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Do (non-human) animals have souls and go to an afterlife?

Do you believe that animals have a soul/spirit that goes on to the afterlife?


  • Total voters
    34

ruffen

Active Member
I think that there is no afterlife, and we do not have a soul (unless "soul" is a metaphore for our personalities and consciousness).

But if we do, then animals have it too. Maybe animals have "lesser souls" based on their level of intelligence, but we must remember that we are animals. We are natural. We are related to the other animals.

If we have something that no other animals have, then this means that it is an "on/off" switch, and that this switch must have been switched on at some point in the past. Evolution doesn't work like that.
 

Thief

Rogue Theologian
I strongly suspect a change in form for anyone and anything that can crossover.

Some of us will take wing.
Some of us will do no more than crawl away.

As for the lesser forms now living....I voted yeah.

Heaven might be something less without the lesser form.
But as I said a moment ago.....the form is likely to change.

I had a dream of this black dog we now have as a pet.
In the next life I see her as a horse.
It will be quite exciting to ride a creature that loves to run that hard!
 

Runewolf1973

Materialism/Animism
I voted yes. Here is my reasoning for this...

There is no “soul” in a supernatural sense, but all things and all creatures are animated by the Fundamental Forces. Those Fundamental Interactions are our consciousness, our “breath” our life. There is nothing closer to actual “spirit” than those very forces which animate our flesh. Those same forces are present within all matter. Do those forces continue after death? Of course they do. They simply change over time and those interactions change, but nothing ever truly ceases. What we think of as consciousness is actually just a complex form of interaction. We are not really conscious we are just interacting in a complex manner. With death the complexity changes, but the fundamental interactions which ARE literally our “spirit” continue in some form. Animals are no different, trees are no different, even rocks are no different.
 

samosasauce

Active Member
I believe that if for some reason humans have an afterlife, animals would too, as well as plants, maybe even as well as forgotten ideas, destroyed things, and lost things. Why wouldn't they? Why would humans be worth more than everything else? We ruin so much.
 

Runewolf1973

Materialism/Animism
Humans think so highly of themselves. They think consciousness is some sacred thing that only humans possess. Really, consciousness is nothing special it is just a complex arrangement of matter…complex interactions. That complexity in itself is rather unique, but those same fundamental interactions are present in all matter, all forms. A human is no more "living" than a rock is. Matter does not live it only interacts and changes form, we simply interact more. We are neither truly living, nor are we truly conscious, we simply appear more life-like, animated, or conscious because of our complexity. All anything can do is interact some things just interact more than others.

To sum things up… (take this with a grain of salt ;))


There is no such thing as life (matter does not live)
There is no such thing as consciousness (there are only complex interactions)
There is no such thing as death (those interactions do not cease or stop, they only change)

These things exist only so far as humans perceive those changes. We perceive things to be living or conscious or dead and label them according to specific characteristics. Those characteristics of life as we call them are nothing more than complex interactions. Everything interacts at some level.




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samosasauce

Active Member
Humans think so highly of themselves. They think consciousness is some sacred thing that only humans possess. Really, consciousness is nothing special it is just a complex arrangement of matter…complex interactions. That complexity in itself is rather unique, but those same fundamental interactions are present in all matter, all forms. A human is no more "living" than a rock is. Matter does not live it only interacts and changes form, we simply interact more. We are neither truly living, nor are we truly conscious, we simply appear more life-like, animated, or conscious because of our complexity. All anything can do is interact some things just interact more than others.

To sum things up…
There is no such thing as life (matter does not live)
There is no such thing as consciousness (there are only complex interactions)
There is no such thing as death (those interactions do not cease, they only change)

These things exist only so far as humans perceive those changes. We perceive things to be living or conscious and label them according to their characteristics. Those characteristics of life as we call them are nothing more than complex interactions. Everything interacts at some level.
I spend too much time on Facebook; I was looking for the like button, haha
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
So, do you think animals have souls and go somewhere after they die? If so, why? If not, why?

I believe that all living things have a soul, and don't see anything in Christianity that says otherwise, definitively. The question isn't settled in Catholicism, for one. Pope John Paul II said that animals have souls: Pope John Paul II Says Animals Have Souls
Do Animals Have Souls? by Deborah Jones - An Article from The Ark Number 186 Winter 2000 - A Publication of The Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare - Providing Christian education, research, study, instruction, teaching, theology, forum and publ
Popes on Pets

St. Francis of Assisi is renown for his deep love for all of God's creation, including animals, insects, plants, even the Sun, referring to them all as his brothers and sisters. His Franciscan Order continues in this tradition today.

