it brings up whether or not a person has the right to take their own life
Greetings IP!
The book you recommended arrived yesterday, and I’m only halfway through chapter one, but it’s entertaining. I’ve been spot-reading the most intriguing excerpts to my husband. He’s not as interested in the subject matter as I am, but I’m looking forward to making my way through Mr. Wegner’s book. I notice he fails to factor kinetic energy into his equations, or perhaps he’ll get to it later - I do hope so.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the heads up. (The next book I’ll be reading, God-Willing, is ‘Kinds of Minds.’ )
Have a great day! - Jesse.
Those just put pressure on us, to react. They are not a part of me.
Booze puts pressure on me, as well, but it never forces my behavior. I still choose … poorly. 
For the most part, I have decided animals are biological constructs, with full sets of emotion, access to memory, etc. , running like a computer program, on instinct when necessary.
They lack the essential component of self.
Seriously, I am not sure if all human beings have a soul, the way they behave.
This whole conversation … I mean “thread” … reminds me of a scene from Dead Like Me (used to be on Showtime a few years back):
George: So, my whole life, everything, all I get to keep are thoughts and memories?
Rube: That’s all we ever have, peanut.
/I miss the reapers. 
And what would you say is the essential component of self?
Please, no self-serving answers, such as whatever it is that we have that they do not. Or, I don’t know but I know it when I see it.
DSeid,
The essential component. Only word I can come up with is soul, and it is hard to pin down.
Some of the idea is self-serving rationalization, since if I thought fish had a soul, I could not put them in my food chain. Or cattle.
It is too easy just to say animals and plant life do not have souls, because an ancient book says so.
Observed behavior. Certain cultures decided wolves were a people, because of perceived culture. Existance of soul should be shown by behavior.
Hmmm. So at what point did primitive humans or protohumans have enough culture that they were endowed with souls?
If I provide you with evidence of culture within whale groups or elephant societies let alone non-human primates do they also get blessed with souls that they did not have until they evolved some kind of culture? Or does culture get defined as that which we have that they do not?
When does a developing human gets its soul? At conception? If the zygote then twins which one gets the soul and which gets a new one? Or do twins share a soul?
How do you know that there is a soul there other than that thinking of it as not being there serves your self-rationalizations? I wonder … did slave owners believe that slaves did not have souls while they did?
I will go you one better.
I can’t prove to you the I, myself, have a soul. If I do not, I have nothing to lose. I live as though I do.
I must say, it is a question of relative importance, to me.
I have no concept of mortality, internally. I can not conceive thoughts of when I do not exist. I am curious. In my late teens, it used to be a favorite question of mine: What do you want to do, when you die? That question got shoved up by butt one day. I don’t ask, any more. In any event, I have a ticket to find out in a few years. Dead man walking, so to speak.
The above zygote question is why I quit the idea abortion, except in self-defense, i.e., the mother’s life, at her discretion.
As far as I can tell, the fertilized ovum is human. Whether, or not, it is ensouled, I have no idea, and must err on the side of ensoulment.k More rationalization, I suppose. One must live with one’s self.
And here we somewhat agree! I have no belief in a God who is concerned with our affairs or the intercessionary power of prayer - but if some find it helps them then more power to them. Many do. Faith is an adaptive thing whether or not it is based in reality.