The animals possess emotional responses, you say.
Well, but then on a much lower lever. And I also think that humans have the
tendency of interpreting things into animal behavior, like intelligence, love,
devotion, hate.. I think these are too "human" qualities. (don't take me to
literaly on the "intelligence"-of-the-animals aspect, I know some animals do
show a quite high degree of intelligence, like for example apes and ravens -
I've learnt the bit on ravens just recently.. guess from who? ;-) but it's
still nothing compared with human intelligence)
<<And i heard that the emotional part of our brains resembles that
of a cat.>> That doesn't bother me at all - this is merely a materialistic
aspect. Likewise you could say: humans are made out of the same molecules that a
chair is made of - ok. a bit too extreme of an example, but that's the way I see
it. I mean, the brain patterns could be similar but on the other hand
aren't we (living creatures) all similar in a way: the cells, the nervous system
etc.
<<"chat" with a real gorilla online.>> Now that indeed is a
very interesting one! I mean, I admit that gorillas etc. are more intelligent
than for example flies or so - so there animals differ in their level of
intelligence, but they can never come close to the human intelligence (don't get
me wrong here, I don't mean to sound like a total animal hater, I admire animals
and consider them a miracle of God's, which brings me to the idea of pantheism -
hmm... I've never really sorted things out that clearly, I mean my opinion
on certain religious issues --> that shows I also love the
imbalance, btw! :-) -- so I can't really say I'm a pantheist or I'm not, but the
idea of pantheism really appeals to me, now that you've mentioned it. The more I
think of it, the more I realize that I've actually (maybe) been a patheist all
the time - without even knowing it consciously. I've always felt God in the
things I saw around me (especially in nature) - so I guess that comes close to
pantheism. Another thing is: I don't know if you really can label things that
easily and keep them apart: I'm a pantheist and you're a ... whatever - maybe
none of these definitions actually present my personal state of mind and how I
feel about God... (so here I end up "fighting" with the defitions again.
hehe)..................
to be
continued