Mike,
In some cultures, animals are considered gods.
(I look in my cats' eyes, and wish they could tell me something of their
spirituality).
I don't rule-out that they have some such. I just don't clearly recognize it.
Our spirituality is clear to us. But how would we communicate our spirituality
to a Moose? If we're so spiritual, you'd think we could.
A wild Goose may be on to something we know nothing about.
In Egypt, Bastet is a gorgeous god in cat form. Pharaohs kept a bevy of cats.
(Spiritual) martial art forms mimic animal movements; Edgar gets down on all
fours for certain exercises; Ancient religions thought highly enough of animals
to offer them to their human gods in sacrifice; Some people bowed to an image
of a golden calf, with horns. Some Christians in USA worship snakes (or use
them in their services).
People of the past may have known about animal spirituality. Have we lost this
knowledge, AND lost the sense with which to detect it? Yes. And we can, and
do regain it. But things then may not seem exactly to us as they seemed to the
ancients.
...Just talking a little here about animals and spirituality, ours, and
"theirs". Not meaning to say much; and, succeeding!
Best,
--Joe
> uerusuboyo@... wrote:
>
> Merle, Don't just say it. Give me one example of another species that has a
> developed spiritual path that results in it not causing suffering to any
> other creature. If you want to argue that Man is unique in this regard BUT it
> is not relevant to other animals (something like Bill!'s point), then that's
> fine. But that man has a highly developed sense of the spiritual *is*
> undeniably unique to us.
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