Today I’ve been thinking about animal intelligence — especially cats. Everyone likes to joke that cats are aloof or simple, but then you see cats like ToddTalks who use communication buttons with toddler-level reasoning. He understands object labels, emotional words, time concepts, even phrases like “I don’t understand” or “help.” He names toys with his own invented words. He expresses grief when something breaks. He reflects. He chooses. He learns.
People underestimate cats so easily, but the cognitive leaps animals make — especially when given tools to communicate — look shockingly similar to early human development.
And that got me thinking about toddlers. Because toddler intelligence and cat intelligence overlap in surprising ways:
But toddlers run all of this at blistering speed. Their brains create new neural pathways constantly. They adapt instantly. They absorb language like it’s nothing. They learn the entire world all at once. And then it hit me:
What if the toddler brain is actually the closest glimpse we have of how God originally designed humans to function? What if humanity was meant to learn, adapt, grow, and create at toddler-level neuroplasticity for our entire lives?
Before sin, nothing decayed. Nothing slowed down. Nothing grew rigid. Nothing lost flexibility. Nothing dulled with age.
So what if the way adults learn now — the slowing, the difficulty, the mental fatigue — isn’t natural at all? What if sin didn’t just break the body… but also stunted the mind?
• The rigidity that comes with age
• The shrinking of creativity
…are not signs of evolution — but scars from a world that no longer matches the beings God designed.
Maybe toddler brilliance wasn’t meant to fade. Maybe it was meant to last forever. And maybe one day — in the world God restores — we’ll get that mind back.
