Could Animals Have A Soul?

[sandyRoe]

The house must have been coming down with mice. The new traps have killed six in only two days.
If animals do have a soul is it fair to dispatch them unshriven from this world?

[wolf63]

Do you think that all humans have a soul?

[Old_Geezer]

Why not ? If one is to assume one creature is a soul then presumably others have too, unless they are zombie/automatons.

What would a creature who has not the capability of moral judgement have to confess ?

[sandyRoe]

I think that they do, yes.

[jim360]

What is a soul anyway? If it's some abstract concept of the ability to care for others, there are some animals that appear to have such an ability to a limited extent. If the Soul is something real and potentially tangible, or at least visible in some scans of the brain, well, there's no evidence that humans have a soul either.

[Old_Geezer]

Since a soul is the essence of what you are then I'm unsure something spiritual is detectable by scans. Some things can't be observed: can you bottle a thought ? One can experience one's own existence though and it doesn't seem likely to be the same thing as a metal spoon experiences.

[LazyGun]

We can observe a thought though O_G. We can see a thought passing through the medium in which it lives, the brain.

[shoota]

Should not the first question be, 'Is shriving of any value whatsoever'?

[jim360]

The progress being made in understanding the human brain, and to a lesser extent the brains of other animals, is such that we can't rule out the idea that such concepts as thoughts and even souls will turn out to have a well-understood physical basis. In which case even animals could have "souls" -- but, again, what do you mean by soul when you ask the question?

[Old_Geezer]

Ah but that is no more seeing the thought itself, through the brain, than we see the wind through the trees.

[wolf63]

We're all more than the sum of our parts ~ must be true as I heard it in Star Trek TNG

[naomi24]

//We can see a thought passing through the medium in which it lives, the brain. //

We can observe the process of a thought passing through a brain, but we can't define its essence. We don't know what it is.

[Peter Pedant]

No of course they dont

That is why they are called animals - er I cd have put that better

and so it is remarkable why they are called animals - can anyone explain.

In the KJV they are only called Beasts

And why do you wanna shrive them for chrissakes ?
Shrive means confess as in Shrove Tuesday the day of confession before Lent. ANd before you proddies winge, you DO have a sacrament called aural confession but none of you seem to know

I think you mean Baptise

[pixie373]

We do know whether it's memory, imagination, emotion, etc.
I am honestly not sure exactly what you mean by "soul". Can you clarify, sandy?

[pixie373]

Peter, the word animal comes from the Latin "anima" which is spirit or soul. Humans are animals, too.

[mikey4444]

There is no such thing as a "soul" Whether you should use humane mouse traps or the regular type is up to you.

[jim360]

We can't define the essence of the thought because we can't agree on what a thought is. Some people are fond of speculating that a thought must be something more than the physical -- but why should that be?

A thought is, most likely, nothing more than the process. This can -- and does -- contain the essence. Rather like the essence of a musical note is its waveform, which is described by the process of its formation and the medium in which it travels. Any appeal to an essence beyond that is probably unnecessary.

Note the use of "probably" and "most likely".

[LazyGun]

The point though O_G is that thought needs the medium in which to exist.Less like the effect of wind on trees; a better analogy would be that thought is more like the passage of information via the myriad connections of the internet.

[Peter Pedant]

Shoota - shriving must have (a value) or else people wouldnt go and get shriven - or even go around as well-shriven

and says things like - Yesterday I shrove.

OK I dont know if shrive is confess or be confessed [or both]

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe, but there again no analogy is perfect. Who is to say the thought doesn't exist without a way to express itself and have others aware of it. If there was no neuron medium destination in which to make itself known does it necessarily mean there wasn't a thought, created by the soul but with nowhere to go in this physical plane ?

[jim360]

Would there be a way to test that, OG?

And, again, what is a Soul?