re: Stunning Admission By Renowned Atheist; Decline of Christianity is Hurting Society

A conscience is unique to the human species. I dont agree with the modern attempt to include beings other than humans into the realm of conscience beings just because some have awareness. Awareness is not the inner understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Animals act on instinct and conditioning. They do not act on a moral basis of right and wrong. Humans do that...and only humans. It is the battle of spiritual good vs evil that has occurred since humans were created. We are the only lifeform that have this conflict built in at conception. All of the things that you mentioned are decisions made based on the level of morality that you exercise on a daily basis. You know and feel emotions based on these decisions. Animals do not. They don’t have the emotional conflict part of the equation. They only learn repercussions or likely repercussions of their actions and adapt their behavior accordingly. A dog is not going to stop chewing up your couch because it feels sad that it is messing up your property. It stops because it gets its arse whipped or put in a kennel...or both.