Understanding Baboon’s Mind

Thanks to biologists such as Dr. Dorothy Cheney and Dr. Robert Seyfarth of the University of Pennsylvania, I have gained a scientifically proved knowledge that animals can exhibit emotions and patterns of cognition once thought of as strictly human. The result of their 14 years of observation and scientific research on the behavior of Moremi baboons in Botswana has shown mehow baboons thinkand how their minds are specialized for social interaction understanding the structure of their society and navigating their way within it with feelings and emotions. The baboon’s mind is proved to be no different from the human mind, a product of evolution, which reminds me of an article I read last year written by Cornelia Dean for the New York Times, Science of the Soul? “I Think, Therefore I Am” Is Losing Force. In her article, she interviewed V.S. Ramachandran, a brain scientist of the University of California who said that there maybe soul in the sense of the universal spirit of the cosmos but the soul as it is usually spoken of an immaterial spirit that occupies individual brain and that only evolved in humans – all that is complete nonsense and that belief in that kind of soul is basically superstition. Other scientists have also asserted that the theory of a soul cannot be proved scientifically. Therefore, I think it is exciting that we live in a time of challenge to religious people who continue to believe in the “Creationist Theory” that “God” gives humans a special place in the creation scheme of things, by equipping them with souls, ignoring the fact that scientists have discovered physical bases for the feelings such as empathy, disgust and joy from which moral sense emerges, not just in people, but in other animals as well.

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