What characteristics or qualities does something need to have in order to be considered a human?

Well, for starters it needs to have a complete set of the human genome.

The development of a large prefrontal cortex.

Aggrad08 said:

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The ability to brew and enjoy beer

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EOT

Had this beer last night. Mmmm mmmm mmmm

Martin Q. Blank said:

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Made in the image of God.

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That's what makes a God, not a human.

Aggrad08 said:

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The ability to brew and enjoy beer

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http://www.livescience.com/51146-chimps-get-drunk.html

I guess beer is a step up from palm wine, but still...

A conscience.

TampaBayAg said:

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time, chance, matter and whether or not the mom wants to be burdened.....

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Translation: Slime over time

The appropriate 16s rRNA sequence

26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so. 31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

I got the vote for best answer. Nice.

I voted for TexAgs91's response to your answer.

We now have an excellent assembly of the human genome and not a bad chimpanzee assembly.. Less than 2% difference in DNA sequence. Is the answer to OP in that 2%?

peachbasket said:

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We now have an excellent assembly of the human genome and not a bad chimpanzee assembly.. Less than 2% difference in DNA sequence. Is the answer to OP in that 2%?

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Assembly required. All of these uses of similarities in base design actually points to a designer. Eureka!

The Marshall Tucker Band does not get near enough praise these days.

Weird reply to DNA question, Army. Assembly of DNA data speaks to the accuracy of the sequence, which is getting pretty good in a lot of mammals. My question should be restated as "is the difference in a human and a non-human in the DNA?" If so, your original question will likely be answered in a few years.

Thanks all. Made in the image of God makes the most sense.