Do Animals have souls

[orcafan]

Hey Jubbers what do you think on this topic.

Do animals have souls like human beings?

My reasons for believing they do are as follows

1) Animals do not tie humans to cars and drag them around.
2) Animals do not pour gasoline on humans and light them
3) Animals are capable of love, feeling, emotions and everything.
4) you can have the worst day ever and your animal will still come to you and lick your hand.

5) the bible says animals have souls it can be found Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 (New International Version)

19 Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath [a] ; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"
and i am glad to hear that. So what do you all think? Will we be seeing our late pets oneday in heaven?

 

[Telstra]

yes they do.

dog can dream like i saw on that video clip.

 

[Yooper]

Yes. Yes they do.

I've been dealing with a VERY old doggie the last six months.

After her BAD experience at the groomers, she has been coming over to me. Despite her problems, she LURVES me scratching her in just the right place. Her eyes tell me she is tired but she isn't finished yet.

She still won't let us fix her up, but she doesn't seem to care. She still has that unconditional love. She knows we tried to help her.

Yes, Animals are critters with souls.

In case you missed it:

http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255123

 

[orcafan]

yooper that is a very sad thing with that dog, yip i missed that story and
just read it. at least animals have souls. lets hear all the voices of jubbers out there.

 

[timmeh]

I think it's important to define the nature of the soul before its derteminable whether animal posess them or not.

I'm not religious, so for me, the soul is the part of the human psyche that manifests as self-awareness. The soul is what allows humans to be introspective and aware of the significanceof their own emotional, physical and spiritual selves.

Looking at it from that perspective, animals don't have a soul - they exhibit particular aspects of self-awareness, however they are not aware of the significance of these aspects of awareness - and by extension they cannot ever achieve 'enlightenment' (complete self-awareness) which is the ultimate point of the concept of 'the soul'.

Just my $0.02 worth, take it or leave it

-tw

 

[theworldwithout]

Since I personally believe that humans don't have souls, I believe animals don't have them either.
I think most people confuse conscience with "soul".

 

[rareboy]

Of course they do.

 

[Lukeee]

People don't have souls and neither do animals.

 

[belamy]

...........

 

[EwanSF]

That's under the assumption that we have them too...if so, aye, why not? There's nowt special about us when you get down to it, so if we've got them, so do they.

 

[Paws]

Neither humans nor animals have souls.

 

[belamy]

Looking at it from that perspective, animals don't have a soul - they exhibit particular aspects of self-awareness, however they are not aware of the significance of these aspects of awareness - and by extension they cannot ever achieve 'enlightenment' (complete self-awareness) which is the ultimate point of the concept of 'the soul'.

According to that there are far less than 6 billion humans in the world right now.

 

[HOT4MEN]

Yes they do! I hope to see them in Heaven!

"If all the beasts were gone, man would die from loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast, happens to the man."
--Chief Seattle


"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
--Ghandi

 

[belamy]

Yes they do! I hope to see them in Heaven!

"If all the beasts* were gone, man would die from loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast*, happens to the man."
--Chief Seattle


"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals * are treated."
--Ghandi

*human cattle (cf. #15)

 

[Beachguyj]

no.................

 

[belamy]

no.................

you animal.................

 

[frankfrank]

I'm not sure how to answer the question.

I definitely believe that we humans have souls. I also think of animals such as dogs, elephants, etc. also having souls. But that brings up some questions...

Does that also mean that a small animal such as a mouse or a shrew also has a soul?

OK, let's stop talking about only MAMMALS. Does a shark have a soul? What about an eagle? What about a frog or a coral snake?

If sharks, eagles, frogs, and snakes have souls, what about guppies and hummingbirds? There is still a long way yet to go "down" the animal kingdom - what about cockroaches, ladybugs, fruit flies, butterflies, and spiders? The question could be asked all the way down to bacteria.

Yes I believe we have souls, but what criteria make other types of animals "worthy" of being soul-carriers or not? It's something that I've pondered for decades.

It would be interesting to see thoughts from Shepherd2 and perhaps other people who have actually studied religion intensively for most of their lives.

 

[marquismike]

Nope.

I think it has to do with the issue of free will...since most animals act entirely off of instinct to survive and reproduce, one has difficulty saying that an animal has the free will do decide what happens to its soul after death like humans (human souls can follow and cling to God during life and therefore be with Him in the afterlife for eternity or say "no thanks" and go...elsewhere).
I don't think it'd be fair to the animal to give him a soul and then force the soul to go to "heaven" in the afterlife because the animal doesn't have the option of saying no thanks.

Just my thoughts.

 

[Beachguyj]

A soul is human. The chicken and cow you eat do not have souls.

 

[Pushyourluck]

Since I personally believe that humans don't have souls, I believe animals don't have them either.
I think most people confuse conscience with "soul".

I completely agree. Talking about "souls" is kind of like talking about God as if there actually is one. We may have souls in the poetic sense but in the physical sense where exactly is is located? Behind the spleen perhaps?