How can you prove that animals and other living, moving creatures cannot tell right from wrong, have no conscious and cannot...?

Dogs can tell right from wrong. Their eyes look down and their tail sticks between the back legs. You can see the guilt. ( It is so cute ).

A large part of creating a dependence on religion is the idea that humanity is a special creation of a god, and that the universe and animals were created for our habitat and usefulness. Humans are then assumed to have god-like qualities that animals can't possibly have, like love, empathy, self sacrifice, forgivness, etc. The idea of humanity being one of the five species of ape with a long biological history of natural selection that made us what we are today is somewhat of a threat to the role and need for a god, so religious clergy and the faithful have a personal interest in promoting the idea that animals can not have what we think are human qualities. - Science has addressed this question, and has shown other social animals to have a wide range of emotions. - To do your own internet search on the topic, search "evolution of empathy" or "evolution of cooperation". You will find a wide range of sources, from magazine articles to university studies using scientific methods. - Here are a few links and excerpts. - One piece of evidence came unintentionally out of a study on human development. Carolyn Zahn-Waxler, a research psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, visited people?s homes to find out how young children respond to family members? emotions. She instructed people to pretend to sob, cry, or choke, and found that some household pets seemed as worried as the children were by the feigned distress of the family members. - The researchers reported in 1964 in the American Journal of Psychiatry that rhesus monkeys refused to pull a chain that delivered food to themselves if doing so gave a shock to a companion. One monkey stopped pulling the chain for 12 days after witnessing another monkey receive a shock. Those primates were literally starving themselves to avoid shocking another animal. http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_evolution_of_empathy - There is a growing body of research showing that animals respond to the emotions of others. But it wasn't certain whether rats could suppress their own distress in order to aid another rat. Lead author Peggy Mason, a neurobiologist at the University of Chicago, Illinois, thinks her work is a significant step towards settling this question. ?This finding is the big kahuna ? evidence that empathy motivates one individual to help another,? she says. - Following a two-week introduction period, pairs of rats were put inside an arena. One was trapped inside a central restrainer, while the other roamed free in the larger space. By day six or seven, on average, the roaming rat learned to free the trapped rat. The free rats seldom opened empty containers or those containing a toy rat. When chocolate was introduced to the mix, there was no difference in the time taken to free the trapped cage-mate, despite pitting freeing the trapped cage-mate against getting a tasty treat. Furthermore, the helper rats did not eat all the chocolate chips. Instead, they often allowed the trapped rats to eat some. http://www.nature.com/news/rats-free-each-other-from-cages-1.9603

Nearly any scientific study done on animal behavior disproves your teacher's theory on animal behavior. All animals have a certain way of thinking that, while differs species to species, is very similar to our own. Especially those of domesticated animals that we keep as pets. They create bonds with others of their species, as well as of other species. My cat and I, for instance, have a very close bond because I've been around her my entire life (she's three years older than me). We've become rather in tune with one another, and I can tell that she's a very smart cat. She's already saved my life by giving me comfort throughout my struggle with depression. Unfortunately, there will always be close-minded and bigoted people who will deny it in order to separate the human race from the rest of the world's animals in order to justify our actions against them and the Earth. But the fact is that humans are animals and we are connected with the Earth. It just takes a very special kind of person to see this.

The thing is, humans feel as if they are at the top of the chain. They believe that they are smarter because they have a language. As you said, animals have their own language. Not talking like we do, but body signs and other small things that only their species can understand fully. If animals spoke the human language, we would be more advanced in science and people would feel a need to treat the animals the same way they treat humans. They are taught just like humans to do things and some things are just instincts. For example, a child knows fire is dangerous because they have been told or have had experience. Animals know something is dangerous because of instinct or a memory in the same situation. The conclusion is that animals and humans are the same but humans evolved into understanding verbal language.

I don't quite agree that animals and humans are the same, but they do share some human characteristics. Those in the Animal Kingdom are extremely intelligent (some more than others) and they have just as much a right as we do to live their lives free from cruelty and murder. It shouldn't matter where you are on the 'chain'; all Life should be respected...

Observation and interaction can prove it. People try to anthropomorphize animals relating their behaviors and actions to their own. Animals don't work that way, but that doesn't mean in their own ways they do not have those things.

Animals do not know right from wrong. My dog knows that she cannot poop in the house, but she doesn't know WHY it's bad to do that. She only knows that she gets in trouble if she does. The proof is that animals keep doing bad things if we don't teach them not to. If they understood why something was wrong, they just wouldn't do it. But as it stands, they only stop doing bad things when they start getting in trouble for it.

You are right, animals think and feel and love. The religious deny it, because that would make humans less special. And that would mean the things we've done to this planet and it's other animal inhabitants are very wrong. It's a common theme in many religions, humans are special and deserve to be on top. When in fact we are just another animal. Sounds like you are starting to wake up to their lies a bit, you are in for a ride.

Animals do have certain virtues that are truly admirable, but it's true that they can't help but follow their instincts immediately, without a choice. When they are hungry, they eat, when their bladder is full, they pee, when they feel the need to reproduce, they do so. Whereas humans can wait and choose not to follow their instincts, which is unique in the animal kingdom, hence the fact that we are humans. Although, animals could wait as well, but not really for long.