Questions concerning theistic evolution

[Scholar in training]

Hello, everyone. I'm fairly ignorant about theistic evolution myself, and I have a couple of questions to those who believe that it is true. I'd appreciate it if anyone could answer these questions for me.

1. Do animals have a soul/spirit?
2. If animals do not have a soul or spirit, then when did God give mankind a soul? What I mean is, if you were to take Genesis literally, then you might say that God gave people a soul by actually breathing into Adam's nostrils. If Genesis is not literal and man did evolve from animals (I assume they have no soul) then at what time do you believe God give mankind a rational mind and a soul?

 

[Robert the Pilegrim]

Hello, everyone. I'm fairly ignorant about theistic evolution myself, and I have a couple of questions to those who believe that it is true. I'd appreciate it if anyone could answer these questions for me.

1. Do animals have a soul/spirit?

I don't know.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of support in the Bible for it.
Errr, spirit and soul are not necessarily the same thing. I think the Bible has the animals with one and humans with both. Too tired to look it up.

2. If animals do not have a soul or spirit, then when did God give mankind a soul? What I mean is, if you were to take Genesis literally, then you might say that God gave people a soul by actually breathing into Adam's nostrils. If Genesis is not literal and man did evolve from animals (I assume they have no soul) then at what time do you believe God give mankind a rational mind and a soul?

Good question.
My best guess would be about the time that you start seeing art showing up.

 

[seebs]

I don't have any information about whether animals have souls. C. S. Lewis once argued that, as we become alive in Christ, so some animals may become alive in us. It's an interesting theory.

As to when we got souls, I would say ceremonial burial; when we started burying things with people, because we believed they were still people, not just meat. But I am, of course, guessing. I don't even know when I got mine. (I can make a case for anything from a few years ago through before the universe was made.)

 

[Vance]

You must keep in mind that because TE's do not read Genesis 1 and 2 as strict literal narrative, this does not mean that we don't believe that it is describing real events. Many of us read the text as a figurative, typological, symbolic and poetic telling of real events. So, I would believe that at some point along the way, God took some action which He later describes symbolically and poetically as "breathing". I think you would agree that it is unlikely that God took on human form just so He could have actual lungs from which to literally "breath" into Man. Even most strict literalist would agree that this is figurative for some other action. Probably an action which would be difficult to describe to us, or simply one for which the "breathing" concept is fully explanatory in every real sense and very impactful. In short, it gets the point across.

Or, it could be that God built into the design process the point at which a critical mass would happen and the soul would come into being. I am inclined to think it was a direct intervening act, though.

As for when this happened, I have no idea, and I don't really think it is necessary for us to know.

 

[Scholar in training]

As for when this happened, I have no idea, and I don't really think it is necessary for us to know.

Thank you for the comments.

However, I am not talking about breathing. I am talking about having a soul (my assumption is that animals do not have eternal souls). I'm asking this: if theistic evolution is true, then I can accept the fact that humans gained rational minds over time. But I do not understand when humans may have gained a soul. Was that also over time or was it at one point in time? What are your speculations on this question?

 

[seebs]

Thank you for the comments.

However, I am not talking about breathing. I am talking about having a soul (my assumption is that animals do not have eternal souls). I'm asking this: if theistic evolution is true, then I can accept the fact that humans gained rational minds over time. But I do not understand when humans may have gained a soul. Was that also over time or was it at one point in time? What are your speculations on this question?

I don't even know when individual humans gain souls, how would I know about the species? I tend to speculate that God gave the first humans souls individually, but... I have no idea, and I'm not sure why I should care. The Bible gives me no information about the potential existence or nonexistence of animal souls; some writers have argued that animals have partial souls, or things similar to undeveloped human souls.

But if I had to guess, I'd guess that, one day, God gave souls to a couple of primates, and that since then, new primates of that species have been born with souls.

 

[Scholar in training]

But if I had to guess, I'd guess that, one day, God gave souls to a couple of primates, and that since then, new primates of that species have been born with souls.

So those animals went to heaven, then? Or their souls will forever exist, no matter where they go?

 

[Vance]

The "breathing" is when God "breathed" His Spirit into Man. Many theologians believe this is when Man gained a soul (even if they believe in a six day creation). Your question is when God did this action, this "breathing" into Man. My answer is basically that it does not really matter as much as the fact that He did.

My guess, though, would be somewhere during the paleolithic, to modern humans. But it really doesn't matter when.

 

[PaladinValer]

Technically, all life forms have a soul. However, modern humanity is the only species with the level of consciousness that it has. It allows us to reason complexly at our own level, which separates us even from other very intelligent animals like other primates, dolphins, and octopi.

A TE would simply argue that God guided the evolution of the human species specifically in mind and breathed the Breath of Life into us. However, unlike all other life forms, we were made in the Image of God; something different than just a soul. God knows the difference between good and evil, and so do we. Other species do not have this capacity as we do.

 

[seebs]

So those animals went to heaven, then? Or their souls will forever exist, no matter where they go?

That is what they tell us. By convention, we call the first two animals given souls "Adam and Eve".