Now, I am not getting this from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, I am getting it from actual scientific research.\n\nDolphins can send entire messages, hundreds of words of information, in almost an instant. You may not believe they are intelligent because of the way they look, and because they don't dominate the Earth and all they do is swim- but that doesn't really mean much. They don't need to dominate, as they are not able to. The way they look doesn't prove that they can't think and talk as complex as we can. But yeah, sorry Christians, although this goes against the Bible, -whales, dolphins, and all sorts of animals can communicate with sounds that we can't even comprehend. They have senses and abilities we don't have. Maybe the dolphins are running a giant program here on Earth, even though they don't seem to be, they could really be experimenting on us. \n\nPlz don't be close-minded, and say something about how we are better than everything else-that is selfish thinking.
134617
The fact that 100% of dolphins are atheists, as opposed to only 10-15% of humans, leads me to think that they may be more intelligent that us!
576195
I am.... and I would tell them that their over-zealous all comsuming belief in something that is improbable is assinine, and that if they do not believe that it is natural, then they should look in nature. there are many other creatures that are not heterosexual. dolphines for instance, the second most intelligent species on earth, are bisexual, and will pretty much screw anything that swims by, whether or not they are in the same species or not.  if "god" didnt condone GLBT, then why are so many in the wild that way? he supposedly "made" them too.
252861
Reminder: 5n Theory, all continents used to be attached to one another- so in theory this is highly possible- if two of every species has moved from place to place. Also remember, animals have a good sense of unusual events happening, like earthquakes and things, so they might have had the sense to know where to go. Then you might ask about the unicorns, but it is said that they were too stubborn to get on the ship... dragons and pegasuses... I have no idea about.
672985
Whales and dolphins are mammals, so in a lot of ways, they are just like human beings. Among other things, they have similar bone structure, are warm-blooded and give birth to "live young." The biggest differences between these animals and human beings are related to our respective environments. Whales and dolphins have a unique respiratory system that lets them spend long periods of time (sometimes 30 minutes or longer) underwater, without taking in any oxygen.\n\nOn land, human beings and other mammals breathe involuntarily: If we don't make a decision to breathe or not to breathe, our body will take in air automatically. Because of their undersea environment, whales and dolphins must be conscious breathers: They have to actively decide when to breathe. Consequently, in order to breathe, they have to be conscious. This presents a problem, since mammalian brains need to enter an unconscious state from time to time in order to function correctly (see How Sleep Works to find out why this might be).\n\nThere's plenty of time for a dolphin to catch a catnap between trips to the ocean surface, of course, but this isn't a viable option. When you're a conscious breather, it's just not feasible to be completely unconscious -- what if you don't wake up in time? The solution for whales and dolphins is to let one half of the brain sleep at a time. In this way, the animal is never completely unconscious, but it still gets the rest it needs.\n\nScientists have studied this phenomenon in dolphins, using electroencephalography. In this process, electrodes hooked up to the head measure electricity levels in the brain. The resulting electroencephalograms (EEGs) of dolphin brains demonstrate that in the sleep cycle, half of the dolphin's brain does indeed "shut down" while the other half is still active. Researchers have observed that dolphins are in this state for approximately eight hours a day.\n\nWe can't really know what this rest state feels like, but we can make a good guess. It is probably something like the semi-conscious state we experience as we begin to fall asleep. We're pretty close to unconsciousness, but are aware enough of our surroundings to wake up completely if we need to.\n\nAnd where do dolphins and whales sleep? They could probably sleep anywhere, but it makes sense that they would do it near the surface of the ocean so they can come up for air easily. It's not uncommon to see dolphins "logging," swimming slowly along the surface, with very little movement. Presumably, these are dolphins at rest.
