Shrooblord said:
Adsolution said:
We're special among Earthlings indeed in that we're able to think about these things.
Now this adresses something that I strongly believe in: how do we know we're the only ones capable of thought, or rational thought? How can we know that because we can't make a cat talk, that a cat can't think? Why does the language barrier also imply an intelligence barrier? This is something I wonder about sometimes and I believe it's an ill-adressed matter in this world.
Even with a language barrier between different nations, we're able to communicate socially, and there are certain things that almost unanimously cover all animals, such as gentle contact being a sign of comfort and affection. If the cat were so intelligent as to have developed a frontal lobe with a size comparable to that of a human's, why would its species not have advanced anywhere at all? Abstract thinking and social structure (a result from the former) are the things humans excell at the most, far more than any other animal, and the fact that these abilities have trumped our natural instinct when it comes to decision-making is why our species has advanced; nature happened to pogress in such a way so that we gained hands that can work and create, and as we create, our minds evolved to accommodate this, allowing us to create more and more.
Our ability to think about these things is essentially due to our physical form. Social interaction, a result of thinking, allows us to share and develop even grander concepts, such as religion and a god. Religion is a thing that is the result of abstract thinking, atheism is faux, zero, trivial; atheism isn't the result of abstract thinking. Unless other animals have it ingrained in their DNA to believe in a creator (I can't think of any scientific reason as to why), Then I don't see how they would have fabricated the concept. Even if it were ingrained in their DNA, once again due to a lack of abstract social interaction, they wouldn't be able to stop believing in it.
I'm not saying it's impossible for other animals to ponder these things, but it almost undoubtedly would have to be more of a random neurological occurrence than any kind of rational sequence of thoughts that lead up to the ponderance of an idea much more expansive than what their instincts already aid them in.
I don't think it's a very ill-addressed matter. Given the extreme complexity of human nature relative to other animals I'd say that it's infinitely more important we discover how we work, because along the way, we'll garner the ability to understand how all animals work simultaneously.