Do animals have souls?

Do animals have souls?

  • Yes

    Votes: 30 78.9%

  • No

    Votes: 4 10.5%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 4 10.5%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    38
Quoting the Bible to prove a point is an asinine thing to do outside of a purely Christian medium. With very few exceptions each verse can be taken differently by different people.

For example:

Why does it say the spirit of man goes up and the spirit of animals go down? Does that somehow say that people go to heaven and animals go to hell?
Click to expand...

Sephiroth, here, is interpreting that passage to mean that humans go to heaven and animals go to hell. Sure we can say that since the Bible clearly (I use this term loosely) states that humans can go to either heaven or hell, we can safely assume that this is not what this passage is trying to say. But, then we have to ask: "What does it mean?"

At a glance, I, myself, would be lead to believe that it is posing a question basically saying "Does anyone really know the spirit of man and beast?" The "goeth upward" and "goeth downward" being implied knowledge restated for clarity, affect, or so forth (dependent on what, exactly, the asker's topic and purpose for conveying the message would be).

Not to put a hex on quoting the Bible, I just think that in a secular forum it can not be rightfully used as a factual reference book.

...but then again, this is essentially a religion based question. Not just Christian based, but, I suppose I can see quoting the Bible to help answer a religious based question could be considered a viable source of information, even in a secular forum. (Not to say that the forum excludes religious people, just that the forum itself does not boast any particular religion or lack thereof).

I personally believe that, if you wish to quote the Bible as a form of proof to a statement, perhaps a few different quotes from multiple books with surrounding text to keep everything in proper context, would be the only appropriate way to do so. That way you take some of the interpretation based on wording out of the equation.
 
I just think you are reading it too deeply. My intent was to point out that animals, just as human beings do, have a spirit.

As we are all aware of, there are many different beliefs in the world and I am aware of it. Yet, I was not trying to enforce Judaism and/or Christianity upon any one. Heck, I might even go as far as Islam. So if this is truly a secular forum, then any religious related topics set-forth are prohibited correct?

Rather, this place is not a secular place nor is it a religious place but rather a place where we are all encouraged to come and reason together as fellow human beings or so I see it. I do not enjoy being limited in my freedom of thought because I strongly advocate in critical free thinking.

But if you like we could also pull in other types of beliefs and/or religious source about whether or not animals have spirits or souls.
 
The thing about souls is that the "soul" is really just a religious term, and wouldn't have much to do with secularists. In that sense, you could say that nobody has a soul, since you don't believe in God or any of that other spiritual stuff, and you are who you are. Otherwise, I would like to see your definition of the "soul", but whatever it may be, it's not objective in the sense that it can be measured and exists physically.
 
Sephiroth said:
The thing about souls is that the "soul" is really just a religious term, and wouldn't have much to do with secularists. In that sense, you could say that nobody has a soul, since you don't believe in God or any of that other spiritual stuff, and you are who you are. Otherwise, I would like to see your definition of the "soul", but whatever it may be, it's not objective in the sense that it can be measured and exists physically.
Click to expand...

Better yet, it's better to say that since Atheist don't believe in any sort of high power, they might not believe that living creatures have souls.

Of course it has been documented, if you would believe this or not, that when people die, they instantly lose an insignificant weight of around 23 grams or so. The number has been constantly the same every time.

As for me personally, I strongly believe we all have souls and spirits including animals. Here's my take on things. I believe that man is composed of three parts, a soul, which is primarily us, a spirit, which is the life-breath of God, and our body, our garment of flesh. The same is with animals. The also consist of their primary spirit, a life-spirit and their own garment of flesh.

But this isn't just attributed to what Christianity has done alone but more of an amalgam of Judeo-Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, animism, Shamanism, Greek mythos, Norse mythos, and even people's personal beliefs and personal thoughts. Of course the list goes on. Of course maintaining a critical mind and study of the materials are crucial.
 
I just think you are reading it too deeply. My intent was to point out that animals, just as human beings do, have a spirit.

As we are all aware of, there are many different beliefs in the world and I am aware of it. Yet, I was not trying to enforce Judaism and/or Christianity upon any one. Heck, I might even go as far as Islam. So if this is truly a secular forum, then any religious related topics set-forth are prohibited correct?

Rather, this place is not a secular place nor is it a religious place but rather a place where we are all encouraged to come and reason together as fellow human beings or so I see it. I do not enjoy being limited in my freedom of thought because I strongly advocate in critical free thinking.

But if you like we could also pull in other types of beliefs and/or religious source about whether or not animals have spirits or souls.
Click to expand...

I was in no way trying to say that religious based topics should be banned from this forum. In fact, I agree with you completely that this is neither a secular nor religious based forum (I tried to say that in my original post, but perhaps I wasn't clear enough). Nor do I like being "limited in my freedom of thought...".

