Do animals have souls? - Stories that prove they have and share the same empathy we do (or should)

reply to post by Plotus


For some reason I assume another rejects the Creator for fear of reprisal.
Understood, though one is still 'here' assuming the unassumable.
If one knew better, would they not do better?
That could assume an entity far more understanding than one could assume.
Toosense.

reply to post by gigaherc


No doubt in my mind that there is more to our four legged friends then what would appear.
There is no doubt in my mind that every animal enjoys human touch! maybe exept some of the cold-blooded ones.

Having feelings and emotions does not equate having a soul. Koko has been trained for years, who knows what they trained it to do? Even the Devil has emotion....he get's very angry at mostly everything and is happy when a baby gets hit by a car.

My only complaint about your wonderful post is that I made the mistake of reading it at work and now I can't stop crying. I'm starting to get stares!


I definitely wouldn't have been able to take any stories of cruelty to animals --- I can't even put into words how much those stories affect me.

But your post was very touching --- if human beings have souls then there is no doubt in my mind that animals do as well!

If you have a moment you might enjoy a post/thread I created a while back that

The True Story of an Incredible Dog

Thanks again!

Well Do I think they have Souls

MY Great Dane would move his Body like he was Running and Barking [well whispering]
when he was Sleeping for the 4 years he was on this Planet called earth

he passed away from Prostate cancer

He Showed Emotions like any other Dog had Human Like Expressions

So I would Say yes INTELLIGENT Animals Have Souls ...

Man's Best Friend ... I think Would All Dogs go to Heaven

The 3 Branches of Abraham Would think Differently

and what about the Sumarian and Egyptian Stories about animals that have Souls


Just throwing it Out there ....

Didnt they Found Egyptian Animal Mummies ? mummified for a Passage to the Afterlife >>>.....?

Egyptian Animal Mummies
www.mummytombs.com...

[]geply to post by gigaherc


Please forgive any typing errors' I am typing thru tears. Very emotional. I want to thank my mom for raising me a vegetarian. I wish I could tell her but sadly she is no longer with us. I don't even know if I have a soul but I have something just the same as every living creature on earth and maybe even beyond. As I sit here with my Sophie girl (my German Shepherd) she has her head on my lap and keeps looking at me. She senses something as I am sniffling like a child after watching and reading your posts' where normally she would just lay' sleep & relax. Thank you for those wonderful stories. They couldn't of come at a better time.

Originally posted by Sundowner
I
Also, when, given the intense emotional experiences (among other types) I had with my horse, I was told he'd jsut rot in the ground after he died, I wanted to fly off the handle. I am not sure the verse in the bible....but there's something in there that says somethign to the effect of 'there is a place for all God's creatures'. I interpret that to mean there is a place for them, somewhere, after they die.)

Isaiah 11: 6-9
“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (NIV)

A little bit of Canine Soul for y'all



I'd like to see him do it without the sheet music in front of him though

Heard a story long ago about my grand-pappy & his horse "Tony".

Pappy was given "Tony" when he was a boy. Where ever Pappy went, Tony went. (this was the old days folks).

Apparenty, my Pappy (on occassion) would have to many drinks with his buddy's a few miles away from home. When that happened, his buddy's would.throw Pappy over Tony's back and tell him to take him home. Tony did just that! When they arrived at home, Grandma would take it from there.

Tony passed when Pappy was in his 30's.

I never knew Tony. Just heard the stories about him and the wonderful relationship they had.

When my Pappy became ill from cancer in his late 70's & prior to his passing. One of his last words were, here comes Tony, he is coming to get me & take me home.

No doubt that my Pappy & Tony are together in heaven now.

8 months later, my Grandma joined them.

Yeah, our pets go to heaven and when we go,... they will be there to great us.

This is a very deep subject for me and i appreciate the OP for making such a touching topic close to my heart and the heart of many others.

It is amazing to see the emotions brought up over this topic. I believe if a human can find a spot in their heart for an animal and if they can love an animal as much if not more then a human then they are better then the people who walk around and don't care about life around them.

Animals are similar to children, you have to feed them; love them; and help them with things like open doors, preparing food etc.. so if someone cant find love in their heart for an animal i believe that person may also not know what love towards children or people is also.

