Do living creatures have a soul? Certain people around the world believe they do.?

Question

Can a living creature be called a ‘person’ because they have a beating heart?

Answer 1

If all things are an expression of Gods creation, then all things must have that 'essence' of God in them. It then becomes a matter of degree of that expression. The better you mirror the expression of God the more of his essence is reflected in you.
So get polishing that mirror.

Answer 2

Yes living creatures do have soul, feelings, thoughts and imagination etc.
Soul is an authority or power of attorney bestowed by the God, the ultimate creator, to someone to take action. Soul the is actually a gift to hold the state of active factor of time, The Present, from ones birth to death. After death we become out from present and become part of past.
So anyone having ability to take action is the one having soul.
The only difference in human being and the other living creatures is that our power of attorney/ authority is the responsible one, will be questioned where and how we have utilised it. But the animals are free of responsible soul.
That's why we cannot say them a person.

Answer 3

It seems there are a lot of people who do not believe in a soul and much less having one themselves. This could stem from their understanding of the soul. Most explain it to be a kind of "Ghost in the machine". Yet, this separates both body and soul from each other and their point of inteaction are not clearly defined (a la Descartes). The best way to define it is that the soul is "the principle of life animating the body". Still, we are not two halves of a person or being (part soul and part body). We are in harmony and unity. I guess the best way to describe it would be "corporeal spirits" or "enfleshed spirits" as the classic philosophers defined it. It is ashame we do not pay attention to their works anymore for they are quite helpful.
I have met some that say the brain is why we are alive and animated. Yet I always counter this with our experience. If we remove the brain from the body, both die off. After all there are no active and living brains floating in specimen jars in training hospitals or science labs are there? Some would credit the heart as to why we live, but apply the same situation and you have the same disasterous results. As far as I know there are no active and living hearts floating in specimen jars in training hospitals or science labs are there? If either brain or heart were "the principle of life animating the body" then they would remain alive and active even when removed from the body, but experience tells us otherwise.
Having this definition of the soul as the animating principle of life for a body, then all created and existing things have a soul. Yet, are the souls of a flower, rabbit, and man equal? Well let us recall some classic philosophy to find an answer.
Plato descibes the soul with three distinct functions. Mind you these are distinctions within a unified or singular soul. Disctinctions does not equal separateness. Anyway, The first part of the soul is the highest, the rational part of the soul. The second is the spirited (motivational) part of the soul. The third is the appetitive (hunger, thirst, sex, etc. etc. Where we get the word appetite). Now most created things have something of this within all of them, but in some creatures only one of them. This means we have three more catagories for the soul. First is rational, second is animal, and third is vegetative. Now let's put all of this together and try and makes sense out of all this.

Vegetative souls: plants and trees. They feed and draw from sunlight. Procreate through pollination. There is movement in that they grow. And so, we know these things are alive because of their appetite, procreation, and movement (growth). Yet, their movement is not completely of their own power. They rely on the wind to spead their seed in procreating. The vegetative soul functions according to an appetitve nature only.

Animal souls: Every created animal on earth including man. These creatures have an appetitive nature in that they feed, procreate, and grow. Yet, they can also move under their own power, which differs from the motion of plants and trees. Remember the plants and tree depend on something else for their movement (wind). Animal souls have their own power of motion. And so, Animal souls have both appetitive and spirited distinctions in their soul. This makes them relational and different from plants and trees in essence.

Rational souls: This is exclusive to man. Man has the same essence as plants and animals. He feeds, procreates, and moves under his own power. And so, even man has the appetitive and spirited distinctions noted in their soul. However, what makes him different from plants and animals is that man is rational. He is aware of himself and has a transitory language (this means he can say and mean more than what is spoken in his words). He can sacrifice and plan a goal. He can do a great many things that animals and plants cannot. And so, man has all three distinctions in himself; Rational, spirited, and appetitive.

Now since we find one or all these distincitions within most of nature, then all animated things have souls. It is just that man is the only creature that has a Rational soul. In the rational soul one has self-awareness. Therefore, only man can be called a person since it is a person he is aware of. The rest of creation although animated does not have self-awareness. Self-awareness is what separates us from all others and therefore any creature that does not have such a faculty cannot be considered a person, but a being. Why is that? Because a "person" is more than a thing with hunger and motion. A person is more than a thing with a heart beat as you say.
Sorry this is such a long answer. Hope it helps you. May the Lord bless and keep you. May He let the light of His face shine upon you.

God's and your beast of burden
Fr. john

Answer 4

It depends how you define "soul". If you simply define "soul" as a 'life principle", and death as separation of the life principle from the biological structure, then by definition every living thing has a soul. But that doesn't make a dog or a flea a "person". The essential difference between human beings and all other biological beings is that human beings have an immortal soul, not just a generalized "life principle" that ceases to exist at the moment of death. Humans also have moral capacity, which is what makes us "persons", in the image and likeness of God.
.

Answer 5

I agree with biblehelp for the first part of your question.
As to the second part of your question, you call anything by any name you choose. Having a beating heart doesn't qualify any creature as anything but alive (some 'humans' on life-support have a beating heart and nothing else. Are they a person? Are they even 'alive'? Do they exist?
Fortunately for me, I don't know, God knows and he will take care of those problems.

Answer 6

Your heart pumps blood around your body - it oxygenates red blood cells - thats miracle enough. Science has the answers and they're better than anything religion can offer because any decent person values understanding.

No animal has a soul - including human beings. When this life is gone - you're gone. So dont waste it on superstitious beliefs.

Answer 7

first of all, some people won't be able to only "come to a determination" to have faith something on a whim. the two that's authentic or no longer and since the information stands that's no longer. What do you advise,"what can it injury?" it may waste a reliable part of the only life you will ever get (to no longer point out 10% tithing expenditures). you will stay the whole life in delusion land as a substitute of certainty. to no longer point out each and each of the organic issues which you will omit out on, that don't harm absolutely everyone (or sense to blame in case you do them). No thank you, that's a delusion that Christians dreamed up. a individual has each and everything to lose in the event that they spend their entire life residing a lie. God is imaginary. tutor me some information and that i will have faith. additionally, the God of the previous testomony is something , yet loving. He depicts a barbarian, no longer a loving father.

Answer 8

In the Holy Scriptures, all living creatures are called souls. We do not have a soul but are a soul. Genesis 2:7 and man became a living soul. Animals, birds, fish are all called souls.

Answer 9

Gorgeoustxwoman:
wow, that's some fancy political maneuvering! You kiss your mother with that lying mouth?
It's OK, basic science is hard for some to grasp, the rest of us don't find it as troubling that it's called a "human" fetus.

there is no such thing as a soul, it is a wishful thinking concept for
vampire lovers who wish to live "for all of eternity".

Animals are just as worthy, they do think, they do feel, they do suffer,

But we all rot in the ground eventually, and new life springs,
this is the way it is meant to be.

All which lives is born to die and must die in order to make room for new life.
I believe this law exists throughout the universe.

Answer 10

Any creature with the ability to love has a soul.