---As Paul Tells us -- Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:7. This can be applied to the Descartes/La Mettrie debate centuries ago over humans / animals. All this nonsense could have been avoided.
---As for solving the HARD PROBLEM of consciousness -- And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7
"This puzzle — the mystery
of how inanimate matter arranges itself into living beings with
self-aware minds and a rich inner life — is what the philosopher David Chalmers called the “hard problem” of consciousness. 
Descartes considered nonhuman animals as “beast-machines.” The
beast-machine for Descartes was the idea that nonhuman animals were
machines made of flesh and blood, lacking the rational, conscious minds
that bring humans closer to God.
La Mettrie said, “OK, if animals are flesh-and-blood machines, then
humans are animals, too, of a certain sort.” So just as there is a beast-machine, or a bête machine, you also have l’homme machine — “man machine.” He just extended the same basic idea without this artificial division." Quanta
humans are animals, too, of a certain sort.” So just as there is a beast-machine, or a bête machine, you also have l’homme machine — “man machine.” He just extended the same basic idea without this artificial division." Quanta