329432
Jellyfish don’t have brains, and they aren't the only creatures that lack them. Sponges and a few other odd groups of animals also lack anything like a brain.\n\nJellyfish don't have brains because they don’t have any front or back. They represent a very early evolutionary experiment. At that stage animals had no front or back, instead the developed along the lines of a ball or disc. That body plan is very simple to construct, but balls and discs don't have any front or back.\n\nOther animals evolved brains because they have one part of the body that ALWAYS contacted food first as the animal moved around. That was the front end. And because there was one end that always came into contact with food first that end evolved the highest concentration of sense organs, and the highest concentration of nerves. That high concentration of nerves in turn evolved into a brain. Because they have no front or back jellyfish also never had the potential to develop a brain in the front end. \n\nI guess the question you need to ask is, if a jellyfish did have a brain where would it be? Since any part of a jellyfish has equal chance of can coming into contact with food there is no obvious place for a brain to evolve. Instead jellyfish have nerves scattered more or less evenly across the body, so all body parts are equally able to respond to stimuli.\n\nSo no, animals don't need brain to function. A brain is just a concentration of nerves. It is only useful if you can concentrate those nerves where most of the sensory input is going to arrive. For humans our eyes, ears, nose and tongue are all located in the head, providing a massive amount of sensory input, so it makes sense to have the processing nerves for those organs in the head too. The sense organs of jellyfish are scattered all across the body so it makes sense to have the nerves scattered too, and that is exactly what we see.\n\nNot having a brain hasn't prevented jellyfish and their relatives from being successful, and they have filled a great many ecological niches and evolved every major sense including hearing, smell, balance and even eyes.
596839
It is sure that animals are able to produce sounds.\nAlso they have a "vocabulary" (dogs for example make\n5-6 diferent sounds meaning different things.\n\nThis is not speach!!!!\nTalking means thousands of diferent "sounds" meaning\nthousands of different things. Talking is complex and\nneeds a complex brain. Thats why they dont talk.
150573
I'm not sure that you're correct that we actually understand more now than we did before.  It is still a common assumption that we only use 10% of our brains.  What would we know if we were able to use the other 90%?  We still have no idea what really exists outside of our immediate environment, however far that goes into space, we can only assume that we've only scratched the surface.  Despite all the things that we can create, we cannot get close to re-creating a telescopic lens as diverse as the human eye, nor can we create a shock absorbing device nearly as complex as the knee.  Yes, we are making incredible progress in certain areas, but we will never know everything.  Secondly, my relationship with Christ is not a result of me wanting to understand the world in which I live.  It is a result of a desire to be with the one who created me.  So, to answer your question, some religions may fail, they will be proven useless.  However, a relationship with Christ will never be unnecessary.
606258
ima try to keep it simple.. more of a opinion than answer because of the topic which we won't really know.  \n\nIf you study science hard as hell, you will see how a single cell organism lived in the water, long ago.  When they adapted... to survive for food they grew to 'cilia' (hair) on sides to move thu water after only having on hair(flagella).  To get to the point... cells evolved into tadpoles. then to fish and snakes. then to amphibians like frogs or platypus which is land and water.  Then reptiles and mammals that live on land.  Most say the monkey group grew to human when more complex learning/thinking came...but this could be the beginning of man.  Then religion to explain it all.  THe big bang theory states dinosaurs could of died when a meteor hit earth and clogged the atmosphere with dust so bad that no light was here for years.  No grass, no oxygen.  If the bible says... let there be light... could that of been when it cleared up.  The whole point is there is no way to prove anything that will satisfy us wholely.  If i do not have the cross of jesus... they do not believe... if you tell them anything out of the norm... they doubt it. It will all be confusion until enough knowledge satisfies their interest whether they choose science or religion.  THis is all because we are becoming in need of security thru reality and facts relating to our own patterns.  Most people believe the bible for only its relating content to everyday life rather than the miracles, holy spirit, and other great feats not known or seen to man today.  A scientist will help fulfill these questions as well as an interpretor of faith.  It depends if your a theorist. So its a bad thing for a scientist to fail in his field. The unexplained is sorta why we even have religion.  You must stop collecting facts and give faith to the supreme being....because even the single cell organism came from somewhere and the power to adapt/evolve is unexplained. unexplained gives a sense of unsecurity where we "fear what we cant control" (heights, ghost, and other scary sh/it.  we feel we cant control our lives without that being explained, so we fear and act off of that. Hope i covered alot in a lil.  Good luck on the answer! peace out!
