Do Animals Believe In Supernatural Beings?

Cat: a ghost's only natural predator. Carbon monoxide poisoning or your cat scared away a ghost: you choose.

This question has been bobbing around at the back of my mind for a couple of days.
(I originally wrote a longer post - but I think it obscured and not clarified.)Are chimps similar enough to 'early' humans that they develop supernatural beliefs in a similar way?
If so:
Their god would be created because of something that they don't understand by a pattern dependant brain finding patterns where there are none.
Their god would be modelled using a chimpocentric point of view.They would be trying to appease and/or communicate with their god.
This would appear to be irrational to anyone else viewing this behaviour.Do we have any evidence of chimps (as a group) behaving irrationally?
Do we have any evidence of chimps behaving as if there was an invisible chimp?
(These questions are equally relevent to any animal.)Edited by Panda, : No reason given.Edited by Panda, : No reason given.

I read the elephant link (the ape link is broken).
There doesn't appear to be any obviously irrational behaviour described relating to elephants.
(Standing around a dead elephant could be interpretted as a lack of understanding that the death is permanent.)I've started searching the interwebs, and so far I have only found a reference to possible irrational choices made by animals.I will dig further...

What 'it' are you referring to?
(This is not one of those 'Jon' questions where I end up asking you to define every word in your sentence.)

I agree that the stated elephant behaviours are open to multiple interpretation.My suggestion (speculation) is that if they were behaving in a religious manner, then it would appear inexplicable/irrational to us (unless we involve religion).If we saw a chimpanzee kneeling with their hands pressed together and making quiet noises, would we be able to explain that behaviour without mentioning religion?

Ok, a hypothetical situation:
If we saw wild chimpanzees kneeling with their hands pressed together and making quiet noises: what would be the explanation (without mentioning religion)?Edited by Panda, : No reason given.

(I think I misunderstood your previous point.)
So, you agree that we could identify if animals were behaving irrationally (as opposed to 'hunting', etc.).Ok: the other part of my 'hypothesis' was that their gods would be Chimpocentric - their gods would be based on themselves.So my 'speculation' would mean that we should see chimps behaving in a manner as if there was an unseen chimp.
e.g. Leaving favourite chimp food in a tree which no chimp eats.Edited by Panda, : No reason given.

So, what reason could be given for chimps putting good food in a tree and then not eating it (maybe even then going off and eating food)?You seem to be arguing that we cannot identify what animals are doing unless we can talk to them - which is patently untrue.
Why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifyable?Edited by Panda, : No reason given.Edited by Panda, : typo

'Pretend' religious behaviour is still religious behaviour - and the reasons people fake religious behaviour is because of existing religious beliefs and behaviour (in themselves or others).You cannot (sincerely or otherwise) behave religiously unless religion exists - by definition.Edited by Panda, : clarity

But we were discussing "Do animals behave religiously".
We have been discussing this for a while.
I am left wondering why you (only now) consider it off-topic. I am not trying to ascribe my beliefs: I am trying to interpret animal behaviour.
Identification of animal behaviour is done all the time by people all over the world.So why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifiable?

So why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifiable? Yes, and I showed you why you were wrong and you replied that I was off-topic.
Why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifiable? And how is mating behaviour different to group behaviour?
But we happily talk about mating behaviour and group behaviour.
Why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifiable? ...but we can identify all other kinds of behaviour without the knowledge gained by communication.
Why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifiable?Edited by Panda, : No reason given.

And yet we have identified animals doing all of those things.
(I would provide links, but google is full of them. Just type "animal dance", "animal buildings", etc.)Why do you think that religious behaviour is uniquely unidentifiable?Edited by Panda, : No reason given.Edited by Panda, : No reason given.

So: how do we determine religious behaviour (from other behaviour)...?...and we are back to the start. Message 92
Well, that was fun, but I CBA to go 'round again.

Yup.
And it would be easy enough to test for:Are there any humans in the area doing what the chimps are doing?
If no, "could we reasonably infer religious behaviours and associated sorts of beliefs on the basis of comparison with humans?"