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Resolved: Atheists Are More Cat People Than Dog People

Having co-habited with many cats over the years, I've found them to be free-thinking and inquisitive, like atheists. Dogs seem to be more accepting, more willing to go along. I think this accounts for the fact that atheists tend to favor cats over dogs. (I'm not saying atheists hate dogs--just that we're better attuned to cats.) Comments?

Tags: atheists, cats, dogs, pets

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 18, 2012 at 4:15pm

I'm more a dog person, probably because they're more intelligent. This has been found through numerous behavioral studies, …and there's also that brain-size thing that dogs have going for them.

"I've found them to be free-thinking and inquisitive, like atheists."

I think this is just an illusion, mistaking an evolved solitary nature and a lack of social communicative abilities to an objectivist thought process (think …Ayn Rand atheists…)

"Dogs seem to be more accepting, more willing to go along."

Dogs have evolved complex social interactions and are able to process these inter-species, …like humans, cats …no.

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Permalink Reply by Lorryslorrys on March 18, 2012 at 6:35pm

I would also like to pitch in and say cats are evil and and an anathema to civilised society. They are little psychopaths.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 18, 2012 at 8:08pm

…there's that too.

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Permalink Reply by Brian George on March 18, 2012 at 10:34pm

I've never care for cats that much. It's not that I dislike them, I've just never warmed to them the way I did with dogs.

The difference for me is that dogs being pack oriented have that sense of wanting to be part of the family, whereas cats (at least the ones I've had experience with) seem to act more as their own family within the same house. My wife and I have always had Chow Chows since we've been married (we currently have two) and we now have a Landseer Newfoundland.

Here's something I don't think a pet cat would do....Our very first chow probably saved my wife's and my daughters life. One night we were out in the backyard when our dog came running up behind my (pregnant) wife and grabbed something and started shaking it. Then we heard something smack off of the tree next to him. When we turned around and shined the flashlight at the tree, there was a rattlesnake laying there. He hadn't killed it, but he had stunned it enough that it gave me time to get a hoe and finish it off. It wasn't a full grown adult, but it was still around 18" long. How he didn't get bit, we don't know.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 18, 2012 at 10:40pm

Spend any time around a loyal "smart" dog and you stop thinking of them as pets, and instead feel privileged and honored to have them as trusted friends.

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Permalink Reply by TNT666 on March 19, 2012 at 12:35am

Meh, friends behave entirely differently than offspring... I find dogs are more like offspring, something I never wanted. My cats have been as friendly as my dogs.

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Permalink Reply by Richard ∑wald on March 19, 2012 at 1:00am

I never said they weren't friendly...

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Permalink Reply by TNT666 on March 19, 2012 at 1:29am

Nice emoticon :)

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Permalink Reply by Brad Reddekopp on March 18, 2012 at 11:55pm

A friend of mine took his family fishing by the river. Their little daughter fell in and their golden retriever jumped in and fished her out. Cats do seem less likely to save you in such a situation.

There have been cats in my life that meant a lot to me, but it's a different kind of relationship.

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Permalink Reply by TNT666 on March 19, 2012 at 12:36am

Well, lets inbreed a cat til it has webbed paws and is 5 times larger, then we'll see :)

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Permalink Reply by TNT666 on March 19, 2012 at 12:33am

Cats with nasty behaviours are but a result of owners who refuse to learn cat language. Once you know cat language, you can get a cat to do anything a dog does, and cats have saved lives too... they just don't have the physique to jump out of helis and rescue drowning people...

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Permalink Reply by booklover on March 19, 2012 at 8:04am

I always considered myself just a cat person, and then we got a Labradork, lol. I love her to death, but SO much work. I love all animals, but we will probably just stick with cats in the future (we have 3 right now).