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.