page_title: Dogs in religion
section_title: Criticism of religion
hierarchical_section_title: Dogs in religion / Criticism of religion
context_page_description: Dogs, which are humanity's first and most-common domestic animals, have played a role in many religious traditions.
context_section_description: The Ancient Greek philosopher and critic of social mores Diogenes of Sinope was recorded as living with many dogs, seeing their freedom from self-consciousness and sincere enjoyment of simple physical pleasure to be admirable role models.
  In an article in the New York Times Magazine atheist Natalie Angier quoted Frans de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University:
  "I've argued that many of what philosophers call moral sentiments can be seen in other species. In chimpanzees and other animals, you see examples of sympathy, empathy, reciprocity, a willingness to follow social rules. Dogs are a good example of a species that have and obey social rules; that's why we like them so much, even though they're large carnivores."
  In 1808 the English poet Lord Byron expressed similar thoughts in his famous poem Epitaph to a Dog:
  But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,
  
  The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
  
  Whose honest heart is still his master's own,
  
  Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
  
  Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,
  
  Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth –
  
  While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,
  
  And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven.
caption: A Newfoundland, the breed Byron eulogized, painted by Edwin Henry Landseer, 1802–1873
exif: {}