Heck we share 50% of the DNA with a banana! Does that mean we can draw parallels between humans and bananas? Animal research can be used as human surrogates for simple biochemical experiments, not something that involves speech, sexual cycles and so on.
What we call "human behavior" is learned (language, social values, culture, etc.). Walking is a maturational biological process, like hatching. An infant would begin to walk at a certain age whether he "learned" or not, just like sexuality. Sexual behavior, on the other hand, is learned. In animals, even our 99% "relatives," it is instinctive. The only human instinct is the grasping reflex of an infant.
Despite ethical limitations, lots of behavior work has been done on separated identical twins to allow us to make definitive conclusions with a known degree of statistical certainty.
Like I said, you can show me some studies to back up your claims, since you started them, and since you speak with authority. However, anecdotal tales of 'my dog did this' is not in the league. It may work for the Bible crowds (after all aren't miracles anecdotal tales?), i.e. for people predisposed to acceptance on assumption that it's from God, but not in the real world.
Mine is to trust my intuition & my observation of what works in life and what does not
Intuition is like air, a 'hunch' and nothing to hang your hat on. How many times has your intuition been wrong? Do you record that or do you remember only when it was right? And what kind of "intuition" are we talking about here? Obviously, tangible, logical proof will be the norm.
How about if I tell you, take these pills, "I have a strong intuition that they will do you good"?" Sounds pretty convincing, doesn't it? I am sure it doesn't! So much for intuition. Like I said, might as well just stick your hand out the window and wait for manna from the sky.
And how do you know what 'works in life" unless you have connected cause and effect and have established some logical relationship between the two? Why, until we discovered what causes diseases, the Bible told us they were caused by "demons." And "treatment" was driving those demons out (even Jesus did)! Would God mislead people into believing that nonsense?
You have told me much more than I asked for but not what I asked. You made one stunning confession—that faith is an a priori assumption. I respect your honesty, but you stopped there.
Now that we have established that your faith is an assumption, I ask you (again) how do you know what is inconceivable, how do you know what God is, and how do you recognize or even detect or that which is 'beyond everything?'
bdeaner - this seems to be a side discussion to the main thread, since kosta50 wants to know how anyone can know anything about God or the world. He holds up logic, and asks for proofs. I tell him there are none, because God is revealed, not concluded.
He wants to know how someone can believe a revelation, since it is not logical. I’ve argued logic has limited value in understanding the world, and suggested some books for reading. By thinking rationally, I cannot get my body to walk across a room. Conscious thought doesn’t allow me to drive a car. The mind operates quite effectively in many areas without resorting to logic or conscious thought, and it seems foolish to me to assume that logic is the rule that we can submit belief in God to. In such a discussion, logic is inadequate.
I am, as I’ve told you before, a former electronic warfare officer. However, accident investigations required reading about how the mind works, and how we process information. One of the books I recommended, Deep Survival, uses accident investigations to bring life to discussions about how we think - both with logic, and with intuition and belief and emotion. If you don’t know how the mind works, then you cannot teach pilots how to avoid future accidents such as flying into mountains, or flying a good airplane out of fuel...and I say that as someone who has had an engine flame out while pulling off the runway!
I’ve also worked a little with automatic target recognition systems. A child, without thinking, can pick out a tank in the trees better than a computer can. That suggests intuition CAN be better than rational thought. That was known in WW2, when aircraft recognition was taught quite effectively as something done without thinking.
kosta50 - I used dogs because I know something about Border Collies, and because even learned men like yourself ought to know something of a Lab’s behavior. If behavior - complex behavior - is inheritable, then we should be cautious in trusting our powers of logic. If you knew more about Border Collies, you would know that top breeders breed for behavior, not looks or body. I used an anecdote to illustrate, not to prove. I’m not going to try to teach you about Border Collie breeding or trials - feel free to research it on your own.
There is a lot of research showing an interconnection between mind and body. In this, I’m more sympathetic to Catholics than most Baptists, since it suggests that physical rites are more important than a separation of mind and body would allow. If you think your mind operates independently of your body, you aren’t very bright. Hunger and weariness obviously affect out thinking. Why? Because our mind is part of our body.
How do I know about God? The Holy Spirit. Sorry that you don’t like that answer, but it is true. I pray you might someday learn the truth of it.
“There is a chasm between humans and animals.”
How do you know this? It is contrary to all my 50 years of experience with animals and humans.