What I am getting at here is just this:

I was only trying to state earlier that the Bible is easily misinterpreted, and therefore, if we are going to quote the Bible in order to answer a question that essentially revolves around religion (any religion) then we should take caution and make sure that everyone is getting the same thing out of the passages that are being used as reference. I went on to explain that if you use multiple quotes about the same subject from different books of the Bible, therefore using multiple different wordings to convey the same message, then you would remove a good portion of the issue at hand, which is misinterpreting the passage.

I hope that is a little more clear. I didn't mean to come off as sounding like this forum had any restrictions on it that weren't clearly stated in the rules, or that religious based threads should not be posted, or even that you were trying to persuade us to believe that only religions that are based on the Bible pertained to this subject. I was only trying to open up the idea that referencing the Bible is often more difficult then referencing other sources, and therefore should be done with care.

Sorry for the confusion.
 
Okay, so it came out the wrong way. But I did get the feeling that you were offended with the Biblical quote and were asking to bring in other quotes from other holy books.

Yes that was a bad quotation used because it was in Old English and their form and structure are different from todays.

I think my use of secular is wrong. Secular does not mean not believing in God but rather not as fervent in their faith as some other people are. Kinda like more materialistic than religious/spiritual.
 
I wasn't at all offended by the Biblical quote. I grew up in a Christian family, and while I haven't fully accepted their beliefs as my own, I would never be upset by religion being brought into a debate.

When I said other books, I meant other books of the Bible :P. Like Matthew, Mark, Luke, etc.

There was nothing wrong with the quote itself, just the fact that it was all alone. Old English isn't really a problem (especially since it technically isn't old English. Look up old English if you have the time, it's very... different, yet cool).

And as far as the word secular goes, you can look it up for more meanings, but basically it's this:

"2.not pertaining to or connected with religion"
-Dictionary.com

Anyways, I think we're far enough off topic now, let us let the people get back to their debate.:P
 
Juke said:
Better yet, it's better to say that since Atheist don't believe in any sort of high power, they might not believe that living creatures have souls.
Click to expand...

...Same difference.

Of course it has been documented, if you would believe this or not, that when people die, they instantly lose an insignificant weight of around 23 grams or so. The number has been constantly the same every time.
Click to expand...

Does that necessarily mean it is the soul? You couldn't rule anything else out as a possibility, could you?
 
Of course animals have souls. I also believe that all animals have their own personalities.

Just because animals cant speak or converse with us in the normal manner, doesnt mean they are any less intelligent, or dont have a soul.
 
I believe that animals have souls, which, by my context means conscience.
I'll try to back this up best I can so here.....

Animals have souls because they can feel emotions. It's scientific fact that when, for example, an animal is hurt or is about to be hurt, it shirks away. It's hard to determine however, if animals can distinguish between right or wrong because it seems that humans influence their actions, psychology and decisions.

Animals have souls because I believe God gave them so.
This, I'll back up with the above quotes....from long ago.
 
i can only beck this up with religion so.....

animals must have souls because if they didnt then the bible would be contradicting itself in the part which says god made all living things equal or something like that....
 
Oh yeah.... well I DEFENETALY believe that animals have souls... They can love, cry, feel pain, feel guilty, can be douptful. The're just like us. So what they don't have brains like we do, I think Everyone agrees with me when I say: Animals deserve freedom and human love. I mean, Come on! We live in tha same planet. Why not share? Thank you, thank you very much *Elvis voice*
 
Erm Overfjell, the fact that humans can destroy the world proves that we are more intellegent. I don't see a bunch of cows doing that! Whether that makes us WISER than cows is another topic.

By the way, animals do not have souls, neither do we. Deal with it. The idea of a soul is an abstract concept.
 
I don't believe in the idea of a "soul", so my answer to the question is "no".

A "soul" is an immortal, unchanging persona that survives after death; it's as if it is separate from you entirely.

I can't see this as true. Where is this soul? Submit everything in nature to disection & you will find nothing that is permanent. Everything is impermanent & ephemeral.

What I can see as true though is the concept of the spirit. A "spirit" is simply the accumulation of your thoughts, your actions, & your words - all of what one would call "myself". This idea presents us with something solid - the spirit is the mind. All sentient life have a mind & that mind is not separate from us. We are.

So to rephrase the question: Do I believe that animals have a spirit? Yes, of course.
 
but howcome noah saved the animals on noahs ark?
Click to expand...
Humanity would've died without having something to eat. It would've been silly to save the "pure" only to have them starve to death. :P
 
They most definitely have souls, they are living and breathing just like us. At least they keep their lives simple, we humans make everything so complicated and corrupt.
 
Maybe, maybe not what decides whether what has a soul and what doesn't. Just cause the bible says it doesn't mean that it's true, no offence to anyone. It could be true that they don't, I do find a little bit ridiculous that the Bible says they don't have says because they can't pray.

Plus, for all we know we may not have souls either, what is a soul? How do you define soul?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top