What does it mean to be made in God's image and likeness? How is it not applicable to other species now? Why doesn't my dog refute Aquinas by acting?

[AetheriusLamia]

Aquinas and most theologians after him [answered] that [to be made in God's image and likeness means] we humans can know things, reason, and make choices [unlike every other animal on Earth].

-- Pacwa, M (2011). How to Listen When God is Speaking. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press. p. 16.

Other animals like DDR German Shepherds (and even other humans) exhibit intelligence suggesting rationality is a matter of degree not kind, that humans are the most advanced intelligence, not the only intelligence in the animal kingdom. For example, my dog knows he's going for a walk when I pick up the leash, can reason when he wants to return home when he's tired from the walk, and makes choices about whether to sit still for the leash to be connected to leave the house or when to turn towards the house and resist my pull of the leash when he's tired of walking (he will even stop walking in the neighborhood and turn around indicating he's ready to return home, completely unprompted, not trained behavior, and he remembers which roads to take to get there), or when to approach me with the toy or continue to maintain distance for keep-away play. How are these not plain demonstrations that Aquinas was wrong, that being able to reason and make choices is not limited to man?

 

[Clare73]

-- Pacwa, M (2011). How to Listen When God is Speaking. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press. p. 16.

Other animals like DDR German Shepherds (and even other humans) exhibit intelligence suggesting rationality is a matter of degree not kind, that humans are the most advanced intelligence, not the only intelligence in the animal kingdom. For example, my dog knows he's going for a walk when I pick up the leash, can reason when he wants to return home when he's tired from the walk, and makes choices about whether to sit still for the leash to be connected to leave the house or when to turn towards the house and resist my pull of the leash when he's tired of walking (he will even stop walking in the neighborhood and turn around indicating he's ready to return home, completely unprompted, not trained behavior, and he remembers which roads to take to get there), or when to approach me with the toy or continue to maintain distance for keep-away play. How are these not plain demonstrations that Aquinas was wrong, that being able to reason and make choices is not limited to man?

Animals cannot think abstractly, they are governed by instinct and experience.

 

[AetheriusLamia]

Animals cannot think abstractly, they are governed by instinct and experience.

How do you know that? Or, what do you mean?

How is that not contradicted already even by what I wrote in the OP? My dog decided to communicate he was tired and ready to return home by stopping, resisting the leash, and angling his body in the direction he wanted to go -- the path home in a neighborhood with multiple interconnecting roads and dead-ends -- to communicate the intention with no training or prior experience doing this before.

Why is it not the case that he reasoned, abstractly, "if I do this, then he will understand and we'll go home and I will get to drink water and relax"?

I even tested it by deliberately starting down roads that didn't lead home and he would do it repeatedly.

 

[Clare73]

How do you know that? Or, what do you mean?

How is that not contradicted already even by what I wrote in the OP? My dog decided to communicate he was tired and ready to return home by stopping, resisting the leash, and angling his body in the direction he wanted to go -- the path home in a neighborhood with multiple interconnecting roads and dead-ends -- to communicate the intention with no training or prior experience doing this before.
Why is it not the case that he reasoned, abstractly, "if I do this, then he will understand and we'll go home and I will get to drink water and relax"?
I even tested it by deliberately starting down roads that didn't lead home and he would do it repeatedly.

Do you know any science about animals?

 

[RandyPNW]

-- Pacwa, M (2011). How to Listen When God is Speaking. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press. p. 16.

Other animals like DDR German Shepherds (and even other humans) exhibit intelligence suggesting rationality is a matter of degree not kind, that humans are the most advanced intelligence, not the only intelligence in the animal kingdom. For example, my dog knows he's going for a walk when I pick up the leash, can reason when he wants to return home when he's tired from the walk, and makes choices about whether to sit still for the leash to be connected to leave the house or when to turn towards the house and resist my pull of the leash when he's tired of walking (he will even stop walking in the neighborhood and turn around indicating he's ready to return home, completely unprompted, not trained behavior, and he remembers which roads to take to get there), or when to approach me with the toy or continue to maintain distance for keep-away play. How are these not plain demonstrations that Aquinas was wrong, that being able to reason and make choices is not limited to man?

I don't think that Man and animals separate *by degree* in matters of intelligence, reason, and choice. If that was so it might be strong grounds for believing in evolution by natural selection. However, at the risk of sounding cruel, I think animals are more like vegetables and machines than like Man, who is not just free but moral and rational at the same time.

Do you think an animal is "rational and moral" when it eats other animals? God built a brain in non-human creatures just like we might program a chip and insert it in these creatures' heads. Creatures are terribly predictable. Humans are not entirely predictable in a moral sense.

We are like God by our being created to live in interrelationship with God on moral-rational grounds. We please God by choosing to obey His Word, and thus imitating Him in the moral sense.

We become children He is proud of. Animals are just little machines forming the backdrop to our otherwise "moral" environment. They are nonetheless fun and beautiful, if they are approached as they were created to operate.

 

[BobRyan]

-- Pacwa, M (2011). How to Listen When God is Speaking. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press. p. 16.

Other animals like DDR German Shepherds (and even other humans) exhibit intelligence suggesting rationality is a matter of degree not kind,

We are made in God's image - His form and likeness -- animals are not.

We can reason and animals have less ability to reason - but still they can reason to at least some degree and are intelligent to some degree - as compared to flowers etc.

But we also have abstract concepts of sin and salvation, righteousness and wickedness and we can educate others to make moral choices.

We know if something is wrong and a child can learn that what his parents taught him was wrong and so choose not to follow their bad example.

In other words - we can be saved, born-again, new creations

 

[HTacianas]

-- Pacwa, M (2011). How to Listen When God is Speaking. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press. p. 16.

Other animals like DDR German Shepherds (and even other humans) exhibit intelligence suggesting rationality is a matter of degree not kind, that humans are the most advanced intelligence, not the only intelligence in the animal kingdom. For example, my dog knows he's going for a walk when I pick up the leash, can reason when he wants to return home when he's tired from the walk, and makes choices about whether to sit still for the leash to be connected to leave the house or when to turn towards the house and resist my pull of the leash when he's tired of walking (he will even stop walking in the neighborhood and turn around indicating he's ready to return home, completely unprompted, not trained behavior, and he remembers which roads to take to get there), or when to approach me with the toy or continue to maintain distance for keep-away play. How are these not plain demonstrations that Aquinas was wrong, that being able to reason and make choices is not limited to man?

You're stumbling onto the difference between soul and spirit. All animals have souls. Souls are what animate us as well as animals. Just like people, a dog can have a personality. One dog's personality will certainly differ from the next dog's personality. But a dog cannot contemplate his own mortality. A dog can fear some things that would cause it death, but that is primarily through instinct. A dog fears death at the time it is in danger, but when it is not in danger it does not consider that it will in fact die one day. I don't think a dog -or any other animal- thinks about the future and plans for it. There are animals that store up food for the winter but it is entirely instinct that drives them to do it. A human being will start a retirement account to provide for their old age but it is the result of reason. Contemplating a time in the distant future and preparing for it. I suppose that could be a bright line difference between the intellect of an animal and the intellect of a person.

 

[NBB]

Everyone takes this for granted, but i have 'news', We are People... and you know? God is people too, by people i mean a person, that gets angry happy sad think, appreciate things, etc, etc the list is endless. Thats why we were made in the image of God.