What was the importance of many earlier religions to combine animals and humans in a form? For instance the Sphinx or gods with human bodies and the head of a bird were some earlier themes.

We do similar things now in cartoons, by giving animals human traits.

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Well you can also see this today in representations in Hinduism...basically there is a kind of symbolic meaning attached to various animals and legends of course are attached to them... Most people throughout the ages have been illiterate and more affected by symbols rather than a simple text of words...so the messages are conveyed through these symbolic ways.

- Art

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
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There must be something to it . Lord Ganesh has an elephant nose and a mouse and is a God of intelligence in India .

I wondered how this East Indian God made of dirt moulded into the shape it is today .

A person made the Lord Ganesha or Ganesh out of dirt and Lord Ganesh is respected today .

It is difficult ro comprehend how over a million people worship Lord Ganesh ,,from our simple perspsective ,but it is real .

Personally l feel Lord Ganesh is very real and gives us people collectively a look at how our Eternal Lord reveals Himself as a presentation of Himself , be it a monkey or a man with an elephant or whatever .

Since there are so may Gods and God's presentation of Himself we live in , almost all Faiths are real as a presentation of our Lord in the "Matter" we call Life here on Earth .

With that we get all Religions as a presentation of God so we can see and feel Him in our hearts be it in India culture to African Zulus we see God in Earthly presentation .

So pass me a banana and be happy as we are all represented in God's presentation of Himself here on Earth .

Perhaps animals are Holy . They are certainly sweet and cute and have feelings and hurt just like us .

But they are in a purer natural way where they do not apply the cruel concepts of living and wanting more as we Humans do .

And l believe animals can be closer to God in the sense that in the transportation system of thought to verbal words we can see this in the animals .

The older Nations realised that animals had a close communication with God and they made some animals in this image of a presentation of God .

Our ancestors were very intelligent and show this in their symbols of God be it Lord Ganesh or whoever.
There is so much more to the animals then we see you would be quite surprised .

And l love my 5 pound dog Mooskee and l do feel Mooskee has a communication with our Lord .

Animals yes , a presentation of God just as we and the flowers etc are too .

I think that the combining of animals with humans was to intice an emotional response. We have a cultural basis for associating certain animals with human traits, and by combing the two an emotional response is inticed from the observer based on those associations.

Example: If I drew a picture of a man's body and a lion's head, what would it make you feel or think of?

Your response to that would then imbody the attributes of that God.

Example: Names are also important. If I said "Transportatia" to you, what do you feel and think of?

More God/dess symbolism.