Reading Assignment:
- SB Part Two: Chapter XI – The Three Kingdoms
Discussion Questions:
1. In The Gospel According to Spiritism (1st edition, 2008, p. 22), Kardec writes:
“The result is that, for everything that is outside the exclusively moral teaching, the revelations that each one may obtain will have an individual character lacking authenticity: that such revelations must be considered as the personal opinions of this or that spirit, and that it would be imprudent to accept them or thoughtlessly promulgate them as absolute truth.”
The subject of this chapter is outside exclusively moral teaching. Why do you think Kardec asked so many questions in this area? (You may find it useful to reread the brief biography of Kardec in Anna Blackwell’s Preface to The Spirits Book.)
2. The thrust of the answers to Q586 – 590 is that plants do not think, do not have perceptions, do not feel sensation of pain, and in general obey the mechanical force of matter acting on matter. Compare this point of view to that in the book The Secret Life of Plants. See page xiv.
“Evidence now supports the vision of the poet and the philosopher that plants are living, breathing, communicating creatures, endowed with personality and the attributes of soul. It is only we, in our blindness, who have insisted on considering them automata. Most extraordinary, it now appears that plants may be ready, willing, and able to cooperate with humanity in the Herculean job of turning this planet back into a garden …”
3. If Kardec were alive today, do you believe Kardec would likely embrace this more modern view of plants?
4. This chapter assumes that living entities should be classified in two kingdoms—plants and animals. A modern classification system classifies phyla into five kingdoms. (See Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth, by Lynn Margulis and Karlene V. Schwartz.)
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- Bacteria (unicellular with no nuclei)
- Protoctista (algae, protozoa, slime molds, evolved via symbiosis from bacteria)
- Animalia (energy from ingestion)
- Fungi (energy from absorption)
- Plantae (produce energy via photosynthesis)
Again, if Kardec were living today, do you think he would embrace this more modern view?
5. Explain how Spiritism is open to incorporating modern scientific discoveries into an understanding of the universe.
6. Can a human spirit reincarnate as an animal?
7. Can an animal spirit reincarnate as a human?
8. Final words to ponder (SB, p. 365 in Kardec’s commentary for Q613).
“The spirits themselves are far from knowing everything, and regarding what they do not know, they may also have their own opinions that are more sensible or less so.”