do ANIMALS also have faith/relegion in some sense

well we know for a fact that higher animals arent just instinct driven, they have intelligence, they think in their free time and even dream. so im thinkin since faith in SUMTHING seems to be such a basic need of the human brain to function and human to feal motivated enough to survive, do animals like chimps etc also have faith{even if innately} in sumthing in sum way in their mind or are they just to dum to even consider that sorta stuff and is sex reason enough for them to survive?

maybe you should ask them

ofcourse not. Religion is man-made. What it all comes down to is being happy. Animals such as dogs n cats only need food n play to be happy. With humans it's more complex and we need a lot more to be happy. Thus religion was born. And the non-explained ofcourse. That's how religion started, was it not?

I don't believe they have faith, just instinct..

actually no, cats and dogs arent that simple. if a cat is avoided, itll leave the room, in a bad mood. animals are more complicated than most people realize. and also i dont mean ORGANIZED relegion, i mean FAITH in sumthin to keep em motivated and sumthin to look forward to.

but theyv already been proven to have more than just instincts, many animals have shown positive evidence for higher brain functions like emotions, memory and thoughts/dreams

Originally posted by leonheartmm
actually no, cats and dogs arent that simple. if a cat is avoided, itll leave the room, in a bad mood. animals are more complicated than most people realize. and also i dont mean ORGANIZED relegion, i mean FAITH in sumthin to keep em motivated and sumthin to look forward to.

animals are simple creatures. they have no need for religion.

Ok, so they have feeling, I do believe that. That has even been studied in chimps. But as far as faith, I'm not sure what a person would mean. Faith in a higher power? Faith that they will get food? I don't think they really worry very much. I don't think it's been proven that they have an ego to worry about needing.....hmm

It is interesting though because I've heard that animals also have measureable energy waves that would suggest some sort of inner activity that would be more than just physical.

but animals like elephants actually have ceremonies for the dead which go against logic. they all become gloomy when a group member dies, they put stuff on his body, than carress his head. then come back later, and retrieve his long teeth, and ceramoniously every one of the group walks over the long tooth and breaks it in line.

Originally posted by leonheartmm
but theyv already been proven to have more than just instincts, many animals have shown positive evidence for higher brain functions like emotions, memory and thoughts/dreams

I believe that animals have the capacity for thought and emotion and they are not just acting on instinct (with the exception of most insects), although instinct, or animal nature, plays a major role as well.

All you need to do is look at the frontal lobe of a human brain and compare it to that of an animal to know that human beings have a much higher sense of consciousness than animals. Years of evolution have allowed us to become complex creatures that are aware of their existence in an active manner and need a religious concept in order to explain the workings of things they do not understand, because with this heightened consciousness come the desire to ask questions and understand reality.

Originally posted by leonheartmm
but animals like elephants actually have ceremonies for the dead which go against logic. they all become gloomy when a group member dies, they put stuff on his body, than carress his head. then come back later, and retrieve his long teeth, and ceramoniously every one of the group walks over the long tooth and breaks it in line.

and monkeys in cages get really depressed too.

Originally posted by leonheartmm
but animals like elephants actually have ceremonies for the dead which go against logic. they all become gloomy when a group member dies, they put stuff on his body, than carress his head. then come back later, and retrieve his long teeth, and ceramoniously every one of the group walks over the long tooth and breaks it in line.

Animals are definitely smarter than some people give them credit for, but unfortunately the size of their frontal lobe limits their capacity for more complex knowledge, like concepts of religion. I do not think that animals have faith simply because they do not have a concept of what faith is.

I think that if animals were able to get a grasp for complex forms of communication, or effective language, they could expand their understanding of the world. Actually, if humans could learn to communicate with them better, we might be able to better understand their line of thinking. Human beings feel that they are far more intelligent than animals simply because we cannot effectively communicate with most animals. Sure, we can train them, but we could never be able to have a conversation with animals. The language barrier and the size of the frontal cortex is the main reason we cannot effectively share knowledge of the world to animals.

Look at bees. Look at ants. These animals have very complex languages and highly sophisticated societies, we just can’t understand their language. Something that gives human beings another advantage is their bodies (large frontal lobe as I said, upright stance, opposable thumbs, etc.) that allow us to easily manipulate our surroundings. Essentially, we got lucky.

Originally posted by Morgoths_Wrath
maybe you should ask them

Animals (especially mammals) have emotions and are capable of image-thinking: thinking about the concrete world in a concrete way, and they can perform relatively complex operations along these lines. What they are Not capable of is 1) symbolic thinking, and 2) self-aware mentation (the only animal we know of which may come close is the chimpanzee).

"God" is a very rarified concept, requiring cognizance of a reality which essentially exists not only outside of sensory awareness but also outside mental awareness. Animals are not capable of this level of abstraction. The gray matter/biological hard-wiring simply isn't there; neither does anything about their behavior suggest such consciousness.

no no you MISUNDERSTAND, i meant having faith in ANYTHING, like a warm feeling telling you that ITS GONNA BE OK, or being high all the time n happy cause u just KNOW theres light at the end of the tunnel, stuff like that, having faith in even the most abstract of senses.{ofcourse animals cant think up GOD, its only human stupidity that can achieve such dazzling feats }

Originally posted by leonheartmm
no no you MISUNDERSTAND, i meant having faith in ANYTHING, like a warm feeling telling you that ITS GONNA BE OK, or being high all the time n happy cause u just KNOW theres light at the end of the tunnel, stuff like that, having faith in even the most abstract of senses.{ofcourse animals cant think up GOD, its only human stupidity that can achieve such dazzling feats }

human stupidity?

yup, human stupidity the extent of which was the only thing einstien thought was infinite, along with the universe{and he wasnt even sure about the universe}

so you're saying God and religion are stupid?

Einstein was a very intelligent guy, I have to agree. He knew there was something bigger.