Re: Call for mascot! :-) -- flying pigs

[David Starner <dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org>]

"Alexander N. Benner" wrote:
> 
> hi
> 
> Ship's Log, Lt. Phillip R. Jaenke, Stardate 300199.2241:
> >
> > Why a dolphin? Well, they're intelligent. Definitely intelligent. They're
> > pretty cute. :)  And they're definitely flexible. (I'd like to see *you*
> > burst out of the water, do a backflip or two midair, and make a perfect
> > reentry.;)
> 
> ok .. beat me for this .. but it does not realy meen 'good bye and thankyou
> for the fish' ! Dolphins are not more intelligent then paes or other animals.
> Intelligence referes also to somewhat of abstract thinking which no animal
> has.

Intelligence does not refer to "abstract thinking which no animal has".
Intelligence refers to the capacity for thought, which even animals such
as ants or fleas have to some minor extent. I've never heard it referred
to as "abstract thought" only.

Also why don't they have abstract thinking? I'm not up on cetacean
biology, so let me discuss primates and analogize back. Primates have
enough abstract thinking to speak and assemble objects in search of a
future goal. Not much, but not non-existent. Cetaceans are a bit harder
to study, as primates think alike, and in different ways from cetaceans.
If they have enough intellegence to say "good bye and thanks for all the
fish", then it wouldn't be at all suprising we missed the intellegence
before.
> 
> Greetings
> --
> Alexander N. Benner
> 
> And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel;
> The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
> thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
> strength: this is the first commandment. -*- The Bible (Mark 12:29-30)

But here's the real crux of the matter - we appear to be starting from
two different ideological standpoints that each hold part of the answer
as postulate. (Atheism over here, which holds that we are merely an
evolutionary step from the primates, and are soulless animals
oursleves.) As further argument would be fruitless and off topic, I will
respond no further on list. 
-- 
David Starner - dstarner98@aasaa.ofe.org
Dullard: someone who, wanting a piece of information, takes down the
appropriate volume of the encyclopedia, looks up the item they need, and
then puts the volume away without reading anything else. - Peter
Dell'Orto, paraphrased from Philip Jose Farmer