Do animals have souls? Why or why not?

Question

Sorry! I ment animals (excluding humans)

This comes from my Christian friend telling me my cat has no soul. I asked her what if he did how would he know Jesus. She said "I don't know?" So I then I asked her "Does that mean in her eyes is he going to Hell?" ...She said " Maybe?"

I need new friends...LOL

Answer 1

Animals do have souls. What i believe is that the any animal is completely innocent. They do what they are supposed to do without causing any harm to anybody.

it's only because they dont have developed brain matter people assume that they don't have souls. But you should realize one thing animals certainly do have instincts like caring,loyalty,motherly love,fear,anger etc and that is what possening a soul is all about.

Answer 2

Her U go! Enjoy! John

DOCTRINE OF THE SOUL

A. The Essence of the Soul.
1. Self-consciousness. Man is aware of his own existence and is able to relate to both animate and inanimate life on earth, Acts 20:10. Animals have consciousness, but not self-consciousness.
2. Mentality. Self-consciousness is no good without mentality. This is the thinking part of man and is composed of two parts.
a. The mind or left lobe of the soul.
b. The heart or right lobe of the soul contains the frame of reference, memory center, vocabulary and categorical storage, norms and standards, and launching pad for application of knowledge to life.
c. Rom 1:20-22 and Prov 19:2 teach that all thought originates in these two lobes. The soul is the source of all basic sin. It is the battleground between the old sin nature and the Holy Spirit, Mt 10:28; Eph 4:17-19; Ps 143.
3. Volition. Man has the ability to be negative or positive to anything in life. This is why man was created to resolve the angelic conflict.
4. Emotion, Lk 12:19. This is the appreciator of the soul. Emotion responds or reacts to whatever thoughts are in the soul. Normally the emotion is dominated by the right lobe of the soul.
5. Conscience. This is the evaluator of the soul. It contains the norms and standards, Acts 24:16.
6. The old sin nature is not part of the soul. It is genetically formed in every cell of the body. It battles for control of the soul through sin, human good and evil. Because we have an old sin nature, we are said to be totally depraved. Without Bible doctrine in the soul, you tend to run loose with your old sin nature's area of strength and link this activity with pride. Therefore you use your mentality to say you are something you are not. You set up your system of standards and compare yourself to others to further your pride.

B. The soul must be distinguished from the human spirit.
1. Originally man was trichotomous, having a body, soul, and spirit, Gen 2:7.
2. After the fall, man is born dichotomous, having only a body and soul, 1 Cor 2:14; Jude 19.
3. The believer, however, is said to have a body, soul, and spirit, 1 Thes 5:23. The human spirit is regenerated by God the Holy Spirit at salvation.

C. Only the soul, not the body, is saved at the point of regeneration, Ps 19:7, 34:22; Mk 8:36-37; 1 Pet 1:9; Heb 10:39.
1. Therefore, there is no "healing in the atonement." The body is not saved because the old sin nature resides there. In eternity the soul is given a perfect body minus an old sin nature or any human good.
2. To have a soul, a human spirit, and a resurrection body is strictly a matter of grace.
3. Those in eternity who glorify God will be those who had maximum Bible doctrine in the soul during time.

D. Only the soul, not the body, was made in the image of God, Gen 1:26-27, Gen 2:7. God is not material but spiritual.

E. The soul is the area of the worse sins which are mental attitude sins, Job 21:25; Zech 11:8.
1. The content of the soul is seen when a person speaks. What you truly are is only revealed when you speak.
2. Sins of the tongue reveal mental attitude sins. If you are guilty, arrogant, bitter, or full of revenge, you will talk a certain way that reveals the content of your soul.
3. Therefore, the soul sponsors all overt sins and sins of the tongue.

F. The soul becomes the seat of misery because of scar tissue of the soul, Ps 6:3, 106:15; 119:25, 28, 81.

G. The soul is the area for all capacities, good or bad. Inside the divine dynasphere, the mature believer has maximum capacity for life, love and happiness. Inside the cosmic system, the reversionist has maximum capacity for sin, human good, evil, and self-induced misery, 1 Sam 18:1; 1 Pet 1:22.

H. In physical death, the soul departs from the body, Job 27:8; Ps 16:10; 2 Cor 5:8.


Answer 3

What makes people think they are so different than other animals? What is a soul, my shoes have soles but I mean trees talk when people aren't around don't they? You want to know for shir about this just look in the mirror and ask because you are the creator and as far as you know rite now everything and everyone is just your own illusion.

Answer 4

Well either every living thing has a soul, or no living thing does. I doesn't seem right to think that only man has a soul. And yes if there is other life out in the universe I believe they would have a soul also. And plants do to. Either all living things have a soul, or none do.

Answer 5

a question that haunted me for a LONG time!!!

not that this is the definitive answer, but it makes sense to me....

animals have a group soul, people - define that as you like - have individuated souls....

yeah, i know - how can you believe that when you look at this, individual, beautiful dog....well...

i'm quoting the european shamanism that is my heritage and i'm making a distinction between personality - which is kinda omg obvious in ANY animal - and soul, which is a coupla steps up the ladder...still - i think some people struggle to have their OWN souls so maybe you should factor that in if you're thinking with any seriousness about what i just said.

if you want a definitive answer i'd suggest you stop asking us schmux and cross over to the other place and ask someone who actually knows!

yeah - and grimace is right - pandas are the black and white glove puppets of satan...obviously.

=P

Answer 6

Humans and animal ARE souls. They do not have souls.

"and the man came to be a living soul" -Genesis 2:7

Where does it say Adam was given a soul?

"And God went on to say: “Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.” " -Genesis 1:24

A soul, by most religious definitions, is an invisible entity that lives in our bodies and is released when we die. The BIBLE'S definition of a soul is a living, breathing thing. When a person dies the soul dies.

"The soul that is sinning—it itself will die." -Ezekiel 18:4

I find it interesting that nobody else has of yet used the Bible to support their answers. Hmmmm, I wonder who is right?

As far as salvation for animals go, Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 describes humans as having an advantage over animals in death, namely, the possibility of living once more. The Bible never describes a resurrection for animals. However, it often describes a resurrection for humans (John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15)

Also, the Bible does not speak of literal animals being in heaven. It does, however, speak of animals living in peace on the future paradise earth with humans after all the wicked are destroyed. -Isaiah 11:6-9; Psalm 37:9-11, 29; Proverbs 2:21, 22

Answer 7

Christianity says they don't have souls. Hmm, so between apes and humans we developed a soul gene i guess. haha

I would just stick to rationality which says that there's no such thing as a soul.

Answer 8

I have cirtain reasons to believe that animals have souls.

They want to be with the humans they love in heaven, just as much as the humans who love them want to see them there. God cares about every little thing...

Answer 9

Humans are animals, there is no evidence to suggest any animals have souls whether they are human animals or otherwise

Answer 10

if we have souls and we are animals ourselves but with an advance intellegence, why can't other animals have souls. all animals have intellegence. Is just that htere's is at a different spectrum than ours. do they think they have souls. hard to say! I believe we have species that do think there is a god. we may never know because we can't talk elephant or understand their complex lang