I totally believe, my pets have a soul and a personality and all of them that have crossed my path in my life, whether they were pets I owned, or pets I fostered through my job, have contributed to me being a better person, and I do believe that God sends them to us for a reason.
I do! While I'm not religious or have much belief in God, I do believe I will meet the pets I have lost some day over the Rainbow. I believe Pandora was sent to me from my pet that passed away. Pandora is my "soul-kitty". She picked me.
I believe that animals are smarter and more aware of things than people give them credit for and I do believe they have souls (if souls exist since there is no way to prove it, lol). I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I have a soul than my animals definitely do.
I am more or less agnostic, but I still think that if people have souls, animals most certainly do. Since I got my ferrets, I do subscribe to the rainbow bridge idea, mostly because I couldn't imagine a reality where something good doesn't come at the end for all animals, rough life or no. I can't imagine that if there was a God, that they would imbue humans with a soul but no other living creature. We are just animals, after all. Good discussion.
I don't believe anyone or anything has a soul. I miss my cat but I don't think he's actually still "living" in any universe. But being remembered fondly by people who knew and loved you, or having your legacy live on through stories and photographs, is not unlike your soul enjoying an afterlife.
I think we are all a part of one big source of energy and that energy can change from one form to another. Animals certainly have emotions, they have personalities, they feel pain, and pet's watch out for us and give us comfort. I see no reason why they wouldn't have a "soul" in fact I see no reason why they haven't lived in other forms before and perhaps even lived as a human in a "past life." Many don't like to admit it but there is tons of evidence out there for past lives. We've all heard stories of the children who not only claim they were another person but can confirm it by proving they have knowledge about their former life with such accuracys that even the families admit that they believe it to be true. Of course the idea is not very popular in western culture because it doesn't fit into what the bible says so it is largely ignored and those who believe it are pegged to be nutty but oh well that's what me and hundreds of millions of other people around the world believe in. :/
I don't believe anyone or anything has a soul. I miss my cat but I don't think he's actually still "living" in any universe. But being remembered fondly by people who knew and loved you, or having your legacy live on through stories and photographs, is not unlike your soul enjoying an afterlife.
Ditto.
Except it wasn't a cat but a fluffy Samoyed named Ginger.
I think we all just "are". Energy doesn't just disappear, it moves from one state to another. I'm not sure if we have souls, so I can't say if an animal does. But I know my cats have a better grasp of when I'm feeling pain than my family does, and I think that says a lot.
I asked my mom this question when I was a little girl and our cat had just died. It was my first experience with losing a pet.
She told me, "No one knows the answer to that question, but I think that when we take an animal into our homes and our hearts, give him a name, shower him with love, and cry when he dies, we share a little piece of our own souls with that living creature. That's how we know we'll see them again someday when all of the soul's little parts flow back together into something bigger and brighter than ever."
It made such an impression on me that I never forgot that idea of imbuing animals with a little bit of our own souls.
No. I do not believe animals have souls. Animals are an important part of the world, they bring beauty & companionship as well as FOOD. But it is my belief that souls [in the religious sense] are possessed only by humans. Animals were not created in the image of God; people were.
If you say 'soul' as in personality, & life, then yes I believe they do, but not in the sense of the same way people do.
My only question about animals having souls is just how far down the food chain does it extend? Of course we want our pets to have souls, but what about tigers? Bats? And then what about insects?
Mind you, I DO think animals have souls, but it does boggle my mind when I get down to insects.
Does your pet have a soul?
