Animal Talk

My cat monkey gets up early. I can feel the mattress moving as he arches his back, stretching into his morning routine. Feeling fresh, he then starts clawing at the side of the mattress. Some animal experts say he may be sharpening his claws or stretching them out, preparing for the hunt. But my guy is telling me it's breakfast time. He's convinced this reminder annoys me enough for him to get some quick service. After breakfast, it's playtime. This routinely involves attacking the blanket where my hand moves ever-so-slightly until it emerges to lightly scratch his chubby little belly. His routine doesn't end there as he stays near me most of the day he reminds me he's a loving companion and I'm blessed and joyful to have him. As a christian, I find it a true blessing to share these feelings with my little furry friend. I have no recourse other than a creationist Biblical frame to conclude the science behind these warm feelings attached to humans in nature. A naturalist may disagree ( see my piece called “I Love Lucy) but for today, my proof of science is in a happy purr.

Job 12:10 “In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath (literally “spirit”) of all humankind.” People seem to love animals, most Christian I know love animals, we look at them as God's creation. As a creationist, I firmly believe in God’s purposeful creation of animals. I find it interesting that we have such a psychological attachment to nature and its inhabitants. Only a loving Grand Designer could create such beautiful, soft and astonishing creations that affect us in this way. What does secular psychology think? The Mayo Clinic says,

What is pet therapy? Pet therapy is a broad term that includes animal-assisted therapy and other animal-assisted activities. Animal-assisted therapy is a growing field that uses dogs or other animals to help people recover from or better cope with health problems, such as heart disease, cancer and mental health disorders. Animal-assisted activities have a more general purpose, such as providing comfort and enjoyment for nursing home residents. Who can benefit from animal-assisted therapy? Animal-assisted therapy can significantly reduce pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue in people with a range of health problems:

• Children having dental procedures

• People receiving cancer treatment

• People in long-term care facilities

• People with cardiovascular diseases

• People with dementia

• Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

• People with anxiety

And it's not only people with health problems who reap the benefits. Family members and friends who sit in on animal visits say they feel better, too. Pet therapy is also being used in non-medical settings, such as universities and community programs, to help people deal with anxiety and stress.

Awesome to see God’s love in His creation valiantly helping all!! Throughout history, God has shown us various ways that his amazing creation can attach to our sensory life. Sometimes good, bad or ugly animals have affected humans throughout history. “Half of the plagues God sent on Egyptian and Pharaoh when he refused to let the Israelites go were animal-related. Whether it was frogs, locusts (grasshoppers), or flies, God certainly used His creatures to accomplish His Will”

Helping me recover from a streetcar accident After I woke up from the coma, they placed me on the 9th floor of Toronto's UHN building in the head trauma Recovery Unit. Highly medicated recovery from a hematoma brain injury left me in a depressive state. I felt helpless and unhappy most of the day. For three months I lay on my little sofa in front of the window of my hospital room. Either staring at my mini DVD player or out the window dreaming of times past. Nothing impressed me, they eventually gave me passes to leave the hospital and go out for walks in the community. The injury had made me oblivious to sensory life. My five senses had been depleted. My vision was critically affected. I didn't smell or taste food at all. On my first outing, my eyes focused on the beautiful flowers and budding trees of early spring. I noticed the birds singing and bees buzzing. The bustling sounds of technological society didn't entertain me as much as the beautiful blue sky filled with feathered life. My body reacted warmly as I listened to the animals foraging in the trees. No Neuro-psych could ever match this with any medication they were giving me. No medicine, no self-help, and no therapy could ever have moved me like God did that day. I suppose the Therapists of the world would agree with the benefits of nature to the psyche. Will they ever give credit where credit is due?

2 Timothy 3:5

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Job 12:7-10 “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind

Does it seem reasonable that animals evolved with us together in that respect, with the ability to appreciate each other psychologically? In the survival of the fittest mode, animals are simply meant for food. In their own natural habitat, they can certainly flourish and function as hunters and stabilizing agents to the ecology surrounding them. However, human interaction affects the fascination and the admiration that we have always had for nature. Animals and other entities have led me to believe that emotionally and psychologically we are all dependent on each other cohesively. Nothing new as a christian. I learned that as a child.

Emotion is not tangible, you cannot touch emotion. One cannot touch love, we cannot close our eyes and put our hands on it. Perhaps the object of love, but not the definitive feeling itself. Therefore, there is no observatory science to explain this mystery in an evolutionary model. There has never been any theoretical, empirical or modal science to explain evolutionary emotion. Emotions are not a product of evolution. I would challenge anyone to rationally explain the relationship we and animals have shared, while attributing it to matter plus time plus chance evolution equalling a relationship so grand. Genesis 1:26 New International Version

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."