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

[outhouse]

Here is my opinion from teachers I have come to respect. .

You need to find someone credible to respect.

Try a western professor.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

I voted "other" because I'm simply not sure. Obviously there are different levels of soul, but some higher animals are very close to us: the great apes have the self-awareness to recognise themselves in a mirror, which cats and dogs do not, for example. How much soul, as it were, do you need to dispense with a body? As I said, I don't know.

There's an Egyptian hymn to Amun, describing him as
"He who gives breath to the one in the egg
and causes the young of the lizard to live."
What happens eventually to the bird and the lizard is not really my business.

 

[Runewolf1973]

Since humans do not have souls, animals do not.

I agree with you on this. Humans have no more a supernatural spirit or soul than animals, plants, or rocks. I would also further expand on this to say that the Fundamental Forces are in a sense the non-supernatural “spirit”, “soul”, or animating principal of everything that exists. Those forces continue on after death, but the complexity which gives us our feeling consciousness changes. We remain interactive, but not quite so conscious.

 

[Runewolf1973]

There's an Egyptian hymn to Amun, describing him as
"He who gives breath to the one in the egg
and causes the young of the lizard to live."
What happens eventually to the bird and the lizard is not really my business.

What this describes are basically all forms of interaction.

 

[Knight of Albion]

Animals that have felt the warmth of human love and companionship acquire individualisation, which they retain after death.

When your 'time' comes and you pass over all those you have loved and who have loved you (who have passed over) will be there to greet you, both the two-legged and the four...

After my mother passed over I received several signs from her, one of which was a 'dream vision'. She was with our old dog and the beloved pet horse she had as a girl, back in the 30s.

 

[Knight of Albion]

Animals in the afterlife:

Do Animals Go To Heaven? | NDE Accounts

 

[bobhikes]

I chose other as I don't believe in an afterlife. If scientists are correct in the conservation of energy and information then all life in fact all things will always be represented in some form forever not just humans,

For example we know dinosaurs and life before during and after them even though we were never there. The information still exists.

 

[Runewolf1973]

So you guys probably recall me saying that life or consciousness does not really exist, only complex interactions exist. If this is true, then it would hold as well that the afterlife does not exist either. However, if there are interactions that exist that we can call life, perhaps there are interactions that exist unbeknownst to us that could be called an after-life (note the hyphen meaning not the same as afterlife in the supernatural sense). We simply do not know what form those after-life interactions could possibly take. Perhaps those after-life interactions may take on a form more “conscious”, meaning more complex or more interactive than we might think.

 

[George-ananda]

You need to find someone credible to respect.

And those are only atheists on these issues, right?

Try a western professor.

And make sure they're atheists with no appreciation of eastern thought, right?


I'll get right on that.

 

[outhouse]

And those are only atheists on these issues, right?



And make sure they're atheists with no appreciation of eastern thought, right?


I'll get right on that.

Oh so you have evidence to support your position? Didnt think so.

Anyone can bring biased opinion and nothing more.

 

[outhouse]

For example we know dinosaurs and life before during and after them even though we were never there. The information still exists.

Only as fossils.

Their consciousness has been dead exactly as long as they have been dead.


dust to dust, stardust.

 

[fantome profane]

I voted for "other"
I think that animals can "get" a soul in the moment they take the consciousness of love. Soul is born in the very moment you understand love. So, pets are the ones which can get a soul, because they get in contact with the love they receive from their masters.

I seriously doubt that animals from the jungle can get a soul. Given that they don't know but the jungle law, they will die without soul.

So do chimps living in a zoo love their children more than chimps living in the jungle?

 

[fantome profane]

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?

But Brian from Family Guy was an atheist

:run:

 

[Runewolf1973]

So do chimps living in a zoo love their children more than chimps living in the jungle?

Lol, yeah. I thought that was kind of a weird statement too.

 

[bobhikes]

Only as fossils.

Their consciousness has been dead exactly as long as they have been dead.


dust to dust, stardust.

I don't recall stating that their consciousness still existed only information about them does and will forever.

 

[Phil25]

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.

I dont know. I dont even know if Animals have soul. Never thought much about Animal spirits. But I am willing to listen to both sides.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I vote yes, not just like ours but close.

That's what I think, too. I think every species has a soul that is suitable to their species as all species have their own unique purpose on their planet. Doesn't make any of us better than the other, just that all the species are different. I personally don't see humans as superior to any of the other species on this planet, just with a different vocation given by God. (Personally I think that the vocation of humans is to nurture life and to act as ambassadors of God to all other lifeforms, as we are made in His image; obviously we've failed and are failing terribly at this.)

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

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?

I take it that you think that humans will be defecating and urinating in Heaven, too? :areyoucra

 

[Sir Doom]

I take it that you think that humans will be defecating and urinating in Heaven, too? :areyoucra

It will be divine poop similar to soft-serve ice cream. Similar to what Scarlet Johansson currently poops.

 

[Erebus]

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

I voted "Yes" but was torn between that and "Other" as this question really depends on precisely what one considers a soul to be. Personally I haven't settled on any one concrete idea.
Firstly I do follow a somewhat animistic point of view that everything has some form of soul or spirit. I also believe that it's all essentially the same stuff and that it's merely "flavoured" by experience an action. Therefore rather than different creatures having different kinds of soul, a human, god, dog and amoeba are all roughly the same thing spiritually.
My view of the afterlife (which by the way, I'm somewhat agnostic about in the first place) is that it's not a far cry away from Hades. A dark place where everything that dies exists as a shadow of what they used to be. Whether this is an eternal state or whether things reincarnate, move on to a different afterlife or simply fade away entirely I couldn't say.
I know this is a horribly nonspecific way of describing the subject, but I'm afraid it's my best attempt. It's why I often shy away from words like "soul" or "spiritual" because there's no way to nail them down.

An alternative way of looking at it is that the soul is the combination of a beings morality, values and sense of self. To sell your soul following this explanation would be to go against your own values and ethics in return for some form of gain. The musician who sacrifices his passion in order to appeal to a wider audience or a politician who goes against the things he stands for in order to make money would be examples of this.
Obviously humans could (generally) be said to have a soul if you go off this model. Animals get a bit murkier. Some of them absolutely do have a system of morality, personal values and a sense of self. It might be difficult to comprehend as a human but that doesn't mean it's not there. Others perhaps don't have a soul, but without having experienced the world through their eyes I couldn't say for certain one way or another.