do animals have souls and go to heaven?

Question

i believe each animal has a personality some species show these more than others but do you think they have a soul? I believe humans have souls as it is what makes us all unique. When animals die, do their souls go to heaven (as per the belief with humans) and are we all reunited with them as spirits and not in our physical form?

Matt said : 'As with humans, animals do not have souls and do not go to heaven, it is a fantasy created by people who cannot cope with the fear that death brings pure subjective nothingness'

i believe you are thinking of religion.

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All Dogs Go To Heaven

Answer 1

My belief is that every living thing has a soul, and is granted life to fulfill the measure of it's creation. All livings things shall be allowed to continue in some form, somewhere.

Answer 2

Based on the Vedic scriptures we can say for sure that not only animals, trees, birds and aquatics even the worms has the same soul like any other human being.

The quality of each soul is same but the level of covered consciousness is different in different stages of life that a soul goes through.

This is an act of God and that's what he does, he creates, maintains and annihilates from time to time.

Except human being there is no other way to go to heaven. Going to heaven is not the ultimate destination of the soul. That is a separate discussion which I would not discuss here.

What makes human different than any moving being, even compared to a small ant?

They have the same propensities that we also posses. They are dependent on food that is naturally found on this earth, they also sleep, they also defend themselves and they also reproduce. Don't we all do that?

When animals die they again come back in another form of life. The same soul gradually transmigrate from one species to another and after a fixed number of births the soul automatically get promoted and taken birth with a human body by the supreme mercy of the Lord. This all happens with direct order by the Lord so that every soul gets a chance to come to the platform of divine consciousness.

So, to get a human body does not require ay qualification but once we get, it may be difficult to maintain the human body for the next life, as we fall under the laws of Karma. Karma decides our next birth.

If we do not use this very short span of life wisely, and do not find a solution to this cycle of births, whatever we do is simply a waste of time.

Based on the Karmic reactions, if we qualify then we may get a spiritual body to live a very long life in heavenly planets, otherwise, come back to this human society to try again for the ultimate purification of liberation or we may go down to become again as trees or birds or 4 legged animals.

Very interesting?

This is Vedic conclusion as taught and established by the Lord himself and re-propagated from time to time to remind the human society about the goal of life.

I know this Yahoo board has people from various beliefs and that's very wonderful as we can know each others and find out a common ground.

Answer 3

I struggled with this question a few years ago as I had been taught that animals had no soul and was disturbed by it. Later I received this revelation, that animals have spirits but not a God consciousness (soul) As we know there are animals in heaven according to the bible so I believe that their spirit goes on, how this happens (incarnation or just heaven) I don't know but you can trust that God loves all things on the earth and knows what is it best for ultimate good.

Answer 4

The standard Catholic answer to this question is that humans have souls, but animals don't. That's based upon the archaic model of the universe, platonic dualism, where spirit or soul is of a basically different stuff than matter.

The Church has accepted evolution as fact since the late 1800s, which raises an interesting paradox. Where, along the evolutionary line, did a soulless Cro-Magnon she-beast give birth to the first proto-human, Adam, with a soul made in God's image?

I tend to be a monist myself. I wish it were otherwise, but it appears as if our self-identity, consciousness, sentience, whatever you call it is merely a very complex electro-chemical reaction in a physical brain. Since animals have brains, though less developed, presumably they have some sort of consciousness. I like cats myself, and in their dumb feline way, they seem to have the rudiments of a personality or 'soul'. Dolphins, elephants, and chimps show signs of having some sort of awareness, too. I wouldn't be surprised if a machine with AI developed real consciousness sometime within my lifetime...

Answer 5

As with humans, animals do not have souls and do not go to heaven, it is a fantasy created by people who cannot cope with the fear that death brings pure subjective nothingness.

Answer 6

Everything that exits physical form goes on to the afterlife, whether that is heaven or hell is decided by the one who is leaving, we create our own heaven or hell in the astral worlds upon death, depending on what we feel we deserve. As for animals, they are sentient beings just like humans, they are the same Godself that we are all (after all it is all one soul having many lives) and they too do the process of reincarnation. Godself does not incarnate just as a human, it incarnates as everything and everyone that you see.

to read more about Death and Dying, check out http://www.ucmeta.org/Pages/Articles/DeathDying/DIRDeathDyingMetaphysicalAgingLifeCrossoverRebirthExistence.htm and the course listing at http://www.umsonline.org/MetaphysicalDegreesCourses/MastersDegreeCourseDescriptions.htm#DeathDying

Answer 7

If we make an argument for man possessing an immortal soul, animals must also have an immortal soul, since the same Hebrew word is used of man and animal alike. Yet no biblical scholars would seriously make such claims for animals. The truth is, the term soul refers to any living creature (whether man or beast), not to some separate, living essence temporarily inhabiting the body. Animals, simply put, return to the "dust of the earth" from which they came.

Answer 8

Aside from Disney, most religions (Oh yes I did!) do not allow for the souls of animals except those that incorporate them into the reincarnation of all souls, including humans in animal form. But if you want to put that in your belief system, feel free. I let them into heaven in my personal faith.

Answer 9

If there IS a heaven and I go, I certainly want my loving cats to meet me there. However since my self will very probably die along with my body, I won't know to miss them. We won't exist any more, at least not in our present form. Of course it's nice to think that our spirits will abide; we'll see!

Answer 10

Do animals have souls and go to heaven?
Answer: No.

i believe each animal has a personality some species show these more than others but do you think they have a soul?
Answer: No.

I believe humans have souls as it is what makes us all unique.
Answer: Yes.

When animals die, do their souls go to heaven (as per the belief with humans)?
Answer: Animals do not have Souls.

and are we all reunited with them as spirits and not in our physical form?
Answer: No