Does my Dog have a God? tagged: , , , , ,

Does my Dog have a God?

Posted by Claire Connelly in Religion

I would have thought that the job of New Scientist would be to objectively report on developments in, well – science!

What kind of supreme arrogance must one possess that can make one confidently proclaim that science has reached its pinnacle?

Have we learned everything there is to know about both animal and human kind that has scientists (or journalists) proclaiming an evolutionary victory over the animal kingdom?

According to New Scientist’s Andy Coghlan, it is the superior evolution of the human brain that makes religion unique to human kind.

This kind of propagandising gets me so mad!

First of all Coghlan fails to specify whether the definition of religion necessarily requires the existence of God which is
a) difficult to prove, and
b) does not take into account other features familiar to religion such as rituals, worship of the earth and earthly prophets as guarantors or portals of deliverance for a greater good.

Second of all, in the words of Neil Gaiman:

“[I am] amazed and potentially delighted that journalists at New Scientist have succeeded in interspecies communication to the point of being certain that dolphins and whales have no belief in things deeper than themselves, that ants do not imagine a supreme colony at the centre of everything, and that my cats only believe in what they can see, smell, hunt and rub up against… that there are no Buddhist Pigs, [or] Monkeys.”

Also I don’t know what kind of leading questions Coghlan must have asked scientists such as Dr. Jordan Grafman to have drawn such subjective conclusions.

The only conclusion we can draw from this information at the present time is that the human instinct to worship is located in the lateral frontal lobe and frontal gyri that are also the sources of our ability to understand linguistics, decode metaphor and recall images.

I also noticed that nowhere in the article did they compare their human findings to animal research.

This may have something to do with scientists being unable to gain conclusive responses when they asked different animal species about the existence of God, whether he/she/they intervenes in the world, what his/her/their emotional state is, and how they relate to abstract doctrinal teachings or imagery whilst simultaneously scanning their brains.

This is not because animals are primitive heathens who have not yet evolved the ability to worship – rather it may be because science has not yet “evolved” to the point where we can communicate with animals, or know enough about the makeup of their brains to draw any conclusions at all about their relationship to “God” or any higher power.

Moreover I find it kind of offensive that science is being equated with religion at all.

I guess that along with the 8000 journalists currently unemployed – scientists can now hang up their lab coats and all go home because we have discovered all there is to know and have proven our superiority over all other species.

Congratulations, case closed.

Douchebags.