I was reading this wonderfully entertaining cocktail table book by Grieve with photography by Hale entitled "Why dogs are better than cats".

On one page the book said "dogs intuit or read people better than chimpanzees."

Grieve said, loosely paraphrased, "that cats are in a vague and unresponsive state, neither awake nor asleep, while dogs are more alert to the world."

He also said, exactly quoted, "Dogs like other truly sentient beings, have a full range of emotions. Whether it's the ups or the downs, they feel exactly what you feel, albeit to different degrees."

Then he gave this description of dogs that I couldn't help seeing as being similar to the example of a great saint.

He wrote:

"There is almost nothing you can do to break a dog's heart. Almost.

You may offer dogs nothing but a cold floor to sleep upon. And they will stay.

You could leave dogs unfed, unwatered and unwashed. And they will stay.

You may shout at them, cuff their ears with curses, and deny them any form of affection. And they will stay.

You can beat them with sticks and break their bodies with stones and boots. And they will stay."

Does this sound similar to faith to anyone else?

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realise that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."
Christopher Hitchens

Wow. Thanks for the quote.

I believe Hitchens is a genius in this quote. I think he said something similar to what God said in Deuteronomy 6.

Verse 10:
When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

What if the conservatives are on the right side of the mind of God and the liberals are on the left side of it....I know this sounds irrational...Just something to think about...

I believe I saw this exact sentiment in a 90s cartoon. I think it was Pickles.

grunching from thread title

looooolllll

I think people are more like young lion cubs ready to pounce, not cats or dogs

Could be. I always seem to get singled out for a pouncing even when my positions are innocuous.

We could all be living in Narnia if you like to read C.S. Lewis. I haven't read Narnia but I saw the movie and I remember Aslan the lion.

For some reason the human mind likes to pounce on things it doesn't agree with.

Cats and dogs are equally close to people, since they are linked to humans via the same common ancestor (of the order Carnivora).

Interesting. Ty.

You do know that Hitchens wrote a highly influential book called:

God is not great: How religion poisons everything?

Hitchens is more of a militant atheist than Dawkins could ever hope to be.

By calling him genius, are you saying that you look up to an atheist? do you think he will be go to heaven?

As long as there is perceived to be at least one shared factor between two phenomena, difference/similarity will merely boil down to perspective. A bicycle is similar to a car and it is different from a car, etc.

For me personally I'd say humans are more similar to dogs, as they are much more similar to us when it comes to forming relationships. A cat's relationships tend to be opportunistic, whereas a dog's relationships are often necessary. Honourable exceptions apply.

wittgenstein - rabbit/duck.

Thanks for that. I must get around to reading Wittgenstein one day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...man-faces.html