To both the atheists & religious ...?

Question

Why do you think we have consciousness? When exactly during the timeline of evolution did consciousness begin, and HOW?

How is it that humans simply "developed" consciousness somewhere along the line and why do most animals not have it? And I don't just mean advanced thought and brain capacity, I mean self-awareness and consciousness.

Any good answers?

Answer 1

Humans are not the only animal to have developed self-awareness. Elephants, dolphins, apes, and monkeys have also demonstrated their ability to recognize themselves (in mirrors, for example).

Self-awareness developed along with increased brain capacity, increasingly complex social groups, and fewer predators. In smaller animals with more predators and competitors for food, it would simply not be beneficial to convert space in the brain from survival instincts to self-awareness issues. Being able to recognize oneself in the mirror is not nearly as important as being able to recognize predators and prey.

Consciousness is probably more of a continuum, with humans at one end and one-celled beings at the other, than an on/off switch. Humans are more self-aware than dogs are; dogs are more aware of their place in society than slugs are, and so on. In any case, there is still plenty of room for research in this field; consciousness studies on animals have been fairly limited so far. I can only imagine what more we will learn about animals consciousness in the coming decades.

Edit: Oops, I forgot the African Gray Parrots. They belong in the "tested positive for self-consciousness" group, too.

Answer 2

It isn't too diificult to see how increasingly complex behaviour patterns like using tools, weapons etc. would lead to an increase in intelligence as behaviour patterns result in the formation of neural pathways in the brain-multiply that over thousands of generations and that intelligence become more advanced to the state of being consciously aware .That combined with the fact that mankind was the apex predator who monopolised the available food resources meant that the basic building blocks for new brain tissue-proteins and amino acids were always available so humanity was always destined to have a level of intelligence far above other species. Importantly there is also a particular gene that programmes humans for increased brain growth and it changes ever so many thousand years-the last change was about 6000 years ago and at present only half of humanity has the new variation although it is dormant at present it clearly has soe implicatins for the future of mankind and our intellectual development.

Answer 3

I propose a variation on a gedankenexperiment that Marvin Minsky proposed years ago. Suppose that you are seated at a computer terminal, exhanging messages with something on the other end. Could you reliably determine whether that something is a person or an intelligent computer program? You probably could not. Now, suppose that the something claims to have consciousness. Do you believe it? If you don't know that it is a computer, of course you do. But suppose that it is a computer? The bottom line: I propose that consciousness is a natural part of intelligence applied to sensory input, and even my cat has some consciousness of self.

Answer 4

I am still not certain about what is meant by conciousness. I think maybe we, as human. recognized only that which is close to us.
Like how kids don't recognize trees as living and then think that they die every winter and finaly recognize that they survive winter but eventually do die. How should I know when an animal is concious, and self aware. Is the ability to recognize itself in a mirror a true test. If so, many people would fail.

Answer 5

First, you assume we are the only ones who have consciousness, and that animals and other lifeforms don't.

You have to define the different levels of "conscious". Most lifeform has a form of consciousness, and below that is "reaction". I think we humans are just a more complicated series of reactions fueled by cause and effect forces in nature.

And therefore, we feel "concious", but to a more advanced lifeform, we may look to them, what rocks look like to us.....lifeless.

Answer 6

during our creation,we were given many functions.Sight Speech,Touch etc. you know the rest. Also we were given internal functions such as feelings(sadness,fear,hate etc.)conciousness was developed for all these areas by experience.whenever we have emotion,conciousness steps in to allow us the memory of the experience and how that made you feel.I believe animals have conciousness as well or they would continue to poop on the floor if a memory were not there to remind them of the consequences for that behavior. Somewhere we all no instinctively that memory guides us.viola!!! consciousness!! think about it Peace!!

Answer 7

Self-awareness isn't a human-only trait, and tell you what... you define consciousness in an emperically testable manner, and we'll talk.

Answer 8

I'm pretty sure that my cat is aware of itself, and the last time I checked, she was not unconscious.

Animals need to be aware of themselves for the sake of self preservation. Otherwise, they get selected out (become extinct).

Answer 9

Koko the gorilla has definitely shown self-awareness. She refers to herself in the first person.

~ Surani

Answer 10

When you look at the Book of Gen. In creation... where it talks about God creating the animals ect.... it says he created them and saw that they were good.... end.

But when it came to man.... the scriptures specifically state.... God created man from the dust of the earth.... then he breathed life into his nostrils.
Man is the only creation where this is said... that God himself breathed life into man..... all other things were created.... man had a part of God placed within him.... Gods breath of life.... this is where we are seperated from the animals.

God bless