I think the relevance here was the perceived need to dispel the then (and errant) -popular superstition that humans can literally reincarnate as animals. BTW, I'm not so sure this particular situation is about the spatial location so many as it is a human soul on the consciousness level being compelled to shadow the life of an animal for a short duration.
Anyway on the broader topic, I think this confirms out understanding today that the development of souls is indeed evolutionary. Once a soul attains the human level (and sufficiently acclimates to it), there is no "going back" to animal incarnation, save for the type of example above; where as a temporary punishment the errant human soul might passively follow around and view the life of an animal that might correspond to the bestial qualities the erring human has embraced in their failed life. Those popular Eastern doctrines which assert that the rebirth process is totally random and thus humans can be reborn as plants, snakes, bugs, ect., are unscientific (we're talking about esoteric science here) and illogical, and probably came about as shocking scare stories meant for children and stupid people, like the "eternal damnation" narrative in Christianity.
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Date: 2022-03-16 01:38 pm (UTC)Anyway on the broader topic, I think this confirms out understanding today that the development of souls is indeed evolutionary. Once a soul attains the human level (and sufficiently acclimates to it), there is no "going back" to animal incarnation, save for the type of example above; where as a temporary punishment the errant human soul might passively follow around and view the life of an animal that might correspond to the bestial qualities the erring human has embraced in their failed life. Those popular Eastern doctrines which assert that the rebirth process is totally random and thus humans can be reborn as plants, snakes, bugs, ect., are unscientific (we're talking about esoteric science here) and illogical, and probably came about as shocking scare stories meant for children and stupid people, like the "eternal damnation" narrative in Christianity.