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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 Sentient Biped on April 16, 2009 at 6:24pm

We have 2 dogs, a cat, and 2 chickens.

The oldest dog is Charlie. I don't think he's an atheist - i think that he worships me. Everywhere I go, he follows. Take him to the dog park, he runs off for a couple of minutes, then is back by my side. If I decide to soak in the bathtub, he's by the tub, even though he hates baths. He insists on sleeping by my side. I think that, to Charlie, I'm god.

Bai-gou on the other hand is probably agnostic and possibly atheist. The only way to get him to come is to say "cookie" and rustle the treat bag. He finds a place to sleep, and stays there, even while Charlie is following me around. Often, he's hiding somewhere in the yard or house, doesn't care whether we come or go. He lives in his own world. Take him to the dog park, he plays with the other dogs and explores.

The cat, George, also seems to think I'm god, at least in a cargo cult sense. I provide food and water. Each morning she comes to me and purrs and rubs against me. I give her some food, then she goes outside. When Im doing yard work, if Charlie isn't around, she's close at hand. I suspect that she considers the dogs to be annoying demons, to say the least, even though shes not afraid of them and all that they want from her is to sniff her butt.

If the chickens think anything other than 'food. food. food. lay egg. food. food. " I would be surprised.

As far as whether they prefer atheists or theists, I don't know.

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Permalink Reply by muhammad amer on April 17, 2009 at 1:43pm

Everyone is talking about cats and dogs but I m worried about your chikens. Why are they so unreactive? Is the difference between them and other three species(men, cats and dogs) lies in the structure of the brain. Are they on the lesser evolutionary stage than the other three?
One thing is for sure, one got to belong to other group of species to be an athiest. Last winter I had a business crises. I had to work very long hours for whole of winter to recover. I felt like a chicken, food. food ............
According to Maslow's Theory Of Needs "One don't have mental needs(seondry in nature) untill primary physical needs are satisfied.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Goldin on April 17, 2009 at 3:53pm

See, you can blame it all on god and his "intelligent design" plan. If it's so intelligent, how come every animal (and even some plants) has to kill something else in order to live? Why isn't there room for all of us to survive?

The main lesson in all of this is, never make friends with your food.

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Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on April 22, 2009 at 4:02pm

Hi Judith,

You have touched on one of the great vegetarian moral dilemmas. It falls in the same spectrum as milk. In order to have milk, a cow must be bred. The heiffers grow up to be cows, for milk. The male calves are castrated and grow up to be steers, headed for meat market. You don't have to kill any animal to make milk or other dairy products, but animals are created that wind up being killed, due to the demographics.

Same with eggs. My understanding is that in the major processing places, male chicks (tiny, maybe a day old but I'm not sure) are thrown into a large barrel, and suffocate under the weight of the ones thrown on top of them. If you bought your hens locally from a hobbyist, I don't know for certain but some hobbyists raise them to a little older and sell them for meat. The male chicken is basically useless, except for one out of many who are kept for breeding or in very rare cases, a pet or show. Your point about getting them young enough makes a kind of sense. Chickens have absolutely no qualms about eating worms, bugs, slugs, or anything small that looks juicy or moves. I've never seen a vegetarian chicken. Does that make it OK to eat them? Beats me.

Cats have no problem killing birds, mice, and other animals, except when they get lazy. Of course, not many people eat cats.

Aarrgghhh. We are far off topic. Maybe this needs to be in a separate topic!

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Permalink Reply by chironex on April 17, 2009 at 4:49pm

I'm a cat person---am and always will be. I grew up with them, but they were taken away from me at a young age when my parents (falsely) suspected allergies. Now I'm stuck in the same household as a dog and a rabbit. >:

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Permalink Reply by Heather McIntosh on April 20, 2009 at 5:23pm

I'm a dog person. My little girl is my sidekick - she likes to travel with me.

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Permalink Reply by O'Tater on April 20, 2009 at 7:56pm

I'm not sure how relevant this is but I chuckled when I saw it as it's easy to imagine these two separate creatures thinking exactly this.

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Permalink Reply by Dre Smith on April 21, 2009 at 4:19pm

The hell is wrong with you people. Fish are better. Just two sprinkles of food at the top of the tank, small net to clean up the poop. And presto your done. Don't have to worry about furniture getting destroyed or clawed to death in the process.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Goldin on April 21, 2009 at 4:31pm

Petting them's a little messier, though.

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Permalink Reply by Shamar on April 23, 2009 at 2:30am

Hey, my dog doesn't mess up my furniture...she definitely knows better! Hell, she has a guilty look on her face if she so much as chewed up a napkin while I was gone, lol :-)