Do any animals recognize God's existence, believe or pray?

[Rakovsky]

I have been enjoying people's answers.
Song birds chirp in a pattern and some scholars propose that the songs make a pattern to communicate a story or message like speech. Disney made a movie supposedly based on a true story about animals traveling across vast distances on their own to reunite with their family. What is curious is how they would find their way across vast unfamiliar territory.

I am interested in hearing more from the people who voted Yes and to see what reasons they give to think animals recognize God exists.

I found this book title online:

 

[Palehorse]

No, animals are spirits. The holy spirits and spirits are different. But both can use animals to travel.

 

[Rakovsky]

No, animals are spirits. The holy spirits and spirits are different. But both can use animals to travel.

Palehorse,
I don't know the answer to the poll, but I like to think that some animals believe in God.

If it's true that there is a holy spirit, and if it can rest in an animal, I suppose the animal can feel that. But if I leave it at that, it reminds me of a nice, smart Priest claiming to a virtuous, questioning atheist that the atheist was not an atheist.

Supposedly some animals can see spirits, and sometimes dogs bark at what looks like nothing.

Story of a pig walking to a Buddhist monastery and standing outside the gates facing it and bowing:
http://www.mfablog.org/pig-escapes-farm-appears-to-pray-at-buddhist

 

[Guy Threepwood]

The Bible has a verse about all living things praising God, and another verse, I think in the book of Job, asks where animals' souls go to.

Several articles have come out speculating on whether animals have belief in God like this one:

http://religiondispatches.org/what-if-animals-believe-in-god/


Elephants have funerals where they bury their dead, and one essay claims dolphins are conscious. There are many photos of mammals in prayer poses, but that itself doesn't mean they are praying.

I vote no; the universe is created primarily for humanity, we are given dominion over the animals. Animals glorify God, and should be respected, loved as his creations, but are not created as equals

 

[Palehorse]

I think the question to be asked would be...Do animals have souls?


A List of Animals That Mate for Life
There are plenty of examples. Just to name a few:

• Gibbon apes
• wolves
• termites
• coyotes
• barn owls
• beavers
• bald eagles
• golden eagles
• condors
• swans
• brolga cranes
• French angel fish
• sandhill cranes
• pigeons
• prions
• red-tailed hawks
• anglerfish
• ospreys
• prairie voles
• black vultures

 

[Rakovsky]

Cute.

A prion ( i/ˈpriːɒn/) is an infectious agent composed entirely of protein material, called PrP (short for prion protein), that can fold in multiple, structurally distinct ways, at least one of which is transmissible to other prion proteins, leading to disease that is similar to viral infection.
Prion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion​

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Interesting, but still, pretty thin gruel.

I'm not sure what the issue is. Basically, if you can dream, you can have a "spiritual" experience, imo.

 

[YmirGF]

I'm not sure what the issue is. Basically, if you can dream, you can have a "spiritual" experience, imo.

Frankie, it's not really much of an "issue". I do agree that animals dream. Anyone who has had a dog can attest to that fact. How animals interpret their dreams is another ball of wax altogether. I am just concerned when we project our experience into that of others. Though that is somewhat natural for us to do we should remain aware of the fact that we can never really verify our suspicions. Like, when my wee deer come for their apple bits...

The other night I was speaking to a new neighbour. A delightful lady about my age and a couple of deer popped out of the bush about 100 feet from where we were chatting. I started my "clicking" sound (flicking my tongue against my palette) and low and behold the deer instantly started moving towards us. The lady was wowed and I chuckled, "Just call me the deer whisperer". You don't have to do much to convince me that they certainly have both consciousness and memory (which lasts for months, if not years).... but whether they have so-called "spiritual" experience is well beyond our pay-grades to determine.

Bur, the OP asks, "Do any animals recognize God's existence, believe or pray?"
Followed by slightly different wording in the poll question. "Do any animals at all believe in God or are mentally aware of Him?"

1. Both questions presuppose that said god is an existent reality. We simply do not know if god exists in actuality or is little more than a projection on the part of human animals.
2. There is no possible way to discern if animals have any kind of belief structures as we cannot communicate on an intellectual level with them.
3. Without getting into some pretty weird metaphysical speculations it is also near on impossible to discern if animals are aware of a human deity that may or may not exist.

 

[Demonslayer]

Animals are too smart to believe in God.

 

[Liu]

It's not much of an evidence either, but chimps have been filmed treating certain trees in a special way which could be interpreted as them considering those sacred trees:
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-an...zee-behaviour-may-be-evidence-sacred-rituals/

The blog where I read about that article suggested that it might be rituals (i.e. offerings to spirits) and that if we could verify that they bring the chimps some quantifiable advantage (e.g. better luck with food) compared with other groups of chimps that don't have such rituals, that would prove that they are done more or less intentionally and that those chimps are aware of those paranormal effects. Given the assumption that rituals actually do work at all, of course.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Frankie, it's not really much of an "issue". I do agree that animals dream. Anyone who has had a dog can attest to that fact. How animals interpret their dreams is another ball of wax altogether. I am just concerned when we project our experience into that of others. Though that is somewhat natural for us to do we should remain aware of the fact that we can never really verify our suspicions. Like, when my wee deer come for their apple bits...

