Do animals have souls?

Do you believe that animals have souls? Or are souls uniquely human?

Originally Posted by 2445

Do you believe that animals have souls? Or are souls uniquely human?

This is a very interesting question once it is looked at from Biblical perspective.

In Hebrew soul is nephesh.

In Genesis there are references to animals as nephesh.
In v.20, 21, 24. I underlined them.
It is translated in English as "creatures", "thing".

In other languages, as Russian for example, it is translated as soul.

Yet these souls are not uniquely human. But "structurally" speaking (whatever 'structurally' means ) animals appear to have souls.

GE 1:20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning--the fifth day.
GE 1:24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Thanks,
Ed

Very cool Edial, that is so neat to know.

I'm not sure 2445 if you're wondering if they'll be with us in heaven; but the bible says God withholds no good thing from his children, and so I've no doubt we'll see our pets in heaven.

We know from Revelation are animals in heaven or will be, and we know God created these precious animals which love unconditionally;

God is so good!

Moved to Christian Advice.

I have always heard that animals have spirits but not souls

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What's the difference?

Animals do not have souls, I believe. They are unique to humans. And for good reason.

If they had souls, one would think these would be "horrid, unspeakable acts". Meh, I'm no good at explaining my point correctly. But this IS something to consider.

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Ummm... unless someone wants to go "definition nazi" on us, I'm going to say little to none.

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In regards to Maggey Byrde, from Phoenix Wright 3:
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SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY...

This is a typical topic for it!
Edial, thanks for presenting information before opinion... these soul conversation get hairy -- most of our information on souls was taught, not read directly in scriptures.

People with near-death visions of heaven see animals, but that's not conclusive evidence, or proof that specific pets have an afterlife.

From experience, I see that pets can show remorse, joy, appreciation, and emotional protectiveness toward their owners. Our dog did a funny thing -- if we gave her something good in her dish, she would run back into the room afterward to give us a quick thankyou. That was a cognitive skill, and an act not based on cause and effect. (As a trained trick for reward would be.)

Some animals use programmed responses to stimuli, but more intelligent animals make decisions with reason, and have more distinct personalities. At that point, it seems the discussion about the soul is more about an afterlife, or responsibility for actions.

2445- welcome here!

I googled this and thought it was interesting.


I can prove to you that animals have souls, and it's actually not very difficult. There are certain activities of our mental life that are clearly defined and are clearly not physical, therefore they cannot reside in our physical bodies. Those activities include beliefs, intentions, desires and sensations. In other words, we experience feelings. We have beliefs about things. Based on those beliefs we may have a desire that we feel also, and that desire brings forth an intention to fulfill that desire.

A characteristic of soulish beings is to have mental activity that consist of beliefs, intentions, desires, sensations . . .

Now an intention or a belief or a desire or a sensation are not the kind of things you are going to bump into in the hall. It doesn't have weight, it doesn't occupy any space. You don't brake for these things. They are non-physical things, like ideas and numbers and propositions, and things like that. Since they don't exist in the physical world they cannot be accessed by the physical senses. So, since you have beliefs, intentions, desires and sensations--and you are clearly accessing them, and you are accessing them in a way that is not physical--then part of you is not physical either. The part of you that is non-physical is your soul.

A characteristic of soulish beings is to have mental activity that consist of beliefs, intentions, desires, sensations and one other which I can't recall. The point being, anything that has beliefs, intentions, desires or sensations must also have a soul to possess those things.
It doesn't seem to make any sense to say that a plant has beliefs about its world, or that it has intentions. One would ask, if it had an intention how would it ever fulfill it? It doesn't pick things up and eat them. It doesn't move to a new location where it's more comfortable, therefore it doesn't seem to have desires about things. It's not even clear that plants have sensations. Now, when I say a sensation, what I mean is the felt quality of a thing. It is possible for a plant to be cut in one portion of it and for another portion to wither, but because it withers it doesn't mean that it's experiencing pain. That may be merely a physical response to a physical stimulus. It is possible to have stimulus response relationships in non-animate objects, but only animate, living objects can even have pain. So, if inanimate objects can have stimulus response kinds of things, then animate objects can have stimulus response reactions with no felt pain either. So it may be that there's a physical stimulus that goes through the plant's system that results in the wilting of the leaves even though the plant is not consciously feeling any pain. In any event, it seems to make no sense, given the qualities of the mental life that I've just mentioned, to talk about plants having them. And therefore, it does not seem to make sense to argue that plants have souls. However, it seems to make entire sense that animals have those things--that animals have beliefs about things, that they have intentions, that they have desires, that they have sensations.

Also, animals have different kind of souls than human beings. Human being souls are made in the image of God and they live forever, they are everlasting. Animal souls are not made in the image of God, and we have no evidence that I can tell that they are everlasting.

When Pavlov rang his famous bell, the dog salivated because it believed it was about to get some food. As a result of that belief it set up a response in its body to produce the saliva. When the dog sees the food placed before him, it moves toward the food because it has an intention to eat, and there is desire of hunger inside of it that motivates the intention. As it eats, it chooses one food rather than another -- and you cat owners know about that -- because one food tastes better than another to the cat. Therefore it has sensation, too. In other words, animals have all of these things that are qualities and characteristics of the mental life. They have beliefs, they have intentions, they have desires, they have sensations--or they appear to. Since these things are not physical things, they are non- physical things and they must exist in the animal in the non-physical space that is real. That non-physical place is a soul. Ergo, animals have souls like human beings have souls.
But there are different kinds of souls--even in human beings. I think female souls are different than male souls. This is what encourages our valid generalizations about the differences between male and female, because the differences that we point out are soulish differences, not differences merely in plumbing or chemistry. Also, animals have different kind of souls than human beings. Human being souls are made in the image of God and they live forever, they are everlasting. Animal souls are not made in the image of God, and we have no evidence that I can tell that they are everlasting.

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