Interest and research into animal intelligence has never been greater. There's a great deal of data that animal psychology is not so different from the human animal. There can be quite extensive degrees of intelligence in animals just as there are in people. All that is available to know for those who are interested enough regardless of what their opinions may have been.henry quirk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 1:34 pmSounds, to me, like there's a whole lotta anthropomorphizing going on here. She observed seemingly human responses in a non-human. Now, she may be spot on, but it's not a given she is.Kumar (2017) discusses PTSD in her cat Lola. In May of 2017 in Afghanistan, a tanker truck was bombed. The attack claimed more than 150 lives and injured at least 700 others. The impact of the explosion was felt several miles away, breaking windows and cracking ceilings. 20 minutes after the explosion, Lola was hiding. For the next week, Lola was edgy. She was startled by small sounds and she would follow the author everywhere. Lola would wail when Kumar left the house and be clingy when she returned. She started eating less and losing weight. According to Kumar (2017), the U.S. military has seen this reaction to stress in its working dogs. About 5 percent of the dogs that have served in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from “canine PTSD,” making some dogs aggressive, timid, or unable to do their jobs.
Ditto.Romm (2016) discusses Elsom, a chimpanzee who experienced PTSD. Elsom’s mother died with he was 13. At age 15, he suffered a serious injury to his arm. He disappeared for a few months afterward and isolated himself from his community. Upon his return, he was different. He was easily agitated and angry. He was more fearful and had difficulty sleeping. Romm (2016) states that animal mental illness can be triggered by many of the same factors that unleash mental illness in humans, including the loss of family or companions, loss of freedom, stress, trauma, and abuse.
As I say, up-thread: I'm a country boy. I've known a few dogs, cats, and horses that seemed like free wills -- like persons -- to me. It's entirely possible they were. It's equally possible I anthropomorphized the lot.But I didn't need any articles to tell me that. In my teens, I grew up in the country in the company of dogs and cats more than with humans; the interaction and observation of them told me a story very different from the one you're telling; one much more in tune with what modern research has already established regarding the emotional intelligence and complexity of higher-level animals.
Most dogs, cats, horses, and all sheep, geese, chickens, fish were, however, machines, reacting meat.
Yes, it is. Free wills created by the Free Will.Ah so! So simple!
Anthropomorphism conversely reveals itself mostly on your side of the argument.
For one thing no can know with any absolute certainty whether god really exists, a scenario which includes both atheists and theists. There is nothing in our knowledge which makes it necessary.
Second, if there were such an entity there is no way we could know what it looks like or whether it looks like anything.
In the light of these two facts - and facts they are - there's a reversal. Instead of god having made man in ITS image, it defaults to man to create a god in his own image. If a reptilian intelligence had emerged as god-believers instead of a mammalian one, god would alternatively have received that imprint.
