Theism in animal minds
February 7, 2015 at 12:40 pm
(This post was last modified: February 7, 2015 at 12:41 pm by watchamadoodle.)
I've heard that belief in God is just an extension of capabilities used in social interactions. A person must imagine the mind of the other person (motivations, feelings, etc.). Sometimes a person must imagine the mind of another person even when that person is not present. And it is just one more step to imagine the mind of a person that never has existed - God.
So it seems likely that social animals like cats, dogs, birds would become theists. The tendency to imagine God requires less cognitive ability than the ability to realize there is no God.
Instead of thinking that the default condition is atheism, it seems to me that the default condition is theism, and atheism is the next step in human evolution.
So it seems likely that social animals like cats, dogs, birds would become theists. The tendency to imagine God requires less cognitive ability than the ability to realize there is no God.
Instead of thinking that the default condition is atheism, it seems to me that the default condition is theism, and atheism is the next step in human evolution.
