Why humans are so distinct from other species?

[Anomalocaris]

We're also likely the only animal to invent religion. That's got to count, like, ten internets against us.

If we accept the contemporary argument that the sense of self is a delusion derived from post-hoc narrative, and it is our belief in the self that is the key cognitive mechanism, then by extension we have to accept that self-aware animals, that also believe in their own delusion of the 'self', have 'systems of belief'.

Of course, I'm playing semantics with the word 'belief' but it's probably naive of us to assume pack-animals do not have belief based social constructs, and isn't that essentially what 'religion' is?

Plus it's really fun to mull over the thought that the very arguement used by many religious people to prop up their anthropocentric dogma (self-awareness) could be the construct that provides the theory that animals have religion.

That possibility amuses me greatly.


MM

So in your estimation, it is impossible for a human with a concept of self to not have a religion.