The other night I was speaking to a new neighbour. A delightful lady about my age and a couple of deer popped out of the bush about 100 feet from where we were chatting. I started my "clicking" sound (flicking my tongue against my palette) and low and behold the deer instantly started moving towards us. The lady was wowed and I chuckled, "Just call me the deer whisperer". You don't have to do much to convince me that they certainly have both consciousness and memory (which lasts for months, if not years).... but whether they have so-called "spiritual" experience is well beyond our pay-grades to determine.

Bur, the OP asks, "Do any animals recognize God's existence, believe or pray?"
Followed by slightly different wording in the poll question. "Do any animals at all believe in God or are mentally aware of Him?"

1. Both questions presuppose that said god is an existent reality. We simply do not know if god exists in actuality or is little more than a projection on the part of human animals.
2. There is no possible way to discern if animals have any kind of belief structures as we cannot communicate on an intellectual level with them.
3. Without getting into some pretty weird metaphysical speculations it is also near on impossible to discern if animals are aware of a human deity that may or may not exist.

Oh, you're talking about non-human animals believing in God. I thought you were referring to them being able to have spiritual experiences at all. I understand. I don't know about "God", either. But I think it's pretty reasonable that they have perceived transcendent experiences, as we do. That's why I mentioned that their sort of spirituality, if any, is most likely more shamanic in nature, since animism, totemism and shamanism are the oldest forms of human religion/spirituality.

 

[Rakovsky]

1. Both questions presuppose that said god is an existent reality. We simply do not know if god exists in actuality or is little more than a projection on the part of human animals.

No, they only presuppose that the concept exists. People can believe in something that unbeknownest to them, doesn't exist.

2. There is no possible way to discern if animals have any kind of belief structures as we cannot communicate on an intellectual level with them.
3. Without getting into some pretty weird metaphysical speculations it is also near on impossible to discern if animals are aware of a human deity that may or may not exist.

I didn't specify human deity.

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[Rakovsky]

"Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?"
Ecclesiastes 3:21

 

[YmirGF]

No, they only presuppose that the concept exists. People can believe in something that unbeknownest to them, doesn't exist.

You didn't say anything about the concept of god. You made it sound quite specific. Sloppy wording?

I didn't specify human deity.

I'd be greatly entertained to hear about non-human god concepts. Take your time. I'll wait.

 

[Rakovsky]

You didn't say anything about the concept of god. You made it sound quite specific.

I think the op was clear enough for most people in its question.

The question was whether any animals believe in God or perceive his existence. It was not whether their belief or perception in question was correct.

If I ask you if some drunk people believe in pink elephants or perceive their existence when drunk, it doesn't mean asking if the perceived pink elephants are actually real.

 

[YmirGF]

I think the op was clear enough for most people in its question.

The question was whether any animals believe in God or perceive his existence. It was not whether their belief or perception in question was correct.

If I ask you if some drunk people believe in pink elephants or perceive their existence when drunk, it doesn't mean asking if the perceived pink elephants are actually real.

Oh, good grief. I hadn't realized you had put the bar so low....

 

[Rakovsky]

"Emory researchers Larry Young (pictured) and James Burkett demonstrated that oxytocin — a brain chemical well-known for maternal nurturing and social bonding — acts in a specific brain region of prairie voles, the same as in humans, to promote consoling behavior. ... In the study, which is published in this week’s issue of Science, co-authors Larry Young, PhD, and James Burkett, PhD, demonstrated that oxytocin — a brain chemical well-known for maternal nurturing and social bonding — acts in a specific brain region of prairie voles, the same as in humans, to promote consoling behavior. Prairie voles are small rodents known for forming lifelong, monogamous bonds and providing bi-parental care of their young."

http://news.emory.edu/stories/2016/01/young_voles_consoling_behavior/campus.html

 

[Thief]

saw a science documentary of such topic.....
a serious effort to answer the question

and the conclusion there......animals do not have awareness of God
only Man has that character about him

I do find it notable however.....animals do mourn their dead....

 

[Father Heathen]

I think the question to be asked would be...Do animals have souls?


A List of Animals That Mate for Life
There are plenty of examples. Just to name a few:

• Gibbon apes
• wolves
• termites
• coyotes
• barn owls
• beavers
• bald eagles
• golden eagles
• condors
• swans
• brolga cranes
• French angel fish
• sandhill cranes
• pigeons
• prions
• red-tailed hawks
• anglerfish
• ospreys
• prairie voles
• black vultures

So monogamy suggest souls how?

 

[Father Heathen]

The Bible has a verse about all living things praising God, and another verse, I think in the book of Job, asks where animals' souls go to.

Several articles have come out speculating on whether animals have belief in God like this one:

http://religiondispatches.org/what-if-animals-believe-in-god/


Elephants have funerals where they bury their dead, and one essay claims dolphins are conscious. There are many photos of mammals in prayer poses, but that itself doesn't mean they are praying.

Of course animals are conscious and capable of empathy (at least higher ones like mammals, etc.) They're not robots. But how would this suggest that they hold some sort of theological awareness? God is a nebulous concept, and real or not, most of how we perceive and portray god is more about human culture and imagination than anything else.