I am not one to debate about religion but.......?

Question

There was a question on here about if the "mentally disabled" and dogs go to heaven.
My question is on the animals. I am not a part of organized religion, I don't believe in it really. So many different belief systems and to many people judging people for who they are or arn't. I am NOT a part of a religion but I know I will go to heaven. I have sinned many times I'm sure but nothing to terrible that I believe God could throw me in hell over.
So back to animals. How exactly can people say that animals have no soul? How can you say that any living creature with emotions (scared, happy, love, hate, trusting, untrusting, etc) have no soul??? And don't even try to say it's instinct. Devotion and love is not instinct.
I believe that when I leave this earth my dog, and my cats, and even my bunny that has passed over through the years will be there to greet me WHEN I get to heaven.
I expect some ridicule for not being a part of a religion...but focus on the question please.

Um, that's why I put the "BUT" there. I hate debating but I am right now.....I know this.

Write Sense and Missgiggle.....nicely put. I believe about the same.
Supertop's question....here is my answer. any living creature that has a brain has differnt functions that parts of the brain control. Every animal and different breeds have different strutured brains. Insects...at least as far as I know do not have the area that controls emotion. Which doesn't nessacarily mean they don't have a soul but it is just harder to imagine something with no emotion being judged or having a soul.
And maybe heaven is just a dream and no one really has a soul. We are just flesh and bone.
It just makes sense to me that anything with that ability to create emotion has a "soul".
I have gotten alot of interesting responses and I thank you all....all except the first 2 cuz some people don't like to pay attention to words.

Answer 1

As a kid I didn't know that animals have souls. For the first 11 years of my life, my family had never had a pet cat or dog. I started to realize that I had been wrong after my family had to give away our first and only cat. It wasn't until that point in my life that I began to notice the way that cats behaved around their owners. (And, of course, I read scriptures that also helped me to change my mind about animals having souls).

So my answer to the question is that perhaps some people never had a pet growing up. They've never gotten the chance to see firsthand how animals react to humans. For those people, they probably aren't trying to be mean when they say that animals have no souls. They've just not had enough experience with animals to know differently.

As for the people who say that, even when they had pets growing up... I don't know why they believe that way.

Answer 2

The Bible does not specifically state yes or no about the animals. However, it does talk about animals being in Heaven, so we choose to pray it will be our pets. Being part of a religion won't get you to Heaven, only your heart can. If you believe in Heaven then I would think you believe in God and the Bible since that is where those are from. In the Bible it also states a sin is a sin, the repenting of a believer (through your heart not a religion) gets forgiveness and Heaven. I know this wasn't part of the answer you were looking for, it just sounded like you had heard things that just were not true.

Answer 3

If you go to the beginning of the Bible you will see the word soul is mentioned , and absolutely clear as to it's meaning. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL. It doesn't say or imply that man was given a soul, he was the soul.

The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. ( With out the breath of life from God we can not become a living soul, we are lifeless )

Thenn shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (If you do a concordance study you will see this spirit is referring to the breath of life that is given to living breathing creatures including man.) It is not some lingering entity or anything like that. The spirit or breath of life, is the life that God gives to His creatures to exist. All share the same spirit or life. At death this power returns to God. There is nothing in the Bible relating this with an after death entity or ghost...

Animals can be loving and affectionate as far as animals go. But no wheere in the Bible does it say any form of animal is going to heaven. It does however state that humans will get there (rightteous humans)

This is a subject that confuses a lot of people yet most don't really bother to truly study it. God is not wishy washy. If a soul is a living being in Genesis it will be the same throughout the whole Bible. Things can be misread and misunderstood by humans that are looking to prove them selves right rather than seeing what God is truly saying.

This is a subject that requires study and instruction in order to see the whole picture. You cannot isolate one verse and call it a truth. It has to fit in with the whole picture, not stand out on its own.

Animals will not be transfeered to heaven, only humans that are righteous in God's eyes. Man will be judged by what he knows and what he is able to learn by private study. This is wonderful, because those that are mentally handicapped have a good chance ot get to heaven........

Answer 4

Here are the reasons: (there are many more)

An animal cannot obey God.

"And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;" Hebrews 5:9

An animal cannot believe in God

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark 16:16

An animal cannot confess Jesus name.

"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 10: 32

An animal cannot repent of their sins. (They have no sins to repent of!)

"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Luke 13: 5

An animal does NOT have a soul in the religious sense of the word. An animal does not know right from wrong other than what is has been conditioned to know or from instinct. Yes I included instinct, which is a LARGE part of an animals existence. Their "emotions" such as love, hate, trusting, etc ARE part of the conditional training and instinct not a soul or a human-type emotion.

God created the animals for our use. There is not a single example of an animal with a soul in the Bible nor an animal able to go to heaven in the Bible.

Answer 5

Part of many religions is the idea that humans are superior over other organisms. If you look at the creation story in Genesis, you'll see that God tells Adam that all other creatures are designed to serve humans.

The idea that only humans have souls is just a way to justify the idea that humans are somehow better than other organisms.

Answer 6

Well first off, you got your logic all wrong. God doesn't let people into heaven because they were good or because they didn't do anything to bad. He lets them into heaven because of their belief in Jesus alone. Not saying you should become a christian but other religions like Islam and Judaism would agree that people don't get into heaven just for 'not doing anything too bad'. God holds all sin equal so if you have lied it is no worse than if you killed someone, so if you sinned many times then don't say it was nothing too bad because God holds all sin equally. Anyway, animals on the earth were meant for one purpose. To be with humans, to keep them company, to help them, to be there for them. God did not create animals in his image like he did humans. When he said in his own image he meant spiritually as well as physically. Animals were meant to serve us and we were meant to serve God, when animals die they are no longer able to serve humans so there is no point in them having souls.

Answer 7

Heaven is described as a happy environment full of love and emotions. I believe that animals have all the emotions that we have and that heaven would not be a happy, loving, perfect environment without them. Here on earth animals are a Hugh part of our lives and it only makes sense that they would play the same role in heaven.

Answer 8

You know, my wife and I have discussed this many times. Our pastor at our Baptist church has told the congregation that our pets will not get to heaven. Although we are both Christians, we both find ourselves disagreeing with that statement. Our dogs are just as loving as children are. they have their own personalities, they have their own quirks (our min pin suffers from OCD), and they obviously love and feel protective for us. I cannot imagine why God would put such a personality into a living being and then deny its happiness by separating the animal from its humans (yes, that's right...they are not OUR pets but rather we are THEIR humans). I feel this is one aspect of my religion that the pastors have gotten wrong (there are a couple others but that's another story).

Answer 9

First, you'll receive no ridicule from me for being a part of no organized religion. That has nothing at all to do with your faith in God. There are many many many good Christians who don't go to a church, for a variety of reasons. But that's not going to keep them out of heaven.

As for animals: The Bible says that God made man in His own image.....I believe that means "the soul". God gave us animals, to love and to care for, but He didn't make them in His image. Therefore, they would have no soul, at least not a soul like we have. I think that God gave them a different kind of soul. And I think that all our animal companions will be there to greet us when we arrive. Just like all our ancestors will be there.

Answer 10

Usuraly Catholics say that stuff. It's just something the Preists translated from a section from the Bible as usural. I for one belief like you that animals have souls. Other wise how would explain my dogs human like behaivor.
Also Buddists think animals have souls too.