Is an imagination something that sets animals apart from Humans?

Question

How could something like imagination be evolved?

Answer 1

Creativity and imagination have been given us by God and should always be directed toward the Good.

J.R.R. Tolkien had a theory about creativity that I find beautiful. Through our own creativity we participate in God's overall creative action. We become sub-creators. Here's some material on it.

[J] ust as speech is invention about objects and ideas, so myth is invention about truth.

We have come from God (continued Tolkien), and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed, only by myth-making, only by becoming a ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man ascribe to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbor, while materialistic ‘progress’ leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.

In expounding this belief in the inherent truth of mythology, Tolkien had laid bare the center of his philosophy as a writer, the creed that is at the heart of The Silmarillion. [Some of these ideas are in Tolkien’s poem “Mythopoeia.”]

…he asserted in powerful terms that there is no higher function for man than the “sub-creation” of a Secondary World such as he was already making in The Lord of the Rings, and he gave expression to his hope that in one sense this story and the whole of his related mythology might be found to be “true.” “Every writer making a secondary world,” he declared, “wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.” Indeed he went so far as to say that it was a specifically Christian venture to write such a story as he was now engaged upon. “The Christian,” he said, “may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation.”

One more thought: The people of Bali believe that we are on Earth to make the world beautiful for God. (I find this idea irresistable.)

May God bless you.

Answer 2

No.
Never mind the case of the great apes, both squirrels and crows have shown problem-solving abilities which require *some* degree of imagination and creative thinking.

There are definitions in this area which will exclude the rest of the animal kingdom, but only at the cost of excluding some humans too. And any juggling of categories to include all humanity tends to let at least a few animals slip in.
The divide isn't that clear-cut, unless you insist on it on theological grounds.

From that perspective it's not a problem for evolution, except in the detail: if it was a variant trait that provided an advantage, it would have tended to be selected for, and developed as a result.
Those who didn't always do things the same way would often have been wrong... but evolution doesn't care how many individuals are wasted. A few would have done better than mere repetitious, instinctive programming, or at a later stage, always following their parental or group rearing.
The group can take the ideas of the "winners" at little cost, and once again not care much about the failures.
It has been suggested that it is good for society, though not necessarily for individuals, that a certain proportion of us are manic-depressives.

Answer 3

'Imagination' is rather vague. There is a great book on the subject of what evolutionary trait sets us apart from all other animals called 'Becoming Human' by Ian Tattersall. You should be able to find it at your local library.