The Obvious Levels
Context
The Writing Challenge: To quote my ChristSF post: "After all this chatter about dust bunnies, you do realize that we now have to have a dust-bunny SF story writing project. No submissions accepted before the 16th, and no submissions accepted after the 30th."
Content
Science: Okay, admittedly, the science behind the Parable is a bit iffy. Then again, that's not really the point. Yes, carpet is great for giving kids extra electrons with which to zap siblings. But it's because (unless my memory is very much mistaken) of the type of insulator it is: it doesn't conduct electricty well, and thus wouldn't be very effective as a signal-transmission medium. But Trek's done worse things to science, so I'm still okay. :-)
Parable's Basic Lesson: Trust in God's leadings, not your own will.
The Deeper Levels
Context
Promptings: A discussion arose on ChristSF about a biblically-sound treatment of the mind, especially as it relates to telepathy. It branched into a general discussion of the Body and Soul (and Spirit). At one point, I claimed that, since "spirit" and "soul" were two different Greek words, they were not identical, and should not be used as equivalents. After some disagreement on the issue, I decided to do more research on the idea, seeing if I could find biblical substantiation for differentiating the two. [1]
Research
BunnyGenesis: When chatting about some of my research with a friend, I came up with a disturbing mental picture of a machine based on English puns for the Greek words for soul and spirit. This picture was followed by the idea that I could have this machine attack some poor dust bunnies for my story entry. Fortunately for all involved, I realized that my pun-machine would do more harm than good in differentiating soul and spirit, so I shelved that idea. A few hours later, the puns coalesced into a form that would work for the components of the dust bunnies themselves ... which I realized was a much better picture for my point, anyway.
1 Corinthians 2:14-15: My research, at one point, brought me to this passage, and holds the strongest foundation for my three-part bunnies. [The following quote includes a transliteration of the greek and the literal translation, as provided in the KJV of the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. If you'd like to read standard translations of the verses, go to the Bible Gateway entry for this passage, and follow any of its translation links.]
14 psuchikos de anthropos ou dechetai ta tou pneumatos tou theou, moria gar auto estin; kai ou dunatai gnonai, oti pneumatikos anakrinetai. 15 o de pneumatikos anakrinei men panta, autos de up oudenos anakrinetai
14 But [the] natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for foolishness to him they are; and he cannot know [them], because spiritually they are discerned; 15 but the spiritual discerns all things, but he by no one is discerned.
psuchikos, pneumatikos: Since it might not be as obvious here as it is in a truly interlinear format, "psuchikos de antrhopos" is translated as "[the] natural man", and "pneumatikos" as "spiritual" (and all standard translations I've read treat it as the "spiritual man"). I found the greek construction of these words interesting. The roots that I can see are "psuchy" (soul), "pneumatos" (spirit, wind), and "ikos" (house, dwelling, place). Thus, a somewhat more literal translation of the words would appear to me to be "soul-house" and "spirit-house" -- which could be interpreted as the house controlled by the soul or by the spirit. But even if you don't agree with my literalness, it seems to me that the grammatical relationship between "psuchy" and "puchikos" is meant to parallel that between "pneumatos" and "pneumatikos". I thus conclude that soul and spirit are different concepts in the New Testament.
Body, Soul, Spirit: This interpretation tends to agree with the threefold nature of man I've always been taught: the body ("soma" -- found frequently elsewhere in Scripture), which is the blood, bones, and muscle; the soul ("psuchy"), which is the seat of the mind, will and emotions; and the spirit ("pneumatos"), which is the God-breathed Image in us [2].
Implementation
Punny Bunnies: So where do my dust bunnies fit in all this? Without spirit or soul, the bunny is quite useless; hence, "nothing ... to make them go". For the psuchikos bunnies, I chose a pun to draw the spiritual connection -- "telekenetic" powers, a "psychic" ability, from the Greek "psuchy" -- and had them use their mind, their own will, to get where they wanted to go. The pneumatikos bunnies trusted the Wind -- the Greek "pneumatos" is validly translated as "spirit" or "wind" [3] -- to carry them wherever He wanted, in a conscious yielding of the bunny's will to the Will of God.
Notes
1: "find bilical substantiation for...": Arguably the worst purpose for and method of Bible study, as it tends to bias ones interpretations quite heavily. So if you want to disagree with me on those grounds, go ahead. Though I'd prefer reasoned debate about the points I bring up, rather than immediate rejection based on this admission.
2: Animals: As an aside, this is why I am not likely to argue that animals have no souls. In fact, by my working definition, I think they probably can and do, especially the more complex animals: the problem-solving abilities in primates and dolphins [for example] indicate some level of mind; no one who has dealt with cats can deny that they have a will of their own; and pets' emotions help make them suitable as secondary companions for humans.
3: The Machine: I've now revealed enough to tell you that my original idea was a pneumatic machine controlled by a psychic. But I didn't particularly want my bunnies fighting against both soul and spirit, so I dropped that idea. :-)