Do Animals Have Souls?

Cryptic · 08-04-2009, 10:17 PM

This cam up in the "Is Meat Murder" thread on here... I thought it was a very interesting topic as there are many theories on it...

Do animals have 'souls'?

Some people call a soul your consciousness, for some it is a religious attachment to one's self. What if you try to place this in relativity to Bingo or Cuddles, your cute and loving pets?

I think yes, animals have 'Souls' in a relative term. Why? Because they can feel emotion. They can learn. They have clear, cognitive responses to fear, pain, love, loss... there is no way they don't possess something more than just instincts. Despite not being able to communicate with humans, they display many of the same emotions.

I'm going to use my ferrets as an example.

Taz knows his name, he knows my voice, he also positively recognizes my mother, father and brother as different beings. He comes when called and will follow me around the house. He has his favorite toys and his favorite beds. He recognizes me as his human, but my mom is not (He will come to me instead of her when we both call him).

Abby is much the same, but in a different manner. She also knows her name, has her favorite toys that differ from Taz's. She knows that my mom is her human, but I am not (She goes to my mom rather than me when called).

Both have felt loss. Taz was severely depressed when we lost our first ferret, he will still look for him if we say "Mooki" out loud. Abby was lost without Taz when Taz was gone to have surgery, she would literally wander the cage and room for hours looking in his hidey-holes. When he came home, she did not leave his side.

Many of these behaviours are very similar to infants. They recognize "mommy" and "daddy." They smile at things they like and have favorite things.

For these reasons, yes, I do believe animals to have 'souls' in the relative sense of haveing a consciousness as well as a subconscious (they dream as well).

thiswine41 · 08-05-2009, 12:16 AM

Well if you're talking about the soul, the spiritual one, then I totally don't think animals have it, even humans don't.

And what you just told us about your pets, I don't think it's about them having a soul. I think it's just because they have brains. The way those animals reacted when they hear names and all, is just because of their Explicit Memory.

Blo · 08-05-2009, 03:53 AM

I believe that every living thing has a soul, and that they will go to heaven, except plants

And that kinda stuff.

I mean everything that can think and feel on there own right? I mean your dog knows if your made at it or not, and they can learn basic tricks and even not so basic ones.

I would like to think when i die my pets wold be there too. XD

Rbd · 08-05-2009, 08:34 AM

Yes animals have souls and will be with us in heaven, just like humans. ALL sentient beings have souls.

thiswine41 · 08-05-2009, 09:58 AM

You seem so sure with what you're saying. Do you have any proofs or at least a link that shows a valid study which proves that living beings have souls?

Purple · 08-05-2009, 10:42 AM

Anything has a soul, do trees have souls, yes, i some way. anything living has a soulk in my opinion. xD

Cryptic · 08-07-2009, 01:48 AM

Any, living, breathing creature I believe has the capacity to make conscious decisions as to how a certain situation will play out. The "soul" in a relative sense, is based on the conscious and subconscious intuition and desires. So, relatively speaking, every creature has a soul. Although, I do not believe that it stretches to plantlife. The lack of a brain or conscious awareness of anything... tends to step on that. A plant cannot decide if it will "eat" some more nutrients in the soil. Plantlife is basic chemistry at work. Cells multiply and divide... but I do not think a plant has a "soul." Sure they are alive... but there is no thought process... no mechanism to react to certain situations... although M. Night Shalmayan poses that they can in his movie "Event Happening."

Your thoughts?

dsi · 08-07-2009, 01:54 AM

i belive every living thing has a soul, except maybe plants...

Stevo · 08-10-2009, 07:03 PM

This is a good debate question. Anyway, I think that animals do have souls and that is the reason why they make such good companions to humans.

Dogs, for example, can learn tricks and at least the dogs I know, seem to really express their feelings which I think could be impossible if they didn't have a soul.

They have their own way of expressing their feelings and react to things just like we react to things, although they also tend to go with their instincts as well.

Besides, every animal is unique, whether it's their temperament or their physical appearance. I think this shows that they have souls, because if animals relied solely on their instincts, then all animals would be the same. If every single species of animal already had a predetermined attitude, it would be pointless to have pets since raising them and making them unique is part of the process of owning a pet.

I think that part of being a pet owner is raising your pet so that its soul is happy and the owner and the pet have a healthy relationship. So that's why I think that animals have souls, because humans helped them get one.

Burningbush · 08-14-2009, 12:35 AM

Everything has a soul people just think that they only have souls and animals don't they feel? Cause I see animals have feelings

I always think that everything living has a soul