I think, Steve, that it is extremely probable that animals and humans think differently in certain respects, primarily that animals don't focus their minds on the past and the future (specially more distant past and future), nor do they make up all kinds of bizarre stuff in their heads to worry about, like people do. Rather, they deal directly with reality in the now, and they do it very effectively, within their obvious limitations.

It seems self-evident to me, both from observing animals and from observing what they choose to do with their time, that this is the case.

Many religions and philosophies have commented on this mental difference between animals and people. The Native Americans, for instance, said that people were different from animals in that they had lost touch with "the universal harmony" and had become unhappy thereby, and that they had to spend their lives searching for the inner harmony with Nature that animals already have.

It's an interesting assertion, one worth thinking about. Does our complex thinking reduce our peace of mind in a way that doesn't afflict animals (except if they hang around people too much, as pets do)? If you can suggest a way of providing evidence for it, go right ahead. I can't. Not unless you can find a way of interviewing animals about it and translating whatever response you get from them. ;-) We can't do that. All we can do is observe the way animals behave, what they do and don't do, and that would give us some pretty strong clues.

I've read about it in practically every ancient philosophy out there. It's very old news. Rather than just denying it because you didn't think of it....why not think about it instead? It's an interesting subject to consider, and that's all I would expect anyone to do: consider it.

There are a vast number of philosophical questions in life, Steve, and they cannot be confirmed or denied by some sort of physical evidence, because they don't deal with the outer phenomena of life. They deal with thought itself. How will you put someone's thoughts in a test tube, Steve? Yet without the capacity to think....you wouldn't even have a response to this discussion and we wouldn't have test tubes either. Thought is real. It's powerful. Without it, you have no human experience. It's also invisible, can't be measured, can't be captured, cannot be "proven" in any specific way...yet we all know it's real.

I am not backpedaling, I'm explaining what it was that I was talking about. I don't think the Adam and Eve legend had much to do with outer phenomena or with history in tbe usual sense, I think it mostly had to do with talking in metaphor about significant changes in consciousness of the collective human race in a very ancient time. That's simply my theory. It's not something I believe, it's something I consider fairly probable. No one has any way of proving it.