every living thing has a soul


but scientist don't believe there is such a thing though :P

I'd also vote for "self-awareness" and the fears etc. that stem from being aware of every creature's and thus one's own inevitable fate: death, which is said to be exclusive to humans.

Hmmm, I just wonder if the "forbidden fruit of knowledge" that led to Adam and Eve's departure from the paradisiacal garden of Eden is actually primarily an allegory for that insight...

Lots of animals are self aware. In fact I'm kinda disappointed at how primitive society thinks animals are. Most animals have an understanding of their coming death and it is defiantly not exclusive to humans. Elephants for example mourn their dead and have ritualistic behavior about it.

Animals have many complex rituals for mating and the like so why is it so far fetched that they'd have religious rituals? If we can prove animals naturally develop religion we can prove human religion is wrong.

Of course animals have religions.

Cats consider themselves god and like to be worshipped (for examples of this, just browse the internet for 10 minutes!)

Dogs consider their owners to be god which is why they actually follow basic commands.

That's a pretty interesting question. I know, this question is probably thought of a way to make atheists uncomfortable. But as I'm interested in both evolution and the working of the brain/intellect, this is a really amazing question. And I personally think most progress in science comes not from answering questions, but from asking new and interesting questions.

To the topic at hand: I fear the science has no answer ... yet. If we look at the human evolution, we know pretty much about the evolution of the human body, but near to nothing about the evolution of the human mind. There are some interesting things. Early humans first didn't made cave paintings. But at some point they not only started it - fast many human settlements had started to paint into caves. It seems, that they were already able to it. But nobody had the idea. As the first one started to make a painting, this idea got fast around the human population. Could something similar have happened with the religion? Maybe, but I'm not sure. What really happened here is hard to guess.

I think (my theory) that some animals have religions - simple religions with obviously no written history and rules and probably not as institutionalized as human religions. But they may have one. The factors I think are important for a religion to develop are:
a) a social society
b) some form of more advanced communication
c) the ability to learn things from elders
d) a long-term memory
Some of the animals (dolphins, apes, maybe more) have these factors. But we didn't really decode their language. Maybe if we in some future decode the dolphin-language, we learn that they discuss about the great rains that created the world.

And I think you all should read 'The god delusion' from Richard Dawkins. It is no religion-hate-book, but it is some very good explanation, why he himself doesn't believe in religions. I think he had some explanation why a religion may be a positive factor in evolution, but I forgot the details. Read it, it is worth it, if you really in depth think about these things.

Ancient Egypt worshiped animals as gods. Horus "falcon" is one of the oldest deities in ancient Egyptian religion which represents the sky or sun.

I don't know if animals have religion, but I know they are in human religion. Interesting.

Yeah, I came in here to say the same thing. Cats and dogs both practice their own religions. Cats think they are the gods, and dogs think their human pals are the gods.

Name any other species that has invisible friends, and those are the ones capable of believing in religion. There are other species that are just as advanced as us, only in very different ways. It's not about any other living thing being inferior, it's about the fact that humans, alone, believe that their imaginations are real.

How do you not know those meows and woofs aren't actually heated debates about religion?