Piltdown Superman

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  It seems reasonable to assume that most thinking people would laugh at the idea of animals being granted human rights and personhood status, but it is happening (for one example, see " An Elephant is now a Person? "), and is increasing. ( Even rivers are getting personhood status !) Non-humans are being given rights that include the ability to have legal representation — to file lawsuits. It is common to file on behalf of people  with reduced mental capabilities since they are human, after all. As much as Basement Cat had a unique personality and awareness of many things, she did not show advanced cognitive abilities. She did not know catness . Horses fighting, Pexels / Kenzhar Sharap The article that inspired this one pointed out that certain cognitive tests were given to animals to see if they were self-aware. Interesting, that would mean that only the most rudimentary tests would be used. Some can recognize themselves in mirrors. Some cannot, so tha

Sensible people can agree that torturing animals for personal pleasure, as well as having callous disregard for their lives, is wrong. There are individuals and activist groups that campaign for animal rights. However, their positions are inconsistent and irrational. They have a worldview based on atoms-to-animal evolution. If Darwin's version of evolution were true (survival of the fittest and all that) humans should be able to do what we want. By saying mistreatment is wrong, they violate their worldview. In the Christian worldview, however, caring for creatures makes sense. Basement Cat, Flickr / Cowboy Bob Sorensen ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ) It is interesting that vegetarians and vegans use their philosophies as a badge of honor (virtue signaling), and sit in self-appointed judgment of omnivores. To be blunt, they act like cultists (1 Tim. 4:1-5, and see " Vegetarianism Has Become an End-Time Religion ", thanks to WHYOutreach for the link). By saying that something is wrong

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen I never thought that by the time I turned sixty, I would be writing about the foolishness of people who want personhood status for animals. It happened. It made a bit of sense when some activists failed in their attempt to obtain legal status for a chimpanzee  since they resemble humans somewhat. But an elephant? Credit: RGBStock /  Stella Bogdanic Just over an hour south of me at the Bronx Zoo  is an elephant named Happy. Animal rights extremists are unhappy and want the elephant to have personhood status. Let's ride this short side trail a spell. A woman was a vegetarian for many years, but ate a hamburger and was converted . Now she's a butcher and a pig farmer. She did the vegetarian thing because she was converted by reading a book by "bioethicist" Peter Singer . That name should get the attention of some people, as he is known for animal rights, but also abortion and infanticide. Don't eat meat because animals have rights,

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Basement Cat gives me a strange look when I am moving around, getting ready for work in the morning. My wife and I give it a meaning, such as, "I know what you did". There are times when we know she is happy, annoyed, affectionate, or whatever, because many animals do show emotions. Giving verbal captions and putting words in our mouth is just us assigning traits on the cat for our own convenience.  Original image credit before modification: Pixabay / cojessmom There was a news report about a killer whale that gave birth to a calf, but sadly, it died a few minutes later. The mother was clearly showing signs of grief, and even going beyond that of other orcas.  Some people tend to "see" human traits in animals. When a dog is coached to make a sound like, "I love you", sorry, pilgrim, it is not a true expression of love. Other critters can display reactions that have the appearance of advanced emotions, and can appear to act

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen We have seen many instances on this site alone of bizarre material submitted as science, especially when attempting to support universal common ancestor evolution. Perhaps the silly practices in the secular science industry are an extension of Western society as a whole. It is one thing that David J. Slater's unattended camera was used for pictures and a "selfie" by a macaque monkey (monkey see, monkey do?), it is quite another that there were court battles about the selfie. Most notable is one based on an eldritch view of animal rights. This version of the image, ruled as having no copyright, obtained at Pixabay from WikiImages Slater thought he owned the copyright, but the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals drew up the reigns and hollered, "Whoa!" This extremely liberal court has rulings frequently overturned by the US Supreme Court, so it is surprising to me that they did not side with PETA's "next friend" attempt

In an article called " Radical Environmentalism and the War on Humans ", it was pointed out that environmentalism has some good elements that are based on compassion and what should be common sense. The extremist view is dangerous; I do not say that lightly, since some people advocate exterminating millions, or billions of people because Earth is more important than humans to some of them.  One aspect of this is "animal rights". This, too, is based on compassion and what should be common sense. Indeed, standing against animal cruelty is in line with biblical values. However, the extremists want to give animals the status of "personhood". (Hypocritically, an unborn human child is not a person to them and has the moral equivalent of lettuce.) This is based on evolutionary thinking. Creationists point out that people are made in God's image, and are special. Evolutionists degrade humans because of their evolutionary mindset. (Will bigoted, hat

Modified from Noah's Prayer of Thanks After Leaving the Ark, by Dominico Morelli Today's article has an unusual genesis. Someone on Facebook posted comments about "hardcore huntress" Melissa Bachman's trophy hunting activities . This person is against trophy hunting, and referred to it as "murder". I am not a hunter, and detest killing animals for sport. But the person who was posting the comments insists that sport hunting is murder. Is it immoral?  That can be debated, because God gave man dominion over the earth ( Genesis 1.28 ), but we also are given responsible stewardship . I am not going to enter into an argument about whether or not sport hunting violates stewardship principles, but the Bible makes it clear that eating animals for food is acceptable — you cannot use the Bible to insist that everyone has a vegetarian diet . So, if you kill it and grill it, good for you. But to say that killing animals is murder?  This is a result of not