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<p>Hello Roy,</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Saturday, September 29, 2007, 12:15:56 AM, you wrote:</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> Rostrum wrote:</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts7>...</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts8>>> In the Sun books, Wolfe is constantly giving us robots,</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts8>>>animals, vampire leeches, etc. that people treat as soul-less, but</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts8>>>turn out to show evidence of a soul. And in many of those cases, the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts8>>>souls seem somehow derived from contact with human beings. So maybe</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts8>>>the truth is that the Aelf have no souls if they are untethered to the</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts8>>>human beings above them through whom they would derive a soul?</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> This was discussed in the last quarter of '05. Disiri is the only Aelf to</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> receive a soul (if she did) we are shown in the text. Able's blood *seemed*</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> to be the medium. Baki got Toug's blood, but I don't see that she gained a</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> soul by it. The only differences I can see are love and Able's status as a</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> god. If there is a rational explanation of this Aelf/soul business, I think</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> it has to be largely in that chapter four.</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts6>> -Roy</span></p>
<p><br></p>
<p>The answer is pretty obvious from a philosophical and theological point of view. The specific feature of the rational, immortal, human soul is the ability to participate in the divine. (I am speaking here about the classical philosophy and Christian theology). This is possible because the soul is descended directly from God. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p>In Christianity this is represented as the doctrine of the separate creation of souls. The whole world is created as a single act, with the exception of souls, which are created independenty.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Of course it doesn't mean that people cannot create souled beings or cause the souls to appear. They do this every time when they have children. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p>In general, the fact of "<span class=rvts7>robots,animals, vampire leeches" </span>receiving souls is not so strange when we think of people. We have here a certain conglomerate of matter, which gets so complicated and organized that it can become a living system; and which finally is able to think, speak, see etc. But all this is natural and doesn't require a rational soul. It, however, enables man to receive a soul. And the soul gives us such supernatural (this is not a good term) abilities as free will and reason, ie the ability to learn the truth about the world.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>So, Disiri received soul because of the action of Able, but her soul was not created by Able. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p>And why did she receive it - his love (and not just lust) was an important factor. The fact that he was a god was I think not important in itself; more important was the fact that he rejected Valfather's offer and decided to seek higher things.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><br></p>
<p><span class=rvts9>-- </span></p>
<p><span class=rvts9>Best regards,</span></p>
<p><span class=rvts9> Stanislaus </span><a class=rvts10 href="mailto:sbocian@poczta.fm">mailto:sbocian@poczta.fm</a></p>
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<TABLE cellPadding="3" bgColor="#ffffff"><TBODY><TR><TD style="font: 12px Courier New, Courier, monotype.com; padding: 3px; background: #ffffff; color: #000000">-----------------R--E--K--L--A--M--A-----------------
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