I read my then ten year old daughter perhaps fifty NDE accounts last summer vacation. Her favourites were the ones where a deceased pet was met during a brush with death. Kenneth Ring Ph. D. found that one NDE in six involves a meeting with a former pet! http://www.near-death.com/animals.html
This is interesting! http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiratio...-Mourn-Death-of-famed-Elephant-Whisperer.aspx
I don't like your choices.... the only one with No on it says I also don't believe anything has souls.... and that's not what I believe. Humans have souls Animals do not. Too often, people attribute souls in animals based on cuteness of animals.... Noone has any issues killing a diseased racoon or oppossum, but try to cull off a nuisance animal baby seal, that's all cute and cuddly looking, and people think it's akin to killing a baby.
I don't know what will be waiting for me.... but as far as a 1:1 rat to Heaven ratio from the souls of rats that existed on earth..... nope.
Forgetting about the part of the Bible about the earth being reformed and people rising from the ashes and dust and all that aren't we?
If the human animal has a soul, certainly the non-human ones do. They feel love, fear, devotion, and all the emotions humans feel.
I think that the rats that make it to heaven will go through some sort of conversion process kind of like we humans do . and apparently is available even for lions as well!! Isaiah 11:7 "And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox." I guess many transformed and restored rats will get into a heavenly state of mind over the coming two or three centuries?!?! http://www.near-death.com/storm.html#a04 .
I am kind of impressed that the Psalms mentions Moshiach/Messiah coming on a cherub…. and Revelation statest Messiah rides on a horse….. Can therefore a cherub be in the form of a horse??!! Psalms 18:10 "And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind." …Revelation 19:11 "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war."
I agree, insects do not qualify, I saw a puppy today, it looked at each person, there was something there I could sense, other creatures do not have a puppies qualities, I held a piglet, it could not appreciate a caress like a Dog does.
I have to wonder if this discussion that I just read indicates that even some insects may have far far far more going on than we might tend to imagine?!?!
I consider that soul appears at animals, somewhere, with 15-20 million neurones of a brain and more. But I am an atheist. And I call soul set of higher nervous activity
Soul is religious mumbo jumbo. We have brains, thoughts, personalities, but I don't believe in souls or an afterlife.
Hello! i will show you, scientifically, how animals have souls too... Our bodies are made of chemicals, and some of that is in the form of chemical energy. this is because if you were to observe that our bodies give off 'heat,' this is energy, of course. you may not be aware, but, all our fuels get processed and give energy to us. this energy stays inside the body until it is used up, but, the heart keeps everything 'circulating' and then the fuels keep us going, during life. It is common knowledge all energy is never destroyed, it merely changes forms, yes? Now, when you die, your energy leaves your body, and becomes like a 'soul,' of course. this means that the 'information that made your personality' takes off and leaves your body, as the heart is no longer beating pushing blood through the body with the fuels. the fuels are there, the nervous system is there connecting the cells... it just isn't insulated anymore. So, the things that make you you are merely neurons that have connected in working ways, at working charges and energy levels, or, 'voltage,' and they look for a new source of fuels, like oxygen, outside the body. This goes for all life that makes decisions, as there is only energy out there, and most of it is 'subconscious.' like particles, they will interact, due to chemistry, and then there is activity in the universe, leading to everything that is not nothing. everything you would class as alive would have an afterlife, with the energies you have circulating, in a structured fashion.
If you don't like calling it a soul, try identity. You are you and I am me. If I lose an arm, or get brain damage, I am still me and you are still you. As we age, all of the Atoms and cells in our bodies are replaced many times. Our personalities change, our bodies change and our brains change, yet our identity remains. Whether animals have this is another question, but I bet some do.
I believe that humans are organisms no different or special than any other. We have a brain, we reproduce, we eat, we have energy. Souls, religion, and spirits are uniquely human inventions but they are BS IMO. Brain death = eternal oblivion. We are just walking brains having sensory experiences.
Essentially, yes. If dogs had opposable thumbs and the same language as people, we would probably be chained outside on the cold winter nights.
According to the King James Bible, yes- "God.. in whose hand is the soul of every living thing" (Job12:10 KJV), but some versions replace the word "soul" with "life". A couple of other verses indicate God certainly doesn't forget animals- Jesus said:- "God won't forget the death of a sparrow" (Matt 10:29) God said - "Every animal of the forest is mine,and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains,and the creatures of the field are mine, for the world is mine,and all that is in it" (Psalm 50 10-12)
When a cat leaves a hot steamer on the rug, and puts their head down in shame - that's their soul feeling bad for what they once felt great about.