Christians: Animals

[The Hammer]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

 

[sun rise]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Wrong. There are many studies including comparing brain regions that show animal emotions.

Yes, Animals Think And Feel. Here's How We Know

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/08/12/dog-cognition-research/

Do animals have Souls?

From my belief system, animals do have souls.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

I have read interpretations of Genesis that claim that animals do indeed have souls.

I have seen domesticated mammals express emotions. Cows, dogs, horses, cats, etc. I have seen chickens and other birds respond with fear. That seems rather basic, but it is still an emotional response.

I do not know. If there is no soul, then emotions would have to exist without one. I believe in the soul and since it is described as the essence of a person, then I suppose not. But from a science standpoint there is no evidence of a soul, yet there is evidence of emotion.

 

[Firelight]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

How are you defining soul? I have seen soul, conscience, and spirit used interchangeably, so I was wondering what was your meaning?

 

[The Hammer]

Wrong. There are many studies including comparing brain regions that show animal emotions.

Yes, Animals Think And Feel. Here's How We Know

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/08/12/dog-cognition-research/



From my belief system, animals do have souls.

Oh, I absolutely agree they have emotions. I was taken aback by the assertion that they were somehow primitive, unemotional. It's why I asked the question to others.

 

[The Hammer]

How are you defining soul? I have seen soul, conscience, and spirit used interchangeably, so I was wondering what was your meaning?

The Energy/Essence of a being that transcends death of the physical body.

 

[RestlessSoul]

We are animals, albeit animals equipped with elevated consciousness and incredible powers of reasoning. The perception that we exist separate from or outside of the natural world is a function of our deluded egos; and as delusions go, a particularly dangerous one for us and every other living thing.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

I was taught in CCD that animals other than humans don't have souls. This was the beginning of the end of Catholicism for me.

Anyone who has interacted with animals should realize that they have emotions.

I don't believe emotions are inherent to a soul, primarily because I don't believe in souls.

 

[Kenny]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

Yes... as a Christian, I believe they have a soul. Personally, I don't think they have a spirit. I think it is pretty obvious they have emotions.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

In my experience I've never heard a Christian claim it. It is common, however, to believe animals don't have a ghost that goes to heaven or hell. That is different from saying they don't have emotions, and scriptures say wise people are kind to animals. They also imply the L-RD cares about cattle, which Christians will take to mean that God cares about or at least pities the suffering of animals. Jesus is quoted to say that God cares about sparrows, but I don't know from which scripture he draws his opinion. I suppose he interpolates it from something in the Pentateuch? Anyways, I've never met a Christian who said animals had no feelings.

Bugs though I think don't have feelings, not anything akin to ours; but that's just my opinion based on what I learned about biology and psychology. Its no official or 'Christian' opinion.

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

Do animals have souls? In my opinion, yes. In scripture: maybe. I'd say yes but a lot of people say no.

Can you have emotions without a soul -- depends on what the Christian thinks a soul is. Some think the soul is separate from emotions. Some think the soul is the person including their emotions.

Then of course a person might be confused about the terminology and get the impression that as a Christian they should think animals don't have feelings, but they'd just be confused. I'm curious if this person you spoke to didn't care about animals?

 

[metis]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

They most certainly have emotions, and we know this from scientific studies.

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

"Emotions" and "Souls" are not really related. Matter of fact, trying even to define "Soul" is problematic on its own.

 

[pearl]

I can only speak for dogs and cats, of course they have emotions, feelings.
They know how to pout, how to express what we would call love, and have no problem showing me their pissed off emotion.

 

[Yazata]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

I'm not a Christian, but I'll take a shot at answering your question.

Do animals have Souls?

I don't believe in the existence of souls.

What about emotions?

Yes, I'm reasonably certain that many (not all) animals have emotions. I've shared my home with several dogs and I'm as certain that they had emotions as I am that humans do.

Insects I'm less sure about. They seem more like biological machines to me. But I can't really know. I'm reasonably confident that jellyfish, sponges or single-celled organisms don't have anything like human (or dog) emotions.

Can you have emotions without a Soul?

Sure. I have lots of emotions but I don't believe that I possess a soul.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

Not a Christian but I thought I might answer - as to why some, and particularly any religious person, might have such beliefs.

Plain ignorance being the simplest and less harmful reason, and perhaps easily corrected by some suitable education, given that many will only come across information via the popular media and/or have no experiences with any non-human life apart from what they digest as food. Any pet owner would likely put them right as to what their pets experience and express as emotions. Some might even believe that behaviour seen in a zoo might be normal when this is generally not the case unless perhaps in one of the larger ones where life for the creatures was more natural. The study of those animals less likely to become pets also shows that emotion tends to play a large role, especially in the more social species. And the similarities between humans and other life, often as to equivalence in brain physiology, tends to demonstrate such too.

Another reason might come directly from having a religious belief - dominion over all animals, and such - and where they just don't even want to look at this possibility, since they then might begin to question their faith in some manner. And heaven help, they might even become vegetarians or vegans, or stop killing animals for sport when they realise that other life might have value for just being an animal rather than as a target to be shot.

The last reason, and sometimes seen, when so many just lack empathy - for other humans as much as non-human life too - and where they just don't see non-human life almost as life. If one harmed any animals as a child, this was often a clue as to any such later being anti-social or in developing psychopathy, although of course not always the case.

Some research via the latest scientific thinking as to what non-human life might experience can often remedy some of this, but not all, since some are too stupid or too arrogant to even do this, and many will be afraid as to anything such perhaps causing them to doubt their faith. Tough!

 

[Lain]

I recently had a Christian tell me animals don't have emotions.

Is this a common viewpoint?

Do animals have Souls? What about emotions? Can you have emotions without a Soul?

Animals have emotions, imagination, and so on. They do have souls but of a specific type, St. Gregory of Nyssa expounds [note that the term translated "sense" here includes psychological sense like imagination, it is broader than just physical]:

"It seems to me that by these facts Moses reveals a hidden doctrine, and secretly delivers that wisdom concerning the soul, of which the learning that is without had indeed some imagination, but no clear comprehension. His discourse then hereby teaches us that the power of life and soul may be considered in three divisions.

"(1) For one is only a power of growth and nutrition supplying what is suitable for the support of the bodies that are nourished, which is called the vegetative soul, and is to be seen in plants; for we may perceive in growing plants a certain vital power destitute of sense;

"(2) And there is another form of life besides this, which, while it includes the form above mentioned, is also possessed in addition of the power of management according to sense; and this is to be found in the nature of the irrational animals: for they are not only the subjects of nourishment and growth, but also have the activity of sense and perception.

"(3) But perfect bodily life is seen in the rational (I mean the human) nature, which both is nourished and endowed with sense, and also partakes of reason and is ordered by mind."

By mind is the power through which humans can know God and spiritual things, do abstract things such as logic, and so on. So animals do indeed have a soul and they do have emotions and dogs can dream.

Is it a common view that they don't? Yes, but it is a mistaken view, for Scripture plainly teaches that they do have a soul: "both [man and beast] go to one place—both came from dust and both return to dust. For no one knows whether the spirit of a human ascends to heaven and whether the spirit of the beast descends to the ground!" The point being they also have the "breath of life"/soul. In a word: anything which lives has a soul.

And people have clearly never been around an animal if they think they lack emotions, and a soul is required for that.