Do Animals Go To Heaven? - Certain Animals Go To Heaven - Scripture Whether Animals Go To Heaven

(I do not agree with the radical Traditionalist views of that site, but it is a beautiful article nonetheless.)

My understanding of this is based on the fact that in the Garden of Eden, animals were there with us. Since nothing in the Garden died, it stands to reason that the animals were created to live forever like us. Since it was only humans who sinned against God, the animals are innocent and pure in their souls. So when they die, they go directly to Heaven. Plus, in the story of Noah's Ark, God has Noah gather mating pairs of each animal, so obviously the survival of the animals is very important to God.

So when we harm, torture or otherwise make to suffer an animal, we are harming one of God's beloved children, a living soul just like us. I believe those who harm animals for no reason will be punished severely by God, just the same as if they had caused unjust suffering to a human being, because it is clear to me that animals have just as complex an interior life and capacity for feeling as humans do.

To me, it would be a great injustice if animals did not go to Heaven because of the despicable way we treat millions and billions of them on earth. Imo, animals deserve Heaven more than the human race because they have not sinned against God as we have, and we treat them in such careless, sadistic ways.


Sooo....are you going to have to pick up the spiritual dog poop that your pet my leave on the Golden Streets; or will your spiritual pet be sapient in the vein of Brian of Family Guy fame? Why would anyone limit the concept of "Heaven" to simple human mentality?
 

Sees

Dragonslayer
Humans think so highly of themselves. They think consciousness is some sacred thing that only humans possess. Really, consciousness is nothing special it is just a complex arrangement of matter…complex interactions. That complexity in itself is rather unique, but those same fundamental interactions are present in all matter, all forms. A human is no more "living" than a rock is. Matter does not live it only interacts and changes form, we simply interact more. We are neither truly living, nor are we truly conscious, we simply appear more life-like, animated, or conscious because of our complexity. All anything can do is interact some things just interact more than others.

To sum things up… (take this with a grain of salt ;))


There is no such thing as life (matter does not live)
There is no such thing as consciousness (there are only complex interactions)
There is no such thing as death (those interactions do not cease or stop, they only change)

These things exist only so far as humans perceive those changes. We perceive things to be living or conscious or dead and label them according to specific characteristics. Those characteristics of life as we call them are nothing more than complex interactions. Everything interacts at some level.




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Well whether death = change, transformation, journey, end, etc. we recognize something happens in our basic understanding when a heart stops, breath stops, and the body seems to lose animation. I don't think we can throw out the basic understanding and terms but simply expand on it. It is a very different reaction/effect when you shoot a rock vs a human, dog, etc.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
Do (non-human) animals have souls and go to an afterlife?

Here is my opinion from teachers I have come to respect. All animals have astral bodies or they would be an inanimate collection of atoms with no capacity to feel as an animate creature. So their astral bodies continue for a time after death. They have a mental body capable of thought but the difference with humans is they don't have the ability for higher mental thought. After a time in the astral their spirit returns to their species' group soul. Humans have advanced to have individual souls.

Interestingly higher animals that interact with man; dogs, elephants, etc.. can occasionally advance from the contact and 'individualize' as a soul from their group soul and be reborn in a human form.
 

Runewolf1973

Materialism/Animism
Well whether death = change, transformation, journey, end, etc. we recognize something happens in our basic understanding when a heart stops, breath stops, and the body seems to lose animation. I don't think we can throw out the basic understanding and terms but simply expand on it. It is a very different reaction/effect when you shoot a rock vs a human, dog, etc.

Absolutely something different happens with a creature as compared to a rock. The interactions are far more complex and thus that transformation is far different and far more involved. However, on a fundamental level it is all interaction and change... It's all the same fundamental thing. The only thing that separates a creature from a rock is that complexity.
 

Runewolf1973

Materialism/Animism
Biology basically tells us that a rock is not an animated form of matter based on its outwardly observable, non-lifelike characteristics. Physics basically tells us that a rock IS an animated form of matter based on its inner workings, its fundamental characteristics or forces.

The capacity to feel or that capacity for thought, are none other than complex interactions. Atoms may not "feel" as we do, but they do interact fundamentally. That ability to interact IS animation…to be animated. The more complex forms we call animate and the less complex forms we call inanimate. Really when it boils down to it however, everything that exists is animated by those Fundamental Forces, some things just more so than others. Truly non-animated forms of matter do not and can not exist from a physical perspective. As humans, we simply do not perceive the animating forces within a rock.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
Animals would have the same spirit as any life-form. Being able to recognize a self should have little to no consequence to that.
 
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