The Concept of God

evsgjamm said:

1) Do believers in God include species other than human? Or do believers "believe" FOR those species... ?  Can an inanimate object also believe in an afterlife? example: "When I get torn down, I'll be rebuilt in heaven and will see all the previous buildings that used to stand here before me." 

2) And when I read discussion about "if you find peace in your belief, then good on ya", does the same reasoning apply to the people on this planet who believe in the 72 virgins they'll receive in heaven if they crash airplanes into occupied buildings with intent on killing Christians?
Let's go deep. Enough of this kumbaya balogna sandwich, hold the mustard. You NEED mustard! Let's try to put our feet into the shoes of some of the most extreme believers in God (general term implying all gods) and see how we come out on the other end.
I can't fathom any of you saying "ya, if they are happy believing that, then good on them. Who am I to judge?" then there is something seriously wrong.

For the most part I believe that God just lets his animals be animals.. But He did create them all and can communicate with any animal at their level if He needs to. He created them all, so in doing so, he created, knows and understands all the unique and complex communications of animals birds insects ext..I've been around a lot of animals I have been around a lot of horses and cattle.  It's an almost spiritual thing for me at the end of my hectic work day in the evening when I feed my horses and refill their water tub, it is a relaxing and humbling experience that I never get tired of, to watch them come up just because I'm there with the hydrant on, they eagerly anticipating a fresh gulp of water.  I can tell you that when a horse comes to drink water, they often suck down 4 or 5 gallons really fast and then pause in total contentment, and sigh, and then take on one last mouthful and kind of walk around and hold it in their mouth for a little bit and they indeed savor that life sustaining water.  And while they don't verbally pray, I get the sense that they know who their creator is.
  Years ago, I was working on a cattle ranch in West Texas and we were training a bunch of young colts.  The initial training process takes about a week, you get them under saddle, you work getting on and getting off, trying to establish trust.  You know before you start a horse typically they've been with their mommy for a year and a half doing whatever they please.  So when you try to get on their back for the first time they look at you like maybe you might want to eat them. So it's all about gaining trust & respect. About Day 2 or 3, there's about 12 of us doing this in a relatively small arena.  And everybody was on the back of a somewhat nervous colt for the first or second time basically kindergarten for horses. A really good horse trainer was  in the center of the arena kind of working with everyone that's on a horse.  Everyone's working on developing a relationship with their horse they're on trying to gain confidence.  The guy in the center has a flag on a stick, kind of directing traffic, this is day two or three..  Going clockwise then counter-clockwise changing the speed from walk to jog back to walk.  You on the horse are working on your horse, neck reining foot cues and hand cues, leg cues.  It's great fun.  I'm laying the groundwork for what I'm trying to say here.  So we're all jogging around the arena counterclockwise and one of the horses spooks gets jumpy & jerky and throws a little fit. The guy on this horse (whose name was Woody Allen not the actor)  what's going along right in front of me, got tossed off went up about 2 ft above the horse and then landed flat on his back. It sounded like a 175lb bag of potatoes landing on the ground.  Now you've got 12 colts jogging around in a relatively tight space (they're all skittish at this stage) The guy lands on the ground (crunch) and all 12 of the horses stopped on a dime. Including the one that tossed him off.  Logically one would think that more horses could easily freak out, or scatter every witch way and the guy might get trampled.  But they all stopped and we're calm while a couple guys went in to help Woody up and get him out of there.  This is an outdoor fenced-in Arena not like PRCA Rodeo Arenas that have beautiful ground up soft dirt hauled in.  The ground that we had to work with was not that nice, made out hard-packed red clay.(much like concrete) Woody suffered a couple of fractured ribs and a stiff sore neck.  We were all grateful that that was all it was.  Later at the end of the day, we' are all sitting around the campfire drinking a few cold ones, talking about the day.  Woody is sitting there right with us, stiff and really sore.  We were all amazed how calm the horses became when he hit the ground, and we all agreed that The Good Lord intervened & calmed them all at once, until we could resume. I tried to move my horse forward a little bit out of the way and he would not budge.  Other guys said the same thing. That was proof enough for me and all of us that our Lord can communicate with animals when he needs to.
Furthermore as it says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 29 not one Sparrow shall fall on the ground with out your Father.  (And then a few comforting verses) verse 30 but the very hairs on your head are all numbered.