149887
It is a valid question, and one used against women for years (interestingly, nobody at that time seems to have thought elephants were smarter than men!).  The relationship of the anatomy of the brain to intelligence seems to have only two fairly clear correlations: 1) the amount of surface area folding (sulci and gyri) found on the frontal cortex and 2) the brain weight/body weight ratio.  Under these two correlates, men and women are the same.  There is absolutly no correlation between the size of a person and the intelligence..even though bigger humans tend to have bigger brains.  Now, using the folding and brain to body ratio, we can figure which animals "should" be very smart-and they include ravens, dolphins, and primates.  The raven finding is interesting, because every intelligence test ever given these birds (who have small brains, because they are small animals, but very large brain to body ratios) shows them to be smarter than dogs, and nearly as smart as primates.  Another interesting thing: the only animals that has *both* and larger brain to body ratio than humans *and* increased frontal cortex folding, is the dolphin...makes ya think, huh?
313333
Yes, I really do. Maybe not walking around with us but I think they have visited. My boyfriend thinks I am crazy but I think it's pretty ignorant to think that we are the only species that can travel space. It just goes to show you how smug we are sometimes to think we are the smartest all the time.
658849
Your question is a very reasonable one --and brave, since you'll certainly get answers from religious zealots who have completely closed their minds.  Let me start by saying my *only* personal agenda is a search for the truth, no matter where it leads me.  Unlike many, I'm not here to shove my beliefs down anyone's throat. \n\nThe short answer is that I doubt it's possible in this kind of forum to get into enough details to convince a confirmed *creationist* that humans evolved from simpler life forms.  But I hope to encourage an open-minded person to continue with their own research, and not be tempted by overly "easy" answers.   \n\nThe long answer (most of it written by me, some of it transcribed manually; none of it pasted)...\n\nI, too, was unclear about the evolutionary process for a long time.  While I'm not an expert (and *nobody* has *all* the answers) I think I can help you get to a place where it makes *sense* to you as it now does to me, since you appear to have an open mind.  (Agnosticism is good!)  \n\nAfter hearing people's arguments and questions for many years, I am convinced that there are six huge factors getting in the way of a general acceptance of the *overwhelming* scientific evidence for evolution.  \n\n1 - the common misconception that evolution claims apes or chimpanzees changed to human beings, and the perceived indignity -- and indignation -- that goes along with that idea... or with *any* suggestion that we evolved from a lower form.  It's nothing but ridiculous human arrogance!\n2 - the lack of human conception for the vast time life has had on Earth to evolve\n3 - the human temptation to rush things and jump to ridiculous (and therefore naturally hard to believe) conclusions.  Evolution involves not three or four steps, like fish to amphibian to ape to human!)... not hundreds, or even thousands of big, visible steps... but perhaps hundreds of millions of minute, subtle changes in a life form.  Remember, we have had the time!\n4 - the mistaken notion that creatures evolved because they "decided" to, or "wanted" to.  When we say, for example, that fish needed to absorb oxygen more efficiently from the water, so they evolved gills, that's not to imply it was a choice.  Evolution is about mutations... changes that were random from one generation to the next, over long periods of time.  Those changes that happened to be good for the creature meant that creature survived long enough to reproduce, which meant there would now be lots of little babies with that same feature.\n5 - a fearful and/or stubborn refusal to abandon faith in a Creator, since doing so might condemn the unbeliever to eternal suffering\n6 - It's just *easier* to think about a Creator.\n\nI know you want to see some details of our "life's path" to make sense of it, and I will provide that, below.  Just a bit more, first.\n\nThe central ideas of evolution are that all life shares a common ancestor, and that it has changed over time (obviously, if we are to explain getting from A to B).  While it's hard for many people to imagine the changes that would result in, for example, human beings from lifelessness, the first thing to keep firmly in mind is that we are talking about an *unimagineable* amount of time to play with... the earth having been around for some 4.5 billion years, as you said.\n\nUnderstandably, few people can appreciate how much a billion is.  Do you realize that roughly a billion *seconds* ago, "The Godfather, Part 2" was about to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?... that Richard Nixon was President of the U.S.?... that Hank Aaron had just broken Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs?  1974 was drawing to a close -- one billion seconds ago.\n\nIt's a lack of appreciation for this vast amount of time which, I think, makes people skeptical.  They wonder how, in any amount of time they can envision, an ape can c
