souls

The question was posed in class, Do animals have souls? The has been a widely discussed issue in my life because I am friends with lots of animal lovers who could not imagine that their best friends, didn’t has souls. My stance has always been no. I had never really thought about why not, until now. This has caused many different theories to pass through my brain in relation to souls.

First I will discuss what thoughts went through my head. Animals don’t have souls because they weren’t created in the image of God, so why would they have souls. This thought starts with that God cared for humans by allowing us to have knowledge of him. We have the bible not animals. Im not saying that animals don’t know that God created them. I have no way of knowing that. But Im pretty sure that Christ died for us, not animals. Im not certain but the Bible states that he died for us while we were still sinners. I have never considered an animals wrong doing against me, a sin. But maybe it is. John 3:16 says God so loved the world that he sent his only Son that who so ever shall believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Animals are not aware of Christ so how could he die for them.

Secondly, if animals do have souls that means everything has a soul, insects, reptiles, amphibians. All living things. Maybe even plants. This directly sent me to the fact that animals are different from plants and insects because God told noah to put them on the ark. Not insects or plants just 2 of each animal. So animals could possibly have souls, even if plants and insects do not.

Thirdly, I had not consulted the bible nor could I recall any bible verse that related to whether animals had souls or not. So..I consulted a book I have by Hank Hanegraaff, also known as the Bible answer man. The book is called the complete bible answer book that answers many questions people have about the bible. The question most closely correlating to our discussion in class that was in the book was, “Will there be animals in heaven?” The book describes that scripture doesn’t conclusively tell us but there are certain clues. The first being, there were animals in the garden of eden so that is presendent that there will be animals in eden restored as well. The book goes on to say that some of the keenest thinkers like C.S. lewis and Peter Kreeft are not only convinced that animals in general but pets specifically will be restored in resurrection. That it would be a sign of God’s overwhelming grace and goodness. The book goes on to say that scripture suggests that animals have souls. Both moses in genesis and John in revelation communicate that the creator endowed animals with souls. Genesis 1:20 and revelation 8:9. The book refers to philosphers of Descartes and Hobbs when saying it wasn’t until philosphers like the 2 previously named and others in the enlightenment era that people thought otherwise about animals.

But!!!! The bible answer book goes on to say that an animal’s soul is qualitatively different than a human soul there is reasonable doubt that it can survive the death of its body. Scripture in Isaiah 11:6 suggests once again that there will be animals in heaven. “the wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. Parts of this were adapted from a book called resurrection.

So in conclusion with this thought, based on my belief that the Bible is true, I was wrong. Animals do have souls, they are different from human souls and my friends will be happy to hear they will be joining us in heaven. I would venture to say that a human soul has more value than an animal soul, at this point in my life. This could change in my fute but for now it is what seems right.

Now we also discussed in class the treatment of certain objects, items and things based of the fact that they have souls. The conclusion on this that I have come to is, whether something has a soul or not. I will respect it. Dog, cat, spider, blanket, marker, what have you, I try not to destroy any of this or anything else without a purpose. I’m not going to break something just for the sake of breaking something. I try to respect all things and be intentional and have a purpose for my actions. It’s the logical part of me. I treat things according to their functions and that is why I have no problem eating meat. I believe it is part of their function. If I don’t value, respect or have a use for something, I will give it to someone who does. So these are the conclusions I have come to about things, alive or not alive, those that have souls and those that are soul-less.

The search for objectivity

In class we discussed after reading the allegory of the cave that we should search for objectivity. The more we know and the more we search the closer we are to enlightenment. This might seem like an odd statement coming from someone with such strong spiritual beliefs but I don't really believe in absolute truths. I would gamble in saying that there is no way to prove something is absolutely true. There is no Truth, only opinions and everyone's opinions are relative to their life experience and the way they have been nurtured and taught. if your goal is knowledge and you believe that learning as much as you can will enlighten you or even bring you joy, you are certainly not me. I would say that I am a person who is uncomfortable with ambiguity.

I don't like being unsure of things but I think I am pretty sure that in searching for "Truth", proof, and more knowledge with only bring more confusion. What I am sure of is that on this earth I am not going to find proof that I was I believe is absolute truth without someone finding some reasonable explanation of why what I think to be true is doubtable. I think that this is true in everyone's life. I have found peace and solace in the fact that I dont have proof,and that I don't need to have proof. That is where faith steps in.

Faith is necessary for what philosophers refer to as enlightenment. The knowledge found here on earth is temporary. we live short lives and I don't want to spend my short time her trying to figure out things that, if I was supposed to know, would be revealed to me. I trust that there is someone who has much more control over my enlightenment than I do, so instead of searching for knowledge on this earth which in my opinion is temporary, I chose to search for love and dig deep for love, because love never fails and never dies. But once again this is a subjective point of view and I have little power to change what someone believes to be absolute truth. Only God has the power to do that. my absolute truth come from the Bible.

In John 2:23-24 Jesus explains that he doesnt trust the kind of faith that comes from seeing miraculous things. Its not difficult to imagine why. Such faith is likely to be fair-weather faith. It will believe when signs are performed, prayers are answered, things are going well. Bit it is not the sort of faith that will survive the loss of a child, a period of illness or some other trauma. Persevering faith comes through the word of God.

Once again this is my subjective view, based on my life experiences and what my teachings growing up taught me. I have been through severe trauma in my life, more than the vast majority, if not all the 20 year olds, I know. If I spent my time searching for proof that there was a God, instead of spending time trying to help others heal, love God, be loved by God, and love other people, i would be in a world of hurt. Because if I would have been looking for proof, I would have never found it. I need faith in order survive, to find joy and peace in my life. I need faith, not objectivity.

God is true to me and he has the power to change what someone feels about him or anything else. People chose to react in whichever way they chose based on their opinions based on their perception of reality based on their experiences. My point being, everything is subjective. In this line of thinking, of faith, I wont know if I'm right but whatever the cost of believing, its worth it for the hope and peace that believing brings. the ideas of a rationalist, believing that reason is the only way to reach absolute truth seams like a very sad life. Life as a philosopher, always searching for something that is unattainable and having faith in your own self, in nothing else, seems like a shallow and miserable life. Im so glad I dont aspire to be a philosopher. To spend every day revolved around my own knowledge and my own thoughts. Getting lost in my own brain everyday. I think it is a shallow existence. i want to live for something bigger than myself. Philosopher's seem to be very self absorbed. People are in pain, they struggle with death, and life and depression and philosophy only seems to confuse them further.

If people knew the answers,we wouldnt spend hours discussing why something is wrong or right and never come up with a definitive answer. so instead of telling a hurting person to search for objectivity, I am going to love them, to listen to them, pray for them, feed them and try to bring them a little bit of joy in hopes that the person who has all the answers to all the hard questions no one here on earth knows, will bring them the peace that he brought me in my struggle and hard times.