[SmartCitizen]

Being able to think up pure abstractions is a difference in degree of sophistication from "rock dropped on toe is bad", not a difference in kind. A four-year old learns about rocks & toes, and slowly but surely their brain develops to the point where their mind is able to wonder about emergent properties, to what extent they make the supernatural superfluous, etc.

There is no scientific reason to believe that. Monarch butterflies know to migrate - is that abstract thought in their little insect brains?

[From many - one.]

"...Monarch butterflies know to migrate - is that abstract thought in their little insect brains?..."

Wrong. Monarch butterflies do not "know to migrate".

[jennyp]

Being able to think up pure abstractions is a difference in degree of sophistication from "rock dropped on toe is bad", not a difference in kind. A four-year old learns about rocks & toes, and slowly but surely their brain develops to the point where their mind is able to wonder about emergent properties, to what extent they make the supernatural superfluous, etc.

There is no scientific reason to believe that. Monarch butterflies know to migrate - is that abstract thought in their little insect brains?

There is no evidence that individual monarch butterflies make any kind of complex, forward-thinking judgement call for whether they should migrate or not.

But more to the point, you're the one who's making the positive claim that there must be something extra at work here in order to get from simple & concrete to complex & abstract thoughts. Yet we all go thru that mental growth as we age (i.e. from 4 to 12). So, is there some kind of supernatural intervention that occurs at some point in everyone's childhood? If so, then how do you explain severely retarded people, who never reach the capacity to think abstract thoughts? Did the angel in charge of imparting abstract thoughts pass them by?