9770
Is it intelligent to deny the possibility of something simply because it is beyond the grasp of our puny little minds. Do you know what is at 3.3 degrees lattitude 2.7 degrees longitude on the most distant planet in the universe? I'm pretty sure such a place exists, but you'll never see it. There was a time when humans could not detect atoms or microbes. Did they not exist? Do you think you can know every fact of the universe? Is there something that you don't know? The truth is that human intellect is extremely limited, this is obvious. The Bible says to not depend on your own understanding. In the Bible, Job tried to figure out things which were beyond him, so God quizzed him on simple things, just like I did you, to show him how limited his ability to know and understand really is. We humans think we're so smart, but in fact we're so tiny, so finite in an infinite reality. If one mistakes  their ignorance for evidence and limits reality to their puny intellect then they live in a very very small place. Ever heard of Albert Einstein? He believed in God. Was he dumb or ignorant, or did he think a little bigger than you? There are things that I know from science that are mind boggling, I have no problem with the concept of God. The very first thing that you need to decide is do you really want to know the truth no matter what it may cost you. Those that are blinded to the truth don't want it in the first place. God offers it to those who truly want it. This includes you if you humble yourself and seek with an open heart and mind. Pride, arrogance, and a hard heart will blind you quicker than anything. You must have the faith and humility of a little child to see the ultimate reality. This is not a matter of the head, but a matter of the heart. It is the human heart that is the problem. Our hearts are polluted and our minds darkened by evil, but God sent a great light into the world to cleanse the human heart and enlighten the mind. This light is The Son of God, Jesus Christ. He was innocent yet He was put to death to satisfy the just demands that a righteous and holy God had AGAINST YOU. Now if you can humble yourself before Him and in faith, gratefully accept this unspeakable and FREE GIFT from a kind and merciful God, then you will be born again by His Holy Spirit and given eternal life. Your first birth is physical, your second birth will be spiritual. Now you are capable of grasping only physical concepts and thinking and living only in the physical realm of reality, which as I have pointed out is a very very small place, but then you will become spiritually alive and able to live in the spiritual realm of reality where their is truth and wisdom, and not just knowledge. Well, you say you want to be enlightened. I have given you the truth. What are you going to do with it?><>Sir Brian
153856
At the present time, we just don't know.  If you saw pictures of aliens, what you saw were fake.  Nobody on earth has yet to produce a verifiable image, photographic, electronic or hand-drawn, of a living creature that originated elsewhere in the universe than from our home planet.  Nobody.\n\nAlso, at the present time, we suspect that there is no other planet in any nearby solar system that's host to a sentient race of beings like us.  That does not mean that some form of what we call "life" is impossible, but just think: out of the billions of living critters that now inhabit, or did in the past, our home planet, only one of those life forms evolved to the point where it (us) can even begin to think about such questions.  That by itself will tell ya we're sorta unique! ;-)\n\nIt sure would be interesting, wouldn't it?  But imagine if you will what it might be like if those alien creatures we fantasize about were an advanced race of carnivores that look upon us as another breed of cattle, fit only for eating!  Yow!  Or, how about if they were friendly, warm and fuzzy folks who just love to make nice with us - but they carry an infectious disease that there's no cure for.  Oh boy.  Or maybe, like Darth Vader, they just consider us a nusiance worthy of one blast from a super-mega cannon that blows Earth into dust?  Whoa!  Hey dude: you SURE you wanna meet aliens?  \n\nAll this is just idle speculation.  The hard fact is, even if there were creatures just like us somewhere in the universe, we are not gonna know about it, because the distances between them and us are just too great to permit interstellar travel, the hazards of such a trip are insurmountable, and no means of communication can travel fast enough for us to hear from them and be able to answer back.  Kind of a bummer, isn't it?
455429
Well I think you are misdirected.  All animals are in the same boat.  If we were all created by a Supreme Being then we are all on par.  It is what we do after that affects our survival.  Animals in the wild do quite well with diseases and their physical traits have evolved to suit their existence.  Toss in Homo Sapien and you get another story.  We are careless with our environment.  The way we live in huge mega cities allows us to be exposed to tons of bacteria and viruses that we wouldn't come across if in little communities.  I think Home Sapiens should get 4/10 and God should get a n/a for not participating in things the way we think he does.  It is time for you to point your finger at the heart of the problem.
