Even if the subject of this thread is clearly off-topic, I find it to be 
quite relevant, as well. Food is the infrastructure, who will deny it? But 
shall we, on this ground, overlook the superstructure?

I want to say two or three things with relation to what the group has been 
talking about lately:

1. I am not a religious person, but I do appreciate a religious 
person, unless she or he has become too much of a proselyte. ;) We are 
living in a world – especially the Western side of it – where being 
religious is more and more frowned upon. It is just the opposite situation 
of the Inquisition Age. At that time, you could lose your head if you did 
not believe in God. Now, you can lose your reputation if you believe in 
God. So, it takes a lot of courage to be religious in our environment. 
That is why I appreciate such people. Or should I say I envy them?

2. Maybe I envy them, to be more exact. This is my personal feeling: 
when there is no God in your life, there is in most cases a void in it. 
You can try to fill it, but to what degree of satisfaction or success? 
Deny it as we may, at the bottom we all yearn for God. Never mind what it 
was like in the very remote paleo past. Maybe man did not talk about God 
then, but man by his own nature is a creature who wants to transcend. If 
God is transcendence, why isn't God natural, either? If you are not 
comfortable with the existence of a God, because, being a rational person, 
you cannot in the first place locate him somewhere, think maybe in these 
terms: God is Human Perfection. It is a very real metaphor or ideal; it is 
something we all are always going after, even if we are following any 
crooked way. 

3. I know all animals are necessary, but as a human being I think man 
is the most important. I am not saying man is the best or the superior 
one. What I saying is that, in my opinion, nothing surpasses the human 
voice, the human touch, the human camaraderie. I could live among animals 
and pets and even communicate with them, but if I were forbidden having 
encounters with humans from time to time, I would feel terribly alone. It 
would be like death, maybe. It is only natural for us to want to be around 
similar beings. That is why if a soul has to be granted to someone, I 
would grant it in the first place to human beings, because only with 
another human being am I fully able, even amidst failures and falls, to 
realize my humanity.

José Carlos