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Water-bound Mammals... Smarter Than Humans?

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Posted by Phillip Martin on September 6, 2003 02:06:19 UTC

I was searching the internet earlier today and I decided to look for some pictures of dolphins. What I found amazed me, page after page I looked at made references to dolphins' intelligence in reference to that of humans. Through reading through dozens of sights they collectively show that dolphins(')

have significantly larger brains than humans (reports from 25% to 40% larger on average)

brains develop much quicker

brains have approximately 200% as many folds in the frontal lobe of the brain and that the frontal lobe is wherethe ability to "think" is located

the folds are deeper, and therefore have more surface area and a larger amount of neurons per mass (when compared to humans)

dolphins have roughly 1/10 the mass devoted to optical procesing that we (humans) do

dolphins have roughly 10 times the brain mass devoted to auditory processing that we (humans) have

dolphins are self-aware

dolphins are excellent problem solvers

there are few tests which both dolphins and humans can take, but in the ones they both can take (such as cathing on to concepts) dolphins seem to do as well as humans.

and finally, that the major question is how the dolphin brain is used.

I havn't had much time tocros reference much of the information, but all that I have found so far seems to show that dolphins are, quite possibly, on a conciousness level similar to that of humans.

Does anyone here think that the average dolphin could be smarter than the average person? Why or why not? Also could someone please cross-reference this information, and perhaps find some information to the contrary on soe of it? Thank you.

I posted this here on the God and Science forum for a couple of reasons. One, I havn't been here in a while, and I wanted to post again. Two, somewhere in the middle of the http://www.google.com searches, I found that any animal being at or above humans starkly contrasts Christianity. I don't remember exactly, but the arguement goes that God made man in his likeness and higher thn oter creatures. If a dolphin or whale (some [sprem whales] have brains in access of 17 lbs, compare with human average of 3 lbs) or any other being was smarter than a human, it would go directly aginst the bible. If someone could locate this Biblical passage, I would be grateful.

At any rate, I'm back to the forum, I probably will not post much, and I probably will not be able to post until sometime Sunday or Monday. I am now in college, majoring in Engineering. Today is the end of my fourth week living on campus, and I feel that it will be a good experience, although I have noticed that most people are more of the closed-minded-conservative than I like my peers to be. There are a few closed-minded liberals here are well, but mostly the other. I was afraid that the work load would be harsh, but the work assigned has been easy. I apologise for not having the time to read over and correct this post, I wish to get home for the weekend as soon as possible.

On another note, my father was recently diagnosed with ADHD and "Restless Leg Syndrone". With this in mind, it has been suggested to me that I go to be tested for ADHD.

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