PhilosophyQuotes for March 12, 2001:

"Religion has its genesis in the essential difference between man and the animal -- the animals have no religion."

"But what constitutes the essential difference between man and the animal? The most simple, general, and also the most widely held answer to this question is _consciousness_."

"...the animal has a simple, but man a twofold, life. In the case of the animal the inner life is one with the outer, whereas in the case of man there is an inner and an outer life. The inner life of man is constituted by the fact that man relates himself to his species, to his mode of being. Man thinks, that is to say, he converses, enters into a dialogue with himself."

-Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), The Essence of Christianity

Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity is available online at Amazon.com.