If we fiddle with the genes of chimps and give them human level sentience and speech, would they believe they suddenly have a soul?

We may not be far from being able to do this. What would we expect if we gave chimpanzees our version of the FOXP2 speech gene. Adding sentience is a much heavier haul. It will probably take a good while to figure out which differences in the genomes of humans and chimps account for the rather dramatic differences between the two species—especially since we share 98.5% of the protein coding genetic loci chimps carry. It appears that what we once called junk DNA because it did not code for specific proteins isn’t junk at all, but has a dramatic impact on the phenotypic differences between species. But how all this works will undoubtedly be resolved, and the day will come when we can, should we so decide, endow other species with intelligence similar to that of humans. Would they then think they had a soul? Would they view us as their creator?