I don’t see how a living being - a creature that has life - does not have a soul. The soul is the source of life.
As far as rational understanding, trees don’t have any and animals don’t have very much. But neither do the profoundly retarded human beings, and they have souls. Or as CS Lewis puts it, a soul is having the body, not that bodies have souls.
Anyway, I do not want to argue, just though I’d dip my teeny toe in the water.
If animals don’t have souls, just who is looking at you through those eyes? Are they just put on for decoration, or is there someone looking through those eyes at you?
>>If animals don’t have souls, just who is looking at you through those eyes?<<
Brilliant!
“don’t see how a living being - a creature that has life - does not have a soul. The soul is the source of life.”
Then our question is, what is a soul?
The Bible defines it as something God gave mankind, not animal kind.
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7
All other references to souls in the Bible refer to mankind.
So to say animals have souls is a stretch, to say the least.
Never is ensoulment of an animal mentioned. Nor are animals referred to as souls.
“Anyway, I do not want to argue, just though I’d dip my teeny toe in the water.
If animals don’t have souls, just who is looking at you through those eyes? Are they just put on for decoration, or is there someone looking through those eyes at you?”
I don’t want to argue either, I am happy to have a discussion.
I don’t deny animals are alive, or think, or feel. I just deny they have a soul. Who’s looking at you through those puppy dog eyes? They are. They are what they are. You can describe them in many ways. But they aren’t souls.