Do animals have souls?
Do animals have souls?
I know this is a strange question coming from a vegan. And yet I’m not sure I have the answer. I believe we have to answer his question with yet another question.
What do you consider a soul?
Farm Sanctuary Event
I have found people who call themselves Christians or some derivative thereof define a being with a soul as someone possessing the ability to be forgiven by the “grace of God” so that they may live for eternity in heaven. Typically this means that Christian people, who quite often have not though this through in my opinion, believe that animals can not be forgiven and therefore do not possess a soul. This gives many (not all) the freedom to defend their meat-eating ways. It might lead to a statement like, “animals have no souls so it doesn’t matter how we treat them.” In this case it would not matter to this type of person that pigs suffer great physical and emotional torture in gestational crates having repeated pregnancies where their babies are robbed from them each and every time to make bacon.
For someone that may not be religious or perhaps is religious but has spent time bonding with any type of animal, they might find this viewpoint hard to swallow as I do. To me, any sentient being that has the ability to feel pain, sorrow, love, loss, joy, or happiness embodies a soul. If you can look into the eyes of your cat or dog and see that they love you, that they want you to be happy, that their chief goal in life is to please you each and every day, how can you not believe that there is something more there than just flesh and bones? Personally I do not need a book to define the meaning of a soul. To me it is a feeling, a knowing that goes deeper than words, of kinship with other living beings.
How to respond to people who say animals have no souls
Response #1: I think if any sentient being has the ability to feel pain, sorrow, love, loss, joy, happiness then they have a soul. And that we each as sentient beings have the ability (and responsibility) to show empathy and compassion for one another. Just because and animal can’t say, “I hate this flipping cage”, it doesn’t give us the right to keep her in there solely for human benefit, profit, food or any thing else.
Response #2: I know I won’t be able to convince you that animals have souls in the way you define someone with a soul as one who can be redeemed before your God. Regardless of whether or not you think animals have souls, why do you want to intentionally cause pain and suffering to animals that have done absolutely nothing to harm you when you don’t have to?
Response #3: I think if you take a closer look at your bible, you may find that there are passages that do in fact suggest animals can seek redemption just as you believe humans can. You may want to look into these passages:
- “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” (Revelation 5:8-13)
- “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:19)
- “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21)
What do you think
Obviously this is somewhat of a controversial topic. I’m sure each person has their own ideas of what defines a soul to them. What do you think? And how do you respond to people who say animals have no souls?
Resources:
Do Animals Have Souls?, Bert Thompson, Ph.D. and Sam Estabrook, http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/448
Good News for All Creation: Vegetarianism As Christian Stewardship, Stephen R. Kaufman and Nathan Braun, Vegetarian Advocates Press, 2004.
Or my favorite response… “I dont think humans have ‘souls’ as you define it either, but I’m still against canabolism.”
My Dog (Winston)
If I have a soul, then my dog has a soul too. My dog may pass away before me, but wherever he goes, I go too! Wherever I go, he will go. He is no different to any other (sentient) being on the planet. His only problem is, he is not as intellectually advanced, so he cannot deliberate such matters and be entertained by such matters.
Actually he is better off for it.
My dog has red blood, however, he is not the primary species on this planet, thus he is generally considered of a lesser importance in terms of a physical organism; most likely due to his much shorter life span and limited capacity for thinking. His thinking is his naturally developed intelligence based on his desire for survival and that, which makes him comfortable, in comparison solely to humans, I might add. If, like me, you trust your own instincts about the world, you might see that the history of mankind came out of the darkness of a lesser intelligence, that is, from a point when we too behaved more like the primate (animal). Since then we have constructed ideas like ‘soul’.
Now as then, we probably do have a soul, which means all animals have souls, which means my dog has a soul! And when he dies or when I die that which is carried out of life is the ethereal substance that I guess one can call, a ‘soul’. Of course, this does not make us equal with the animal, for we have naturally evolved beyond the animal to make a difference, however, we are made of the same stuff and the difference we make should recognize the elevated status of all animal life on Earth.