To ignore answering would to be ignoring the fundamental distinction in humankind from the animal kingdom.
Are you sure there is a fundamental difference?
I can't see any other than complexity. Apes are conscious too btw, we know this because if we put an animal which isn't conscious into a room with a mirror, and it's aware of the mirror (this has been done, with monkeys I believe), it'll respond as if to another animal.
Chimps, Gorillas and other apes, respond to it
as a reflection of themselves.
Consciousness is defined as "the capability for abstraction".
It is an emergent propery of certain
physical systems. It only occurs (verifiably) in mammals of a certain size, within certain ratios of brain/body size.
In other words, no single component contains consciousness, only at a certain point does the characteristic emerge.
In other words, a car can only attain speed when it is assembled as a car, but no specific part contains a characteristic called "speed", or anything which directly appraoches it.
Only when the system is assembled, and in motion, does the "speed" characteristic emerge.
In cars, the size of the engine, wheel type, break types, gearshift mechanism, all affect the eventual non-material characteristic known as "speed".
In people, the "engine" is the brain, and it's shape and size relative to body mass, all affect the eventual characteristic known as "mind".
(this doesn't imply design tho)
This can be used to predict which animals are more capable of consciouness, and the degree, they should display fairly well.
http://home.onemain.com/~dk1008206/html/dolph1.htmLinks to a fairly nice study.
I must admit I was surprised to note that Dolphins (generally considered the next most intelligent, in line with predictions from the above theory), have had this intellligence for more than 15 million years, which begs the question, Who exactly was this world designed for if it was designed?
Dolphins seem to have spent more time here, are conscious in very similar ways to us, but they don't fight or sin, and they've sussed all this out before we even arrived!!
And lets not forget they regularly help people lost at sea even tho we kill them, for little or no reason.
Perhaps,
they're the ones who got it right, and followed God's laws!?!
Or maybe we all just evolved, and this is simply where we are now.
Another nice link on brain function...
Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections
™ Version 4.2