This little chunk of kitty cat and fuzzy rat cyber space is dedicated to two of my all time favorite pets, my cat, Vianne, and my late rat, Elliott, affectionately known as "Bubby".


Saturday, November 11

Do animals have souls?




So I was pretty bothered the last few days by a comment made in the kitchen at work the other day about the wasted effort put into veterinary care for animals that don't even have a soul. I decided to do a little reading on the subject, since I had heard this thought before as it is a widespread belief of Jehovah's Witnesses, but I had never much dwelled on it before or gave it much consideration. Here's what I found...

First off my own thoughts are that God made animals even before humans on the 4th and 5th day of creation. (Genesis 1:20-22) I also noticed that in my KJ version that on the 20th verse there is a little word noted at the end of the verse: soul.
There are in fact many times in the Bible where animals are mentioned as spiritual creatures and that alone tells me that they must hold a special place with our Creator.

Jumping ahead to Genesis 9:4-5 we read about the importance that blood has to God. This is why he commanded men not to it eat it. The blood belongs to God as it represents the life/soul of the living flesh. (Isaiah 17:10-16) In the 14th verse it states that "For it is the life of all flesh". He also commanded men to have respect for the animals and even when sacrificing or slaughtering to do so in a respectful manner according to His instructions. God was not asking for them to sacrifice a bunch of trees, but it was the blood of the animals which offered atonement for their souls before Christ took their place and let Himself be sacrificed.

What other of God's creations on this earth has a level of consciousness, or blood for that matter, but his animals and to a higher degree, humans? It is widely known that animals feel pain, fear, affection, embarrassment, loneliness, and many other characteristic of a living being with a soul. It is simply man's duty set in place by God to watch over them, care for them, respect them and enjoy them as the gift they are.

Although this is a highly debatable topic and I leave anyone to draw their own conclusions given the information available, I still have to argue that even if I knew for a fact that animals did NOT have souls, I’ll be damned if my cat ever breaks her leg or becomes very sick and I dare tell someone that I'd rather not go through the trouble of caring for her injury as she cries in pain and frustration simply because.... "oh, she has no soul, why bother??"


On that note, here's an interesting little blurb I found that kind of gets you wondering...http://www.petsweekly.com/AnimalsSouls.html

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I enjoyed reading your post. The Hebrew word the Bible uses for "soul" is "nephesh." It literally means "a breather," that is, anything that breathes. After God formed Adam's body out of dust and breathed the breath of life into him, it is said that "man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)

In Genesis 1:20,24, animals are described as souls, using that same Hebrew word. Again this can be seen in Lev. 24:17,18: "In case a man strikes any soul [Hebrew, nephesh] of mankind fatally, he should be put to death without fail. And the fatal striker of the soul [Hebrew, nephesh] of a domestic animal should make compensation for it, soul for soul."

TJ

6:01 AM  

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Image hosting by TinyPic Note: Due to the large amount of chaos in my life currently, I will not have time to update this main page on a regular basis. I have changed my settings so that only one blog post will be seen on the main page at a time. This way you won't be seeing a string of old posts taking up space on here. They are not deleted. You can simply view them in the archives. So if it appears that I have not been around for awhile, I'm still here, just haven't had time for adding new blogs. I will, however, be trying to keep up with the Furry Friends Forum, so I'll see you in there!

Purrs and Bruxes,

~Shayne











Image hosting by TinyPic Elliott blessed my life as a tiny one week old pup several years ago. I hand-raised him and we shared a very special bond. He will forever remain, not only one of my favorite rats, but also a favorite pet as well. Read his story in my April 2, 2005 post of his obituary.

Image hosting by TinyPic Vianne decided to own me back in January of 2004. At the time, I was working in an Animal Control Clinic as a vet assistant. Entering the shelter as a stray and after having already gone through her vet exam, work-up, and being a Pet Pal candidate for adoption, it was determined that she had been exposed to a URI from her littermate and was being held on observation for signs of illness. During those few days, I absolutely fell in love with this tiny ball of fur that would simply purr and "hug" me as I held her, not try to squirm away like most kittens. When she began a sneezing fit, she was placed on the euthanasia list. I simply could NOT allow such a sweet heart to be lost that way. I immediately signed up for kitten fostering and she has been a bundle of laughs and a dear friend ever since!









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