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COMMENTS:
Voted : Comment
Interesting question, forgetmenot.
As for your first question, I think the animals who are taught language (like the gorilla in your example) were already intelligent enough to be accountable and/or lie about their actions. They just didn't have the means to express it. At least not in a means that most of us can understand.
As for the second question. I don't necessarily think so there either. One reason being that many animals already know how to lie. Take for example birds like the Killdeer that fake injury to distract predators away from nests. Maybe that's ingrained instinct and they don't really know what they're doing though.
But then I recall the horse of my cousin who would start limping when she didn't want to be ridden. That was only when she went riding alone though. Apparently the horse liked the other horse to go along too, because when she brought out both saddles and another person, the horse didn't limp. And she knew it wasn't a coincidence and there wasn't anything wrong with the horse because she'd had a vet examine her to be sure. She's also look out the window of her house at them before hand and the horse would be fine. But the minute my cousin walked out with just a single saddle, the limping started.
There were the dogs I used to have too. When I would come home and something would be out of place or on the floor, one would run up stairs, leaving the other one down stairs at the 'scene of the crime'. I'm almost certain that was their way of saying, "it wasn't me, it was him".
Forgot to add... I think it's perfectly natural. It's part of that 'self-preservation' instinct. They don't have our morals, so it isn't wrong to them.
Voted : Comment
Actually it should mean (to a christian) that we are indeed related to monkeys. Learning to sign cannot, not even remotely, have taught this gorilla to lie.
I'm struggling here not to laugh. For one thing there is to much room for error. First noone really knows what goes on inside the mind of the animal, secondly it could simply be a miscommunication.
Thirdly, and most importantly, if it is aware of what its doing then it ALWAYS had this capacity for lies. Language does not create awareness even to a christian this should be self evident.
^Language would certainly increase awareness.
^ I'm not convinced thats true, language increases understanding. That isn't the same thing as awareness. You'd be aware of a truck about to hit you wether you know its called a truck or not.
But language can also create misunderstanding. Religion being probably the best (or worst) example. Now that hardly raises awareness does it?
An example:-
Moses brought down the ten commandments.
Does this raise our awareness that we shouldn;t kill?
no, what it does is ser down a rule.
Our awareness is diminished by this.
Why?
Well because its historical fact that around the time of moses there was no written language so how did moses read them?
Simple he didn't he made them up or he simply didn't exist.
So how does language in this case raise our awareness?
Science doesnt raise our awareness. We still dont know what happens when we die. nor can it explain what awareness is.
I wouldn't be shocked to find that this was just a misunderstanding between trainer and animal. I can accept a gorilla "understanding" that it had altered the sink, but not necessarily that the alteration was "bad" and would get him in "trouble."
Furthermore, the only reason the ape would "lie" is if he/she had done something similar before and understood the consequences, which is also unlikely because no trainer would discipline an ape for being wild.
Basically, the ballot question is very interesting, but the science behind it is lacking or suspect at best. It's understandable though. Any trainer would love to make a claim like this because it's absolute media gold.
Voted : A bad thing
Leave the animals alone ! Let them be their own selves.
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