All of these things! My cat Riley will sit in the bathroom while I take a shower, and just wait until he gets a cup of water. Also, Riley will try to trip you if he's hungry.

My ducks can recognize my dad and I. They get really excited when they see me, because I'm the one who normally feeds them, but they just run away from or ignore my mom and brother.

Ooh, animals are very intelligent, and if humans have souls, so do they.  :)  My cat... sometimes, I think he can read my mind... but I don't know if this talent spreads to all regions of the feline world.  Some cats are a bit *drops to a whisper* brain-dead.  My Casey, for instance, sadly has reached the stage of her whole life being a plot to get food.  If we're upstairs, she'll sit on the top step waiting for someone.  If you're reading in a chair, and she's sitting in front of you (making weird noises, she hasn't actually meowed in years, which drives us buggy), and you so much as move you're leg to get more comfortable, she'll do a weird purring chirpy sort of thing, and run off to the bathroom (where their food bowls are).  You can't go to the bathroom without her practically doing cartwheels with excitement, until she realizes you're not feeding her, and she does a weird false love ritual.  It's all very sad.

Anyway, ants are very intelligent, but not so much as humans, cats are definitely trying to take over the world, (and I dare say, they're doing a marvelous job at it), and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  My cat JoJo is the most unusual cat I've ever SEEN!!!  He's just plain BONKERS!!!!!!!

Good thread, by the way.

See ya! 

Humans were created in the image of God. That's how we have souls, and animals, which were not, definitely don't. Will there be animals in heaven? Sure. Revalation talks about Jesus riding a white horse when he returns. Will our animals be in heaven? I don't think so. God clearly distinguishes between animals and people, and it's all because they don't have souls.

On the other hand, are animals intelligent? You bet. And even though direct telepathy seems pretty muich out of the picture, they can smell the whatcha-call-ems that people emit when they're in different moods. And they're extraoridinarilly good at reading body language - when it concerns them. (Insert Muse article 'bout what it's like to be a dog here) Hard to say if animals are more intelligent than humans. Because of their lack of souls, we have so much that they don't. We have art, a much deeper range of emotions, and since when did animals write? Or read? Or make amazing films? (I mean the animal makes the film, not someone makes a film of the animal ;) ) Animals are fascinating, but they're definitely not the same caliber as humans. Again, all because they don't have souls.

The fact that beasties don't have souls doesn't stop them from being a whole lot better at doing what they're made to do - make God look good - than humans are, most of the time. See, animals are also incapable of sin, due to the fact that they don't have souls. If they did, they would have the same capacity for good and evil that humans do, they would be just as accountable as humans would, and Jesus might have come as a horse so that he could preach to the animals as well. But however smart animals are, they can't grasp deep truth. They can't struggle with election-free choice theology. They can't worry about sin, or the afterlife. 

Sorry about this long, serious post on what may turn out to be a look-at-what-an-ant-can-do photo gallery cool trivia page. It seems an important enough deal to put a lot of thought and time into. So if you dont' read this, phooey on you. 

Cheers,

lavendershy

Riley is often very quiet. I think he is trying to take over the world with Zoe (my other cat).

One time I thought one of our cats whistled... But it might've just been me, now that I think of it. Our cats used to pig the food bowls. It was really funny to watch. One of the cats would stick their paw in the bowl and pull it toward themslef. We also somehow managed to get our siamese cat, Hurricane, to jump in a baby stroller and we pushed it for about a second until it jumped off. Hurricane was such a pretty cat...

-☺☻

I'm getting an extreme sense of deja vu from reading this thread. It really reminds me of an earlier debate on Pirocks's philosophy
thread...

How intelligent animals are depends on which animal.
Some are, and some ar just not.

I definitely believe that animals
have souls, even if they weren't made in God's image. Humans didn't used
to read, or write, or have art, or make films, but that doesn't mean
that those humans didn't have souls, does it?

I agree with EL
that animals don't sin because they don't have a sinful nature, except
that I do think a few animals sin sometimes. What about the orca at Sea
World that
just, completely out of the blue, killed its trainer in front of
everyone? That seems like
a sin to me. And yes, I'm positive that it wasn't being mistreated -
the people at Sea World don't even punish their animals; they've
always been able to have the animals realize they've done the wrong
thing just by the fact that they are not being rewarded! I doubt it was
mere instinct; orcas don't generally think of humans as prey, and,
having known this trainer for so long, surely it would be able to
recognize her as a human being! And do you
really think they can't grasp deep truth? Have you ever, ever
stared innto an animal's eyes for a long period of time? Because there
usually seems to be such wisdom there that I can't grasp
the idea of them not grasping deep truth! I believe that they do
so better than we do sometimes. (I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with believing that they can't grasp such things - or for that matter, believing that they lack souls - because there isn't. I just disagree.)

Sure, they don't struggle with
election-free-choice theology, or sin, or the afterlife. Well, actually, we have no way of knowing that. However, I agree with you here, so there would really be no point in getting into that. They probably don't see the world the same way we do. I think they probably can sense so much more in the world around them than the average human (admit it, most people really don't pay as much attention to things around them as most animals) that they really wouldn't feel the need for much thought about that sort of thing.

If animals do have souls, as I believe they do, then it really wouldn't make much sense for them not to be able to get into heaven, would it? Therefore it's only natural that I believe they can go there after death.

It's true that some versions of the Bible say that after God breathed life into Adam, he 'became a living soul,' whereas there is nothing similar about the animals. However, the Bible was written by people and therefore about people - not animals. I believe that this is why the Bible gives so many more details about our creation than that of any other being.

I don't believe that animals
can read minds, but they are, as LS
said, very good at reading body language and facial expressions.

I
believe that each animal species has its own language (many of which are really more body  language than sounds, but are languages nonetheless), but that none is
as complicated as any known human language. For example, animals probably don't have synonyms. The only real reason they exist is to improve writing, and make it sound better, and animals don't write. In addition, I've also found much evidence to suggest that animal languages lack the past and future tenses. All right, maybe not too much, but enough to convince me to form that opinion. You see, certain apes have been taught how to communicate with humans via sign language and  pressing buttons. They have only ever spoken about the present. That's all. And apes are considered by many to be some of the smartest animals alive (excluding humans, for those who count us as animals). And the rule doesn't just apply to them, either. Some humans have lived with wolves for various periods of time, and none have noticed any of them ever indicate other times from the way they communicated.
Cats aren't trying to take over the world, which is very lucky for us! ;) Ants are much more intelligent than most people give them credit for, but still not as smart as humans, like EL said.

My cats Chika and Ahi are SSUPER SMART! They are bengal kitties. I loveeeeeeee caaatttttttttssssssss. (stops after noticing what randomness I wrote)

some elephants can paint pitcures... pretty impressive.  some sell for a couple million!so,yeah,some animals are pretty smart! dolphins can count alsof! and talk.

_girlpower14_