Do animals have souls?

[Baradakas]

Aside from the fact that I do not believe in the immortal soul, I was wondering if anyone thought that animals might possess souls/spirits? Do you think they experience an afterlife? Should animals have the same rights as humans?


-B

[Worm of Despite]

It's my view that we're no better than any other creature that lives and dies on this globe. I don't think our greater capacity for knowledge, understanding, etc., makes us better than animals. It's just another survival tool. When compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, our strength is in our technology, not our physicality.

Regarding the soul/afterlife: I don't believe in either, be it animal or human.

As for animal rights: I believe that compassion should be shown to all creatures when possible. Yes, I may eat meat and I may sit in a leather chair, but that doesn't mean it's okay to pour salt on that slug or stamp on that ant hill. There's a difference between taking life for necessity and doing it out of spite.

[Loredoctor]

I don't know if animals have souls, but I think that many animals have a consciousness. Therefore many animals deserve the same rights as us.

[Infelice]

I believe they have something. A soul-less entity cannot love or show devotion or caring for another entity ... and animals are capable of displaying loving, caring behaviour. Whether it is the same emotional quality as the love that humans display is a matter for conjecture, but I know my pets love me and I do believe they have to some degree a soul.

[hierachy]

I voted no, because I don't believe in souls at all.

[Worm of Despite]

I believe they have something. A soul-less entity cannot love or show devotion or caring for another entity ...

I'm not arguing you (well yes I am, but I'm trying to be nice ), but unless it's proven that a soul even exists, one cannot state whether or not souls are required for the showing of devotion, love, and/or caring. I guess it’s okay, though, if you meant that was your belief.

[CovenantJr]

I believe they have souls of some kind (I'll make do with the word "soul" for ease, because a debate on the nature that will have to wait til I have more time), but how similar it is to ours is a different matter.

[Loredoctor]

My feet have souls.

[Skyweir]

LOL

I voted YES .. I believe all living creatures have souls .. even politicians that are living not the walking souless dead

ack just joshin'

I do believe that a soul gives life .. I watched this stupid movie cos of the awesome catch line it had ..

21 grams .. the weight a person loses immediately after death .. the weight of a soul ..

Now I dont know how true that is but it caught my attention!! I believe we are not only the sum total of our genetic make-up but the at some point that life is conceived the metaphorical breath of life .. is the soul.

All living possess a soul ..

[Skyweir]

and er go a consciousness

[Revan]

I don't think any animal has a soul (Take into account that the human being is also an animal)

The way they and we act is through the brain, nothing to do with a soul.

[ZefaLefeLaH]

Especially if you don't use it.

[Avatar]

I believe we are not only the sum total of our genetic make-up but the at some point that life is conceived the metaphorical breath of life .. is the soul...

I agree with you in a sense, but I suppose it depends on our definition of a soul. On the whole, I don't think its something that is automatically present in people, or something that can be "weighed" or quantified. It's something that develops in us, as we develop ourselves.

Just a thought

--Avatar

[ENDLESS SUMMER]

Everything has a soul or this would be nothing

[Worm of Despite]

[I'm Murrin]

'this'?

[matrixman]

A while ago, the PBS program Nature aired an episode on cats. The show focused on real-life stories of feline deeds of heroism and, yes, compassion. One story was that of a grey cat that showed up at a hospital one day and over time became a much-loved resident. What the hospital staff discovered about this cat was that it had an uncanny, unerring sense of which patients were terminally ill and nearing their last days, and it would go to them. At first, the staff thought the cat was just being a nuisance, but then they realized the animal acted as a gentle, comforting companion for patients in their last days of life. The cat would remain at bedside until the end, as if it were a sentinel bearing witness to the patient's departing soul.

Maybe it's just a cute, furry story to some, but it's also deeply moving to me, and it's pertinent to the question of whether or not animals have souls. That cat could sense something that cannot as yet be measured by instruments. Was it the patient's dying soul that the cat sensed? Do terminally ill patients give off some kind of aura or something that science as yet cannot account for, but which is plain to animals like that cat? This is one of those amazing mysteries of life. I'm just speculating left and right here, but if that cat can indeed recognize something of the soul in humans, then perhaps it follows that the cat also has within itself some kind of soul. The cat intuitively understands something that is beyond the reach of our clumsy medical instruments--at least for now.

For the purpose of this discussion, I'm blatantly assuming that there is a definitive thing called a soul. Hey, it works for me.

[The Dreaming]

Man, it is really not a good idea to hold this belief at this time and with my age group but... animals are animals for god's sake. Regardless of whether they have a soul (whatever you wanna call it, I think of it as an undying part, the part made by God, and the ego all rolled into one. That's why I like Carde's word Aiwa= Self) They are not our species. Protection and propagation of ones own species is the definition of our existence (for those of us with rather bleak outlooks).

If you want to see the Christian side of it... God created MAN in his own image. We were given first one thing that animals don't have. Free Will. Then we further separated ourselves by eating from the tree of knowledge. (a rather poignant fable in my mind)

So either way, there ain't no way I will ever feel guilt over a steak.

Oh, P.S. $^@& Dolphins. I am sick to death of Dolphins. IMO if they were really that smart they would just invent nuclear weapons and wipe us out.

[Avatar]

...So either way, there ain't no way I will ever feel guilt over a steak.

Well, I'm sure not gonna feel guilty about eating steak, (or pretty much anything for that matter), although I must say that the whole abbatoir thing is not my idea of fun. (I go for "free-range" whenever possible.)

Oh, P.S. $^@& Dolphins. I am sick to death of Dolphins. IMO if they were really that smart they would just invent nuclear weapons and wipe us out.

Dolphins though, and all related species, I quite like. (Not to eat though ).

I'm of the opinion that they had a much better idea in returning to the water than we did ever coming out of it. I particularly like Douglas Adams approach to them in So Long...and thanks for all the fish!.

They're pretty similar to humans in almost all respects. I can easily imagine them saying "Look, I've got this guy so well trained that he gives me a fish every time I press this stupid button".

And they always look like they're smiling. What do they know that we don't?

--Avatar

[Gadget nee Jemcheeta]

I don't think Man is all that special. If there's a soul in man, there's a soul in animal.
And actually, I think that if one could ever quantify something like that (totally talking out of my rear at this point) sometimes I get the feeling that the soul of an animal may be more intense than my own! They are themselves fully, and confidently. With an almost elemental intensity.