“Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.” (From the Orange Catholic Bible)
The Bene Gesserits test to see if a person is truly human. By their beliefs, too many are metaphorical animals trapped in human form and the real ones must be sifted out.
For centuries, mankind has pondered what it means to be human and what does separate us from the animals. Religions through the ages have suggested the presence of the soul- an immortal piece of the human trinity that endures after bodily death- as a separation from the rest of the animal kingdom.
How does one “disfigure the soul”? While open to interpretation, there are things obvious in the Dune universe that would apply. The making of an artificial intelligence, for example, blurs the line between human and machine. Becoming so dependant upon technology that we have weakened the human spirit of expansion would be another. Creating that which stagnates our evolution as a race would be one more. Anything that lessens the intrinsic humanity of a person, in effect, disfigures the soul.
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