Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, we are living and breathing as are animals. Just because we have a voice and look different doesn't mean our lives have more value.

Well if all dogs go to heaven...

It's interesting because in different media I've seen it mentioned before that animals are the only beings with 'pure' souls, I guess if you want to attach Christian philosophy to it they aren't effected by original sin since original sin is to Eve.

I think the second Ghost in the Shell movie plays with that theme a lot, adding children to the mix as well. The only truly 'innocent' beings capable of showing true emotion. (If you watch it, you'll notice the dog has more expressions than ANY adult human in that movie, cyborg or not.)

I don't know overall the answer to the question though. I'm curious though, there aren't any animals that have 'free will' so to speak. Without free will, is it even possible to go to heaven or hell? Aren't those consequences in the afterlife given to those that choose to live their lives certain ways?

Why would animals NOT have souls? How can something live without one? I find that the difference between the spirit of an animal and the Spirit of a Human is that the Human's spirit is sentient. Sentience is what gives us the ability to reason. It should be noted that the Octopus has an intelligence rivaling that of a Human's. The reason why they do not have civilisation like we do is due to their relatively solitary living habits. Humans have a sense of Community while octopi do not. Civilisation requires a community.

Futhermore, the Creation myth of Christianity implies that animals could speak in the Garden of Eden, explaining why Eve wasn't frightened by the snake's ability to speak. Intelligible Speech implies sentience, if the physiological/morphological components are present in the creature. However, Christians explain this as the Devil taking the form of a snake, which seems irrational and somewhat counterproductive to me.

I don't believe in God, but I do have some evidence to believe there are souls. Let me ask you this: As a transhumanist, I believe we will have the technology available to us which will allow us to upload our minds into a computer. This digital copy of our minds will be perfectly the same in every way as our original minds form our organic brains. Now, as a cheap way to confer a degree of clinical immortality, we can clone our bodies and when the body is ready, we can download our digital minds into the "blank" brain of our clones and effectively live another lifetime. Now, what if two of the same being (same bodies and same minds) stand next to each other. Will the original be able to see through both their own eyes and the eyes of the perfect clone? Logically, no. Will we be able to see through the eyes of our perfect clone after it watches us die? Logically, no. Why not? What defines our individual existence? What makes it possible to "see through our own eyes" and not the same exact body and mind were it not for the existence of a soul? Granted, I'm using the word "soul" for lack of a better word, but surely you understand my point.

Furthermore, there is tonnes of evidence for the phenomenon of reincarnation. However, for it to be at its most credible, you have to catch it in a very young child who is still too young to grasp history like older kids and adults can. It's scary how little kids can draw crude pictures and describe the scene in a historically accurate manner consistent with actual historical occurrences. Sure, Christianity doesn't like the idea as it conflicts with the Book of Hebrews' teachings. Scientists prefer to ignore it..... Yet there it is right there in front of us. Don't deny anything ou see. Science fact is far more freaky and weird than science fiction.

Thanks for my daily lulz. biggrin

Anyway. Yes, I do believe animals have souls, that may just be because I've loved animals since I was little, but yeah. I believe the afterlife would be extremely boring without our pets.

.....
Yes, as far as i know, it is true.
Animals has been set apart from humans, as NOT HAVING SOULS.
I'm unsure if this is a strict Christian thing, but it was tied to officcial christianity for a long time.
The development that animals do have souls, or that they even have purer souls than humans, is rather a development, coming from christian people, semi-christians, and their children, that has seen actual personality within their allegedly "soulless" pets and companions.

Then, it got intermixed with several pagan beliefs, including variants on animism and such.

I consider that development to be good, but Christianity was, before that, known for enforcing the idea of "soulless animals".

What is a soul anyway? If you want to say that animals have emotions, I agree, but do emotions necessitate a soul?

So a soul is needed to feel emotional pain? Emotional pleasure? Why would that be so?