Does anyone know where, in the Bible, it states that animals have no souls?

Question

It wasn't meant to be a point... I really wanted to know. I remember being taught this in the Christian School I went to when younger, but cannot find what part said it now.

Answer 1

You can't find it because the Bible does not make that statement. If anything, it leans the other way.

Ecclesiastes 3: "18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity."

Answer 2

No, the Bible does not say that animals HAVE souls. They ARE souls, just like us.

Gen 2:7 says Adam became a living soul, not that he was given a soul.

Then animals are referred to as souls, the soul is the entire being, not a part inside the being. (Gen 1:20-25)

The animals and humans experience the same thing when they die, they return to the dust. The only difference is that animals have no hope of being resurrected.

Eccl. 9: 4-6 For as respects whoever is joined to all the living there exists confidence, because a live dog is better off than a dead lion. For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun

Eccl. 3:19,20- For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity. All are going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.

2 Peter 2:12- But these men, like unreasoning animals born naturally to be caught and destroyed, will, in the things of which they are ignorant and speak abusively, even suffer destruction in their own course of destruction,

Answer 3

God has a special reason and place for each of His created beings. Animals, too, are a part of an orderly creation by God. Man, as the highest order of creation, has been given dominion over the animal kingdom (Genesis 1:26-28). We believe that animals were intended for man's enjoyment and use. The Bible itself does not indicate that there is life after death for animals. It may be that God's purpose for animals is fulfilled on this earth. However, if animals would make us happier in heaven, surely there will be a place for them there. Some Bible interpreters have called attention to Isaiah's description of the peace of God's future kingdom where he says that "the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox" (Isaiah 65:25). Heaven will lack nothing that is good and that will bring glory to God.

Answer 4

It says nothing of the kind. There is a word which is mentioned in the book of Genesis. Just about the flood. Where it is told Noah, that all things on the face of the earth will be destroyed in a flood. The word that this particular Scripture is taken from describes it in this fashion: "to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life"......

That includes everything that has life that motivates as a matter of experience. That is also animal, snake, man, etc....

Or rather, anything that can be destroyed and its breath taken out of it that it die...... Man is not alone with the breath of life.


your sister,
Ginger

Answer 5

Help yourself!
I am ministering to you in a way that the clergy resents... They want to keep you dummy!

Ecclesiastes 3:19 (New International Version)
Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is vanity.

Job 7:9 (New International Version)
As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return.

Answer 6

First of all, the Bible nowhere says "animals do not have souls." Contrary to what some Christians imply, the Bible does not have something to say about everything. This is where tradition and human reason step in.

St. Thomas Aquinas and other Christian theologians have described it this way: All living things have souls, but only angels and humans have spiritual souls.

Plants have what are called vegetative souls, which enable them to grow and reproduce. Animals have what are called sensitive souls, which allow them to feel.

But only humans have what are called rational souls, which allow us to engage in thought. Only we have an intellect and will. Only our soul is immortal and survives after death.

Scripture DOES teach that only the human soul requires salvation. Animals can't sin, therefore they can't be saved. Since they can't be saved, they can't be glorified, as redeemed humans will be.

Pax Vobiscum+

Answer 7

In Genesis when God created the animals it is never mentioned that he breathe life into them on the other hand when he created man God breathe life into them and they became a living soul. So, it is assumed that they do not.

However, the Bible does talk about animals in Heaven, Revelation for one and one book from the O.T. so maybe?

Answer 8

the bible says that they are souls, that is why they were used as a sacrifice for the soul of the people who brought the animal.

Answer 9

Not in the Bible. It does say, however, that the wolf shall lie with the lamb, one of the most helpless animals in the flesh ... I'm paraphrasing, of course.

Answer 10

James 2:26-As the body without the spirit is dead;so also faith without works is dead.

The first half would suggest that animals and very likely insects to do have souls.They obviously just arent as intelligent as humans.