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Do animals have souls and what is the nature of their souls?

Rainbow Mage

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
Well what do you think? Do they have souls. I think yes. They have an impersonal type of soul like people that is one with the universal force, and then they also have some sort of personal soul. It is clear that they have emotions and certain attachments, so they must also have a personal soul.

Thoughts?
 
Rainbow Mage

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
I don't understand how they can hold this view either. To justify mistreatment of animals I guess. Those who usually take that view also believe the world, including animals, was made especially for them and their use. Like John Muir said, a notion not at all supported by the facts.
 
BruceDLimber

BruceDLimber

Well-Known Member
Animals don't have an eternal soul like humans, no--indeed, this is the difference between humans and animals!

And for the person who asked, the basis of this is scriptural.

Peace, :)

Bruce
 
Noaidi

Noaidi

slow walker
IMO, nothing has a soul. For those that do believe that non-human animals don't and humans do is, to me, just another form of pious, self-elevating, arrogant speciesist poo.
(as I say, just my opinion :D)
 
Rainbow Mage

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
Odion because his Baha'i writings told him so! That means it must be true! And Harry Potter tells me children go to a place called Hogwarts to learn magic. It must be true!
 
Rainbow Mage

Rainbow Mage

Lib Democrat/Agnostic/Epicurean-ish/Buddhist-ish
Bruce yet you as a Baha'i claim that Hinduism and Buddhism, religions that do teach animals have an eternal soul, are religions of God. Go figure!
 
Alex_G

Alex_G

Enlightner of the Senses
Proud 2B Gay said:
Well what do you think? Do they have souls. I think yes. They have an impersonal type of soul like people that is one with the universal force, and then they also have some sort of personal soul. It is clear that they have emotions and certain attachments, so they must also have a personal soul.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Leaving out concerns for any eternal soul that might extend beyond death, we can sensibly see that many animals possess a consciousness, a quality of existence that extends beyond the mere mechanistic or robotic one of brain processes. They can have those qualitative experiences like pleasure, pain, colour, smell, touch. In that respect they have equal importance and rights as we do as humans, and demonstrate that magical quality of being alive that we so often refer to as a soul.

Alex
 
Reptillian

Reptillian

Hamburgler Extraordinaire
BruceDLimber said:
Animals don't have an eternal soul like humans, no--indeed, this is the difference between humans and animals!

And for the person who asked, the basis of this is scriptural.

Peace, :)

Bruce
Click to expand...

Surely if men have anything like a soul, then animals must as well.

To quote the book of Ecclesiastes 3:18-21

I also thought "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 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/spirit; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and all to dust return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"
 
V

Vansdad

Member
I believe that it is our conscious mind that gives us our soul so I don't believe animals have a soul. Even though I do feel they are made up with the same kind of emotions and feelings.
 
Alex_G

Alex_G

Enlightner of the Senses
BruceDLimber said:
Animals don't have an eternal soul like humans, no--indeed, this is the difference between humans and animals!

And for the person who asked, the basis of this is scriptural.

Peace, :)

Bruce
Click to expand...


What constitutes a soul in your eyes?

Alex
 
Penumbra

Penumbra

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Proud 2B Gay said:
Well what do you think? Do they have souls. I think yes. They have an impersonal type of soul like people that is one with the universal force, and then they also have some sort of personal soul. It is clear that they have emotions and certain attachments, so they must also have a personal soul.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Usually when I see a definition of a soul, it either doesn't make sense, or it makes sense but can be discredited.

So animals probably don't have anything that could reasonably be considered a soul, but neither do humans. If humans do have some sort of soul then I see little reason why animals wouldn't, since we're a type of animal.
 
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