Over time, scientific studies have proven revelations
made by the Superior Spirits with whom Allan Kardec
dialogued while elaborating “The Book of Spirits”. Among
these proofs is the answer given by the Spirits
regarding the family, which was considered by some
intellectuals as a result of a social custom and not an
obedience to a law of Nature. This positioning led the
Encoder to the following dialogue with the Spirits:
Why, among animals, do parents and children no longer
recognize each other, since they no longer need care?
Animals live a material life and not a moral life. The
mother's tenderness for her children is based on the
instinct of conservation of the beings she has given
birth to. As soon as these beings can take care of
themselves, she is done with her task; nothing more
nature demands of him. That is why she leaves them, in
order to occupy herself with the newcomers. (773).
Note that Kardec asks this question only to support the
following:
There are people who - based on the fact that animals,
after a certain time, abandon their young - deduce that
family ties between men are not more than the result of
social customs and not the effect of a law of Nature.
What should we think about this?
The answer of the Spirits is clear and conclusive:
There is something more in man, besides physical needs:
there is the need to progress. Social ties are necessary
for progress and the tightest family ties become the
first. This is why the second constitute a law of
Nature. God willed that, in this way, men would learn to
love one another as brothers. (774).
Still, in item 775, to reinforce, Kardec asks: What
would be, for society, the result of the relaxation of
family ties? To which the Spirits respond: A resurgence
of selfishness.
This divine programming for family organization can
already be seen in the chimpanzee, as reported by Roger
Fouts, an American researcher, who, although he does not
make the slightest allusion to the Theory of Evolution,
entitled his work with chimpanzees, elaborated in more
than thirty years of research, “The Nearest Relative” (1).
It is really impressive the way in which he refers to
these animals, which he sees and respects as an advanced
outline of a human being. He raised a chimpanzee from an
early age, taught her human sign language, never
speaking to her in human language, in this case,
English. In turn, she communicated with her son through
human sign language, taught by herself.
As he had always worked with animals born in the United
States, this researcher went to the chimpanzees' natural
habitat in order to verify their behavior outside
captivity. There, he found that the mother breastfeeds
the child until approximately four years old. During
this period, she does not get pregnant. After weaning,
during the new pregnancy, she keeps the child in her
company, and this protection extends until the age of
ten. Therefore, a mother chimpanzee almost always has
three children under her care. The young chimpanzee does
not break free from the mother's authority until
approximately ten years of age.
Science has shown that the chimpanzee is the closest
thing to the human species, and Spiritism teaches that
the spiritual entity that animates that hairy body, in
the future – no one knows after how many millennia –
will be animating a human form. In view of this, it is
concluded that that family sketch lived by the
chimpanzee mother and her children is part of a divine
programming that will make these beings, when they reach
the human condition, already have a program for family
life.
As can be clearly deduced, once again, Science proves
what was said in the Spiritist Codification: The
organization of the family stems from a divine
determinism, of permanent effect, and not from a simple
social custom.
The basis of the family is marriage, and, as I
understand it, Kardec deals with the subject in two
parts of "The Book of Spirits": "Marriage and Celibacy"
and "Society Law", when he asks the following question
to the Spirits: What effect would the abolition of
marriage have on society? And the answer of the
Spirits was clear: It would be a regression to the
life of animals. (775). In a judicious commentary,
the Codifier reinforces the indispensability of family
life:
The state of Nature is that of the free union of the
sexes. Marriage constitutes one of the first acts of
progress in human societies, because it establishes
fraternal solidarity and is observed among all peoples,
albeit under different conditions. The abolition of
marriage would, therefore, regress to the childhood of
Humanity and would place man below even certain animals
that give him an example of constant unions. (696).
In the concept of the Encoder and the Spirits who
answered his questions, marriage, as the basis of family
life, is far above any religious blessing or the signing
of any document before a civil authority. It is a
conjugal society, established by the couple themselves,
on an eminently moral and ethical level. It is a sacred
commitment, which leads one to see the closest
neighbor in the other.
As time passes, the advancement of the Encoder’s
thinking in relation to his contemporaries becomes more
evident, as marriage has lost, over the years, the
character of a social, religious act, becoming
conceptualized and respected as a personal act,
intimate. Currently, a couple imposes itself before
society as legitimately constituted, no longer because
their marriage commitment was assumed in a temple, under
priestly blessings, or even in a registry office, but
because of the environment of respect and seriousness in
Furthermore, who gives a man the right to establish this
sacred bond between two people, and to say, at the end
of the ceremony, "What God has joined together, let not
man put asunder"? Marriage, therefore, does not depend
on anything external, on any action outside the will of
the two. The two creatures marry, for no one has the
power to establish bonds between them. In grammar, one
learns that the verb to marry can, among other regimes,
be direct transitive, but philosophically, morally, this
classification is false. One could say, innovating in
grammar, that the verb is reciprocal, due to the
fact that people get married, without the intervention
of anyone. Not even the Justice of Peace promotes
marriage. This Authority only records in the annals of
society, for legal purposes, the marriage that is
declared before him.
With this understanding, it is concluded that the
Spiritist couple appears before the civil authority only
to declare their marriage, requesting that it be
registered for legal purposes, and not to receive any
type of legitimation. The legitimacy of marriage is
given by the degree of responsibility and love that
presided over the formation of the couple, who want to
start a family.
The more spiritual the couple, the more the marriage
transcends the limits of material life, reaching levels
of spiritual awareness, which naturally leads to the
desire for communion with the High, through a prayer, at
the moment when it formalizes, before society, this very
important statement. This prayer can be uttered by one
or both of the bride and groom, or even by a person
affectionately linked to them, because only love can
legitimize the condition of someone, in the condition of
suppliant, to pray blessings from Above on a new family
that form on Earth.
(1) “The
Closest Relative”, Roger Fouts, Publiher: Editora
Objetiva Ltda., 1998.
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