(February 28, 2013 at 12:27 am)apophenia Wrote:
We're also likely the only animal to invent religion. That's got to count, like, ten internets against us.
If we accept the contemporary argument that the sense of self is a delusion derived from post-hoc narrative, and it is our belief in the self that is the key cognitive mechanism, then by extension we have to accept that self-aware animals, that also believe in their own delusion of the 'self', have 'systems of belief'.
Of course, I'm playing semantics with the word 'belief' but it's probably naive of us to assume pack-animals do not have belief based social constructs, and isn't that essentially what 'religion' is?
Plus it's really fun to mull over the thought that the very arguement used by many religious people to prop up their anthropocentric dogma (self-awareness) could be the construct that provides the theory that animals have religion.
That possibility amuses me greatly.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
