What is a soul? Do animals have one?

Question

Do animals go to heaven when they die?

Please don't just give a yes/no answer. Those are useless. Please provide evidence to support your point of view.

OK. . . What is a soul? Nobody seems able to answer this one. If it were clear what a soul is, the answer would be obvious.

Answer 1

Definition: In the Bible, “soul” is translated from the Hebrew ne′phesh and the Greek psy·khe′. Bible usage shows the soul to be a person or an animal or the life that a person or an animal enjoys. To many persons, however, “soul” means the immaterial or spirit part of a human being that survives the death of the physical body. Others understand it to be the principle of life. But these latter views are not Bible teachings.

What does the Bible say that helps us to understand what the soul is?

Gen. 2:7: “Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.” (Notice that this does not say that man was given a soul but that he became a soul, a living person.) (The part of the Hebrew word here rendered “soul” is ne′phesh. KJ, AS, and Dy agree with that rendering. RS, JB, NAB read “being.” NE says “creature.” Kx reads “person.”)

1 Cor. 15:45: “It is even so written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (So the Christian Greek Scriptures agree with the Hebrew Scriptures as to what the soul is.) (The Greek word here translated “soul” is the accusative case of psy·khe′. KJ, AS, Dy, JB, NAB, and Kx also read “soul.” RS, NE, and TEV say “being.”)

1 Pet. 3:20: “In Noah’s days . . . a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water.” (The Greek word here translated “souls” is psy·khai′, the plural form of psy·khe′. KJ, AS, Dy, and Kx also read “souls.” JB and TEV say “people”; RS, NE, and NAB use “persons.”)

Gen. 9:5: “Besides that, your blood of your souls [or, “lives”; Hebrew, from ne′phesh] shall I ask back.” (Here the soul is said to have blood.)

Josh. 11:11: “They went striking every soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh] that was in it with the edge of the sword.” (The soul is here shown to be something that can be touched by the sword, so these souls could not have been spirits.)
Can the human soul die?

Ezek. 18:4: “Look! All the souls—to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son—to me they belong. The soul* that is sinning—it itself will die.” (*Hebrew reads “the ne′phesh.” KJ, AS, RS, NE, and Dy render it “the soul.” Some translations say “the man” or “the person.”)

Matt. 10:28: “Do not become fearful of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul [or, “life”]; but rather be in fear of him that can destroy both soul* and body in Gehenna.” (*Greek has the accusative case of psy·khe′. KJ, AS, RS, NE, TEV, Dy, JB, and NAB all render it “soul.”)

Acts 3:23: “Indeed, any soul [Greek, psy·khe′] that does not listen to that Prophet will be completely destroyed from among the people.”

Where does the Bible say that animals are souls?

Gen. 1:20, 21, 24, 25: “God went on to say: ‘Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls* . . . ’ And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind. . . . And God went on to say: ‘Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds . . . ’ And God proceeded to make the wild beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground according to its kind.” (*In Hebrew the word here is ne′phesh. Ro reads “soul.” Some translations use the rendering “creature[s].”)

Lev. 24:17, 18: “In case a man strikes any soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh] of mankind fatally, he should be put to death without fail. And the fatal striker of the soul [Hebrew, ne′phesh] of a domestic animal should make compensation for it, soul for soul.” (Notice that the same Hebrew word for soul is applied to both mankind and animals.)

Rev. 16:3: “It became blood as of a dead man, and every living soul* died, yes, the things in the sea.” (Thus the Christian Greek Scriptures also show animals to be souls.) (*In Greek the word here is psy·khe′. KJ, AS, and Dy render it “soul.” Some translators use the term “creature” or “thing.”)

Answer 2

I hate the trying out (torture and agony) performed on animals, however supposedly it is bigger to 'experiment' merchandise on non-human residing beings first. I do not know that it has some thing to do with whether or not or no longer animals have souls, however as a substitute that human lifestyles is probably the most blanketed and main, exceptionally different lifestyles. Some religions do suppose animals have souls although, or a minimum of that they're incarnations of folks souls (Hinduism, I feel, and a few pagan or local american ideals). I just like the pronouncing that if puppies do not pass to heaven, I wish to head in which they pass!

Answer 3

Soul is a Deposit of God in you apart from your Physical life. Once you attain Death void of Life, It shall go back to Him.

Animals do not possess Soul. They posses only life.

Justification for it is:

Each animal is unique with its traits, which do not change. A lion will never eat a grass and a sheep never eat meat.
They cannot change their traits.

Human being is a Super Animal at least they are supposed to be. They are super because of their Soul which guides them when they do wrong. But they are suppressing it and they become Bad and even Worst and even they keep changing.

Another example:

I am talking to you, I am alive with my life and Soul
I am sleeping , I am with my life, while my soul is absent untill I wake up.
I am dead, I have lost both my life and soul.

I think you are convinced. All the Praise is to the Lord the Keeper of Souls.

Answer 4

The soul speaks of the inner subjective self consciousness of beings. The Bible definitely says animals have souls. It even specifically states that the soul is in the blood, which is why God commanded mankind to drain the blood before eating the flesh of animals. (Genesis 9:3-5 - note that the word translated "life" in modern versions is "soul" in the Hebrew)
Incidentally this is one commandment that is still in effect today for all people, not to eat flesh with the blood in it.
In humans there is a soul, but also a higher life principle: the spirit. It is with the spirit one communes with God. The Bible teaches men are spiritually dead, cut off from God through sin. This is reversed through what the Bible refers to as the new birth - being born again of the (Holy)Spirit (see John 3:1-13). The new birth is realized through the Gospel, the message of God reconciling us to Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, who became an offering for sin on our behalf, that we might receive the gift of justification through faith in His redeeming death and resurrection.

Answer 5

Christians get their word "soul" from the Hebrew word "nephesh". According to Genesis, both humans and animals have souls.

According to Neil Young, even Richard Nixon has got soul. :-)

There's no biblical evidence that animals have eternal life or go to heaven. But they do have souls.

Answer 6

Animals have souls, but since animals don't get to make choices like we do they are not responible for their actions so their souls die when they die. Humans have free will so the choices they make, whether good or bad, will be their own doing, so they can either go to heaven or hell. Don't know if this helped but I hope it did.

Answer 7

You can try this website:

http://www.heavenlydoctrines.org

Swedenborg (the theologian) insists that animals might seem to have souls but they don't have souls like humans do where they can learn to eternity. Animals do not go to heaven.

I don't have time to search the doctrines to find the exact spot so I give you the URL for searching the doctrines.

Answer 8

I think it is the consciousness that we will die, that there maybe a after life .
I believe that animals don't think like we do and they don't have souls except for dogs of course.

Answer 9

if we have a soul so do animals after all we are animals it would be pretty egocentric to think we are the only creature with souls


and by the way i don't believe in a soul

Answer 10

The soul is the God-given "unique spark of being or essense" given to each human being at the point of conception and is eternal. It never dies.

Animals have a "unique spirit" which is given them at conception. lt is not eternal. When the animal dies, so does the spirit.