Not that I believe in the soul, but when is the exact moment you guys think a soul is created? Is it when a foetus gets feelings? Is it when it can think? Is it when an egg is fertilised; if so, am I walking around with tens of thousands of half-souls in my ovaries?
Also, do animals have souls? If not, then I think the soul cannot be based upon conciousness. By this I mean dogs have more mental capacities than a 3 minute old foetus, so what implications does this have for the soul's creation and nature?
I ask because it's relevant to abortions, but not because I want to hear anything about people's views on abortion, so please don't talk about that.
Thanks, Jenny
That is a very good question.
However, I don't think I can give you a solid answer.
First of all, I can't even prove that we have souls.
Does a person with a genius IQ have a more developed soul than, say, someone with a severe case of Down's Syndrome?
Dolphins are as intelligent as humans, so do dolphins have souls, then, just because of their intelligence?
Personally, I believe that everything that is alive, from an insect to a person, has some version of a soul. I don't believe that one's pet dog, for example, is nothing more than instinct, because they have proven bravery, compassion, sorrow, and emotions that we associate with being "human", and proof of our soul.
When I was studying Buddhism, Buddhists believe that all life is sacred, and would sweep the sidewalk after a rain to avoid stepping on worms, for example. Those who ate meat would say a prayer of thanksgiving for the animal sacrificing its life so that they could live.
It sounds silly, but I practiced this for a short while, and while waiting for a bus, an inchworm and accidentally gotten lost, and instead, found my hand. I carried it to a safer grassy area. What followed was this: if I was able to care about the life of a small inchworm, I cared even more about other humans, and how I could help them for its own sake, because their life was sacred, to me, and to God.
I have noticed as well that those who see animals as things to control, dominate, hunt and eat, animals with no real emotion but only being low IQ robots running on instinct, people who refused to thank the animal for giving it life, or who enjoyed flushing a frog down the toilet for fun, tended to then transfer that lack of respect, lack of reverence, onto other people. They said what they wanted and didn't care who got hurt, took what they wanted, said they didn't need to share or refused to help anyone if it didn't benefit themselves.
I believe that it is very simplistic to say a 4 cell zygote is a person, but equally simplistic to say that it is not. When the soul enters is something that only God can answer, and we can only speculate.
However, the issue, especially when it comes to abortion, rarely is voiced by a teen experiencing pregnancy, or a husband trying to decide between the life of the baby or his wife, etc. It is usually shouted with large signs by people that don't talk to the women, don't have compassion for the women, or have any idea what it is like to be in that position. Rather, they hold up signs of condemnation to make themselves feel superior. These same people will later talk about how pregnant unwed mothers shouldn't have babies, how single mothers are stealing their money through welfare to feed her children, etc. Those who view a zygote/embryo as a "human being" often don't have a funeral if the baby is lost in the first month or two, sometimes even flushing it away.
There is also a strange tendency for those with such a position to want to execute people, caring more for the unborn than the born.
I have a radical view that I can in no way support.
I believe that all of us are connected, like cells of God, if you will. I'm unsure of my stand on reincarnation, but it would make sense that a soul would evolve from a lowly animal to a dog, to a person, and then evolve beyond that. I have ocassionally, during meditation, felt that I am also my father, my grandfather, and going all the way back to Adam.
Buddhism teaches that everyone that you meet was probably a close family member at one time, and when you start looking at the human race as the human family, you naturally care about their well being, and naturally give 3x what is asked, like you mom trying to push food off on you at Thanksgiving.
I can't give you a pat answer any more than I can tell you the exact instant a boy becomes a man.
I personally value my cat over most humans I know, so maybe I do think they have a soul 
