Does a embryo not yet born have a Soul?

Question

Human's have souls. So what I am asking is does our soul enter our body at time of conception?

Answer 1

The Catholic Church used to allow abortions up to day 40 of gestation, because that was when they believed the soul entered the body. It was not until the 17th century that the Church adopted the idea that the soul entered the body upon conception.

Answer 2

If by "soul" you mean something about us that could exist independently of a body, then I don't think there is any such thing. I believe we need a brain and a nervous system to exist. I believe that our ability to perceive the world around us is dependent on our eyes and ears and taste buds, etc. and a brain that is capable of interpreting the messages from those things as images, sound, sensations of touch, etc. I believe that when that brain ceases to function (e.g. when we die) we cease to exist.

Life is a process. When the process ends, that life ends.

I can understand why dying is scary to people, particularly dying in a painful or traumatic way, but I don't understand why being dead scares people (outside of things like who will take care of my children). Why would the thought of not existing in the year 2200 be any harder to accept than not having existed in the year 1800?

As for a developing embryo I think it gradually develops a nervous system and begins to perceive. I don't know (and I'm not sure anyone knows) exactly when that occurs, but it's definitely not at the moment of conception. At that point the zygote is just a big undifferentiated cell. While it's DNA has instructions to build a human being (so does the skin I scratched off last time I showered) it certainly has no consciousness at that point.

Answer 3

If you take the Biblical answer, the Bible specifically states that a person does not exist UNTIL it is born... So according to the Bible, there is NO SOUL until it is born...

Other religions are also all over the place on this too...

A special book that I have that describes the spirits full journey claims that souls can enter the embryo at ANY point from conception onward, but since it is usually very boring while in the womb, many do not until just before or at the very moment of birth itself - some want to experience the birth process, others want to skip that part.

Answer 4

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

In between the head and the heart is the 'integrity' where a soul lives. An embryo's brain knows nothing of life or the world from a conscious or intellectual point and is completely ignorant of the reality in which it shall live its life once born. Dont confuse its physical sensations and behavioral experience with a living reality in our WORLD. Similarly the HEART (not the actual organ itself) has yet to be tested in our earthly reality.

Once out of the womb the soul will begin to take shape.

God almightly it just gets so tiresome this RELIGIOUS banter that detracts so completely from the actual essence of the spirit.

Answer 5

No-one has proved that a human has a soul so who's to say for sure whether an unborn child has one.

BELIEF that humans have souls is not the same as knowing. You can choose to believe whatever you want but that doesn't make it any more or less true.

If you want to equate a "soul" to life - in other words the point at which a human progresses from a growing mass of tissue to a living person then the Christians out there should realise that the Bible teaches that a baby is only living when it draws its first breath:-

After God formed man in Genesis 2:7, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and it was then that the man became a living being”. Although the man was fully formed by God in all respects, he was not a living being until after taking his first breath.

In Job 33:4, it states: “The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”

Again, to quote Ezekiel 37:5&6, “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

In Exodus 21:22 it states that if a man causes a woman to have a miscarriage, he shall be fined; however, if the woman dies then he will be put to death. It should be apparent from this that the aborted fetus is not considered a living human being since the resulting punishment for the abortion is nothing more than a fine; it is not classified by the bible as a capital offense.

According to the bible, destroying a living fetus does not equate to killing a living human being even though the fetus has the potential of becoming a human being. One can not kill something that has not been born and taken a breath. This means that a stillborn would not be considered a human being either. Of course, every living sperm has the potential of becoming a human being although not one in a million will make it; the rest are aborted. .

God has decreed, for one reason or another, that at least one-third of all pregnancies shall be terminated by a spontaneous abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy and that a number will be terminated after the first trimester. It would appear that God does not have any more regard for the loss of a fetus than he does for the loss of a placenta or a foreskin despite the fact that these were living tissue as the result of conception.

In a number of versions of the bible, one of the commandments in Exodus 20 that was spoken by God to Moses states: “You shall not kill”. According to the Mosaic text, this should read “You shall not murder” since the bible has commandments stating that people shall be put to death for a number of different offenses. Exodus 21:17 states: “Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.” There are other capital offenses in Exodus 21. Of course, the commandment “You shall not kill” is not present in the commandments written by God on the stone tablets. For those who are not familiar with the commandments on the stone tablets that were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, they are enumerated in Exodus 34. The popular ten commandments that are enumerated in Exodus 20 were spoken by God to Moses who then relayed them to his people; they were never written.

There is nothing in the bible to indicate that a fetus is considered to be anything other than living tissue and, according to scripture, it does not become a living being until after it has taken a breath.

Answer 6

I'm not certain that anyone can really answer this question. Souls are something based on belief. That an embryo has a soul is a guess or a personal belief and nothing more.

Answer 7

Humans have souls...I would like to know how you know this to be a fact.

I have never seen a soul on an X-ray, or on an MRI. Never seen one at an autopsy, never seen one burst out of the body of a dying person. So...to answer your question, which presupposes as fact something that is not proven, I don't believe that humans have souls, so it wouldn't enter the body at any time.

Answer 8

I personally believe the soul enters the body when the first breath is taken.When God gives the breath of life.Some babies have been born fully developed and perfect in every way,but not breathing,still born it is called.That is my opinion.

Answer 9

God states in his word that he knew you before you were in your mothers womb,so yes the unborn child has a soul. It takes the Holy Sprit to breathe the breath of life into each newborn ast their birth.

Answer 10

If it is conception then what happens to identical twins?

And the answer is no, no souls, ever, its the brain.