Animals are not sentient. A lion may have cognitive skills, they can plot a few moments ahead and in so doing ensnare their prey. But they do not philosophize nor ask themselves, “Hmm, what am I going to do next Wednesday?” You can argue this any number of ways. Yes animals may possess profound measures of intellect, sometimes more than any human may realize, but they do not possess sentience by text book definition.

When I talk about chimps I refer to primates in particular, not fowl. Yes, there exists a multitude of animals which possess advanced forms of communication but I speak specifically about our cousins, the other primates. And yes cousins, whether you’re an evolutionist or an anti-evolutionist, they are our cousins, genetically speaking. With that said, it should be interesting to note that the DNA of chimpanzees and humans is more similar to one another than a chimpanzee’s and an orangutan’s, their neighbors.

Why would God, a presumably incorporeal entity, possess opposable thumbs with which to write or otherwise manipulate tools with? Why have limbs at all if He is merely swimming in some cosmic, netherwordly realm, overseeing all of His creation? I can accept the idea of a creator god (though I dare say the Christian mythology is one which I find altogether unappealing, purely from a storytelling perspective) but it stands to reason in this day and age that mankind created God in our image, not the other way around -- unless you care to expostulate as to what reason your god would possess a body type which has clearly been designed for navigating an earthly, physical realm (unless he has multiple incarnations, as in the Hindu pantheon, which would be a different story entirely). Moreover, how do you know this and can you verify it without the use of any written text? In the modern era, science students are told to prove a thing for themselves rather than simply trust a book (scripture). Thus, without the written word we are able to prove – to ourselves – the existence of gravity, inertia, and so on. And, if you cannot prove it using this method, it is still just a theory not a proven fact. So I ask, using the proscribed method above, please kindly prove that your god appears in the likeness of a (wo)man, equipped, unnecessarily, with limbs, opposable thumbs, facial hair, eyelashes and all the rest.
Not necessarily. Some scientists have rationalized the existence of ghosts as potentially being some sort of after image, an imprint of sorts which technically is neither the individual nor their “soul”, rather, something akin to a photograph, remnants of their former presence, footprints of a sort. Now, I’m not saying that I necessarily buy into that philosophy but for all of the reasons stated above, I’d categorize phenomenon such as ghosts and other supernatural occurrences (UFO’s being another perfect example here) as wholly separate from religion. They’re apples and oranges.


Look, we all have our beliefs and that’s fair enough. I make painstaking efforts not to trash anyone else’s or suggest they are possessed of ridiculousness. That being said, you really should demonstrate greater care when drawing such huge assumptions about the beliefs of an atheist or evolutionist (of which I happen to be neither but I will stand in their defence here). There is nothing dull or unimaginative about any form of antitheism. Indeed, some of the most profound works of art have come from the minds of the non-religious, claiming their muse came from their inner self rather than their alleged god. I think the problem most Christians in particular face when even so much as thinking about what it must be like to be non-religious is that, as you describe, it seems to dull and boring, a life where one focuses only on eating and surviving - and why even have morals in such a realm if “nothing matters”? But religion does not (should not) dictate morals. Morals are a human invention.
As for imagination, the world is what you make of it, regardless of how you believe we all got here. Your imagination and your religious beliefs are unrelated affairs, though I have a sneaking suspicion most people who are religious have chosen that path in life because it appeals to the fantasist within them. I can see the vast cosmos, and indeed our very existence, as utterly fascinating and compelling with or without so much as even considering a god or pantheon of gods or what happens after we die.


Which is precisely why I said a large majority of people, not every single person (and thus excluding atheists). From a hunter gatherer standpoint, the only non-religious civilizations which have ever existened is that of Neanderthals – but then, they weren’t humans, rather, another form a sentient (primate) life which your bible, peculiarly, does not explain.