Wolves and Dogs
There is a folklore story in a local region around Tokyo.
In a village, people said that there was a wolf in forests and hills nearby. The wolf chased a villager walking through fields at dusk or at night. It would not jump, attack, and eat a foot passenger until he stumbled and fell. But if he could safely walk to the village, the wolf just played a role of a kind of escort.
Indeed once wolves lived in Japan; they are called Japanese wolves. But they became extinct 100 years ago in Kyusyu, Shikoku, and Honsyu of the Japanese archipelago. (In Hokkaido, the northernmost island of the archipelago, there also lived another type of wolves that also went extinct 100 years ago.) Anyway, today no wolves, neither of the Japanese type nor of a northern type, exist in Japan.
Passages in the Gospels that refer to wolves are as follows:
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Luke 10:3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.
However, dogs are also not loved by Christ Jesus, either.
Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
Matthew 15:26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
Matthew 15:27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.
Mark 7:27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.
Mark 7:28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.
Luke 16:21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
So, I don't think it is appropriate for people to keep a dog. The more they love dogs, the less they love poor people around them.
According to recent studies on mitochondria, direct ancestors of human beings who today live outside Africa left the African Continent about 100,000 years ago. However, based on mitochondria studies of dogs, it was 130,000 years ago that dogs were separated from wolves in their evolution. As wolves did not live in Africa, it is a mystery that dogs and wolves were separated from each other without intervention from our ancestors. Maybe Neanderthal men kept and domesticated wolves to turn them eventually to dogs.
In other theory based on DNA study of dogs, they were produced from wolves by people living in East Asia between 40,000 years ago and 15,000 years ago.
Yet, one thing sure is that without human beings any wolves have not changed to dogs. We are responsible to manage dogs.
With advancement of science, now human beings can handle cells and genes of any living species. We will be soon able to create any new type of species, such as a man with huge wings. It is dangerous. This technology can apply to biological weapons.
So, even if the human species should not be terminated in the 21st century, a different version of mankind might be living in the 22nd century. There is a possibility that the new version of mankind will not share the same emotion, ethic, philosophy, and religion as we have today. We must stop easy development of genetic engineering and embryo-stem cells.
*** *** *** ***
Mat 7:9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Mat 7:10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
Mat 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?