not even try. How could you even begin to explain to a dog or a squirrel or a fish or any animal the deep mysteries of Jesus' life and the teachings that shape our Catholic faith? Even though she couldn't put it into words, my daughter knew even at her young age that our dog was not the same as me or her. The truth is that animals just can't do what we can do. They can't compose symphonies. They can't paint a sunset. They can't do complex math problems or build magnificent cathedrals. They can't organize sports games or read novels. And no, they cannot understand anything about the spiritual life. But here's a key distinction. It's not just that they can't do these things, as in they don't have the physical ability to do them. It's that they don't even have the capacity to consider doing them. It would never occur to an animal to do most of the things we do throughout our day because they don't have that transcendent part of them, a spiritual soul that connects them to higher things. We do. So we can play music, read books, appreciate the beauty of the natural world, and most importantly, love God. It's a little bit sad when you think about it that our beloved pets can't be taught about the love of Jesus Christ. But that's OK. God loves all His creatures, and He has a purpose for all of them. One of their main purposes is to be at our service. God gave us all of creation to be stewards over. Of course, animals are a gift for us to eat, but also to marvel and love. The diversity of the animal kingdom points to God's awesome power and creativity. And appreciating this can draw us closer to Him as we live in wonder of all that He's capable of. Furthermore, when we care for animals, when we love them, it lifts our own dignity and makes us better people. And conversely, if we're cruel to animals, it's not only bad for the animal, it's bad for us because it cheapens our dignity and harms our soul. If we're cruel to animals, it's only a matter of time before we'll be cruel to other human beings. OK, that concludes our first video in this series, but come back next time to see how we discuss the skeletal system of some invertebrates and use that to transition into a conversation about virtue. I'll see you then.