656752
Although humans have evolved to have the greatest level of intelligence on earth,  intelligence is not only the preserve of Homo sapiens. Many physical and behavioural characteristics of animals occur among a disparate number of species for example, even though the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger was a marsupial it had the physical and behaviour characteristics of a wolf. This is called parallel evolution. The same can be said for intelligence, for example, cephalopod mollusc's such as squid and octopus (the most intelligent invertebrates) and dolphins and whales have both evolved seperately to become highly intelligent within their realm. \nAs for a species being a 'threat' in the race for the most intelligent \nin the future, this is very unlikely as evolututionary processes work on the order of thousands of generations. It is also unlikely that humans will survive long enough for another species to supercede us as mammals as a species generally only live on the order of 1-1.5 million years (we have passed our due date!) say compared to insects that live between 10-15 million years as a species.\nThe biggest threat from an intelligent species is more likely to be extraterrestrial!?
69803
Well, this is really brilliant of you to read between the lines. I mean that there must have been thousands of people who heard about the tuskless elephants but never attributed or tried to attribute it to God. Of course God is aware of everything in this world coz nothing can take place withouthim doing it. OUr minds are so unqualified to understand everything going on around us in this universe. It is just like a 10 MHZ CPU trying to run windows XP.\nBy the way, I've a comment to say: you can't say about God (his/her) because God doens't belong to a certain sex.
313792
Seriously, it's a nice question.\n\nUnfortunately, any worthwhile answer to the details you’ve provided is beyond the scope of Yahoo Answers. You’d do better scouring the web for books on the topic from both perspectives and/or joint perspectives, if you really want to understand what both sides and not just one believes and why.\n\nHowever, I can address your literal question, which is, “Why don’t people ‘get’ this?”\n\nOne of the arguments for why many people “don’t understand” the points you’re contributing is because there has been SUCH an extensive, detailed discourse over the validity of evolution for more than a century, there’s no way to stay abreast of every development and every argument (pro and con) unless one is either working professionally in the field or is committed to the subject as a full-time hobby.\n\n(I’ve dabbled in it on and off over twenty years myself -- just enough to know what it would cost me to really get my hands dirty and be able to rationally debate for either side. And even being the philosophy and knowledge junkie I am, I just have far too many other things on my plate.)\n\nAlong with the breadth of information that must be consumed by the average person is the degree of critical thinking skills needed to weigh such extensive and detailed arguments/evidence for each position, as well as determine which authorities are actually trustworthy and which are not. That’s another full-time job in itself – besides the fact that many people simply aren’t “wired” for that level of analysis.\n\nRealistically, I would NOT expect many people to be well-versed on the geological data regarding evolution, understand the biological and ecological impact, explore all the contexts for how things might most logically fit together, and so forth. The topic is simply far too time- and resource-intensive. \n\nCoupled with this is that your argument seems not to be concerned in the least with the question of “Why?” \n\nWhy are we here? What makes humans different, if we are? And how does this impact us personally in our day-to-day lives? To many people, the evolutionary debate is irrelevant to the daily demands of life and what they want to get out of it. \n\nEvolutionary theory has nothing to do with who they love, what they sacrifice for, who they care about, what they are willing to dedicate their energy to. It doesn’t help them figure out who to marry, or how to pay their bills, or how to help their kids back on a good track, or decide what car to buy. It doesn’t give them any sort of reason for them personally to live.\n\nIn fact, it rather runs counter to all that. If your supposition is completely true, then no inherent purpose to life exists, we’re all just animals cursed by the cosmos with irrelevant self-awareness, and death is the end. Yet most people want to live, and live meaningfully.\n\nThe narrative they want to create of their lives is actually the OPPOSITE of the narrative of evolution, which (to me and others) necessarily devalues human existence.\n\nWe can argue about whether your theoretical narrative is factually true or not (and people of course have been doing so for years); but in the meanwhile, the evolutionary narrative has no value to the majority of people out there, and it even undermines the meaning they believe exists inherently in their lives.\n\nSo I wouldn’t broadly call most people ignorant of evolution, as much as I’d call the details of evolution irrelevant to most people.\n\n(And if evolution's true as you've laid it out, why does it even matter that most people understand it anyway? Their understanding or lack of it has no lasting ramifications.)