When you were fourteen your brain was not even mature yet. It takes twenty years for the brain and your glands to mature. So decisions you made at fourteen are hardly reliable.
What you do with the rest of your life will count a lot more.
And all people know there is a God. It is a matter of admitting it or not. But no man has an excuse before Him regarding His reality!
Most of your 'rebuttal' was silly and you were either using special pleading or ignorance of the issue to try to make your points. They are not reasonable enough to respond to. I do have a feeling you are still quite young, though, from several things you said...
However, a couple of points:
I was not arguing intelligence in animals. I was arguing logic and creativity as desired and conscious expression of their unique personalities. Yes, they have unique personalities and this comes through when we work with them. But after many years of working with animals as well as children, I have yet to see even the most elementary expression of an animal that it DESIRES to express its individuality in some creative way. This, however, comes through in a child anytime from eighteen months of age on. The fact that we can see evidences of individuality in animals is not an indication that any of them desire to express this individuality creatively.
In short, man's creativity is unique to him and did not arise from any supposed evolutionary background. Man's sense of beauty is the same -- unique to him and did not arise from any evolutionary background.
If that were not so, then there would be genes for beauty appreciation and genes for creativity, no? If you think there are, feel free to find them for us.
Yes, by the way and know about Koko and company. They have been trained and rewarded for their behavior for years. They are doing what they have been trained to do and what they will be rewarded for. That is not exactly the same -- it is not nearly the same -- as the desire in a man to express himself artistically. These apes do not have that desire. They have the desire for companionship as they have been deprived of their normal lives and only have humans for permanent companions. Thus, they seek to continue that companionship and please their companions. When you are aware of a gorilla, or any other animal, spontaneously desiring to express itself artistically, let me know about that, too, OK?
2. Diminishing returns is a financial concept. We were talking about passing on one's genes. That is evolution's purpose according to evolutionists. And that has NOTHING to do with finances. In fact India should be seen as incredibly successful in terms of evolution. They have allowed the poorest and deformed to live and die in the street while the more privileged have 'elevated' themselves. Nevertheless, their unchecked birth rate has made them quite populous! China feels it must limit its birth rate. They allow one child per family, so a lot of little girls are discarded or killed. That's a great way for a society to pass on its genes.
The idea of diminishing returns is one which has to do with the here and now and has nothing to do with the evolutionary concept of passing on genes. To try to bring that into the discussion is a red herring of rather large proportions.