Philosophical Question - Amiguing

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A sin is a breach of a contract between man and God. No such contract exists between the other animals and God.

My use of language was remiss then, I still have a problem with the human centric concepts that put animals and machine subservient to them

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Machines are subservient perhaps but not animals.

Doesn't answer the question, if a machine can be sentient?

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Here's one.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0201353776/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1375036389&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY190

Lol but mrs beanbag raises a good point... If we created the sentient machines do they answer to us (as gods) or do we give them the same rights as us?

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And, further, how will we tell?
What if its just a really good simulation of sentient thought?

Ahhh, the Chinese Room argument

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The real problem is determining whether a person is just a part of the information in the brain, or something external (there's our soul again .

Our physical bodies certainly are, but is that all there's to it?

I would suggest looking at what happens when the body, or more specifically the information stored in the brain is damaged... If the person is more than just the information stored in the brain, the I would suggest that the damage or loss of information would have no effect upon the person.

I know from experience that if there is degradation in the information stored in the brain, then we have a stark and often upsetting change in the "person" I once knew. This has a profound effect upon how I view what makes a person, a person!