A DOG CHOSEN OVER A MAN

People of modern society, I already knew, are obsessed with their pets. When spas for animals, offices for animal psychologists, and funeral homes for pet memorial services and burial are popping up ubiquitously, there is strong indication people are really getting into their pets. But, how into their pets are they? Two recent, major studies have confirmed earlier ones: Humans love their dogs more than other people. Varied research projects have been conducted. In one people were asked to which cause were they most likely to donate—the one to save a dog from a slow, painful death, or the one to save an adult man from a slow, painful death. People felt sorrier for the dog; they chose the dog’s life over the man’s. Similar studies revealed the same: When asked, “If a dog and a man were in the path of an oncoming speeding vehicle, and you had opportunity to pull just one out of its path, which would you choose?,” people again chose the dog. Reporters seemed satisfied simply to conclude that people love their pets more than people, but I can’t keep from wondering just what is the real cause. I cannot begin to get my mind wrapped around “Why?”. I really think it has something to do with the same reason we can be kinder, more considerate, and friendlier with rank strangers than we are with members of our own family. In any case, there is not space here to ponder the root reason. Some studies added a variable that might offer some explanation. When the adult male was replaced with a young child, then the human child was chosen over the dog. Phew, humans aren’t completely devoid of empathy and compassion for their own kind! “Own kind.” I’ll have to get back to that in a moment. So, perhaps, this greater love for the dog in the first study is actually a matter of empathy. In the two studies the thing the dog and the human child have in common is that both are considered in the larger scheme of things to be helpless, defenseless, and vulnerable. The adult is, well, an adult. He should be able to take care of himself. I do see a marvelous analogy—and it goes back to “own kind.” The majority of the people in the studies did not chose the man, one of their own kind. They chose the dog, one of a different kind, species. In spite of our being created in the His image, there is as much disparity between God and us humans as there is between us humans and a dog. It is the difference between humanity and Deity. Yet, God empathized with us. He chose us. “Wait,” you exclaim, “I must interrupt. Are you saying that God chose us, the ‘dog,’ over a ‘man’?” Yes, I am. It was not a speeding car which was bearing down upon us. It was death, destruction, and eternal punishment. It really came to this: Would God save us or His Son? God chose us! His Son died. What love! Contrary to the studies that conclude people love animals more than other humans, God does not love us more than His Son. But, He loved us so much, He gave His Son for us. The dog in the hypothetical scenario could never know that, when in the path of the speeding car, it had been chosen over the human. It might not even be able to comprehend it had been saved. We can. We have been saved. We have been chosen to live and the Son to die. We have been loved. (This is not meant to be negative of pets and pet-lovers.)

A DOG CHOSEN OVER A MAN

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