Elder Anthimos+ on Mankind Part 2
“The animals have senses. Man also has senses which the animals have, but he also has an intellect. The most royal sense of man is sight, which sees everything around him. The other animals also have this sense. The most obvious energy of the soul, which the animals don’t have, however, is the intellect, the eye of the soul. For this reason, he goes everywhere with the intellect. As with the eyes he sees all existing things around him, so with the intellect he sees all the noetic things. God creates, man also creates. Man creates from matter. Without matter he can’t do anything. He creates and builds houses, cars, tools, ships, airplanes. He makes cars and runs faster than the rabbits and the foxes. He makes ships in the sea, makes submarines to go in the sea together with the fish. He makes diving suits to go down to the bottom with the shellfish. He flies high in the sky, above the clouds where the birds do not go. He has reached up to the moon. Can any other living organism except man do all these things? You see, they bear witness to man being created ‘in the image.’”
– ‘Elder Anthimos of Saint Annes’