Everything that bleeds red shares the same soul, big or small, tiny or tall. How much pain and torment those who give to a creature whether human or animal who shares blood, a brain, nerves and emotions will come back to them and frankly people who are cruel to animals deserve to suffer more then they give because they initiate that upon innocence.

Their is all this movement towards equality between races and im all for it but their is little movement towards animal and human equality, people say its because animals cant talk (human ignorance lacks communication of any form) or because they have hair or walk on all four's.

I hope in time laws pass where people must gain a license to own an animal and are monitored because alot of people out their who own pets are not educated enough or don't have the ability or understanding to know an animal needs as much as love and time as a human child. Cage an animal in a zoo or taunt them in a circus (Dont get me started on them exhibitions of torture) or put them in glass in a pet shop and be constantly teased by our freedom is cruel, Imagine the uproar if that was done to a human? Once again human ignorance allows this sort of practice, I enjoy the zoo as much as other's but a better concept would be to only zoo injured animals or dying breeds and release them back into the wild when either better or once numbers have increased, which brings me to my next subject.

Culling
en.wikipedia.org...

if a species gets too much or are a threat to humans because of size or if a farm cant handle the amount of livestock they are killed by us because we "can" its the reason species like the Tasmanian tiger got wiped out and other beautiful creatures that roamed the earth, in reality the size of the human species as a whole is far larger than any other creature minus bugs on this planet yet we are free to roam, alot of our ignorant species i believe need to be culled (this may sound cruel but people are cruel to animals.. but think deep about the unnecessary pain people cause to others who are innocent or other species or even nature).

How is it fair a human swims in the ocean, gets bitten by a shark and then the sharks that are in that certain part of the ocean or beach are killed just to satisfy this supposed human thirst for an eye for an eye which doesn't exist in the animal world, the oceans belong to things that swim and its inhabitants were around long before us, the dumb human who got bitten should have been more careful, and how is it a dog will bite a human which i agree is a bad thing but yet for a "bite" the dog gets "put to sleep" or "euthanized" which is another way of saying "murdered". I mean how many humans do you know that have received the electric chair for biting someone?

i apologize to those not religious but lets not forget Noah built an ark for the "animals" not the humans, he wiped them out because of their misdeeds, the reality is the animals had a more purer soul and were much more important then people and they are the true creatures of love, because they don't feel hate as strongly as an emotion as humans and it is out "hate" as people which gives us the instinct to want to eradicate innocence for no reason other then to satisfy our own urges of pointless satisfaction.

Like i said i feel strongly about animals, sometimes more over humans... i am not a vegetarian i do not eat alot of meat and don't need to be lectured about the pain the creature may have suffered, i eat it sparingly and only for diet reasons, i eat vegetables and grains more nor am i part of any group, just a human being who does not agree with the unneeded pain of something who cant defend them self against the inventions of man or the emotions of them also.

on an end note, some say the spirit is connected to ghost's.. their are many case's of spirit animals also and pictures if you Google it, even without any proof i would still believe if a human is capable of having a ghost then why cant an animal? Were all made of the same stuff at the end of the day.

I have three dogs myself. I can tell you I have no doubt they experience emotion. They also have very different personalities. I had a cocker spaniel growing up. When he died, he came to see me twice in dreams just to show me that he was happy where he was. This is when I became convinced that animals do have souls. These were no ordinary dreams and had a very different feel to them. I cannot stand to see animals abused and hurting. I was moved to tears reading this thread at even the thought of it!

Originally posted by Zivablizz
I have three dogs myself. I can tell you I have no doubt they experience emotion. They also have very different personalities. I had a cocker spaniel growing up. When he died, he came to see me twice in dreams just to show me that he was happy where he was. This is when I became convinced that animals do have souls. These were no ordinary dreams and had a very different feel to them. I cannot stand to see animals abused and hurting. I was moved to tears reading this thread at even the thought of it!

I had that happen to me. I had 2 cats. My 22 year old kitty girl passed on 9/7/03. The following year, my boy kitty passed on 9/7/04. One year later to the day.

I had a dream the night after he passed. She had her paws around him. It made me feel better, knowing they were together.

Originally posted by OwenandNoelle
My only complaint about your wonderful post is that I made the mistake of reading it at work and now I can't stop crying. I'm starting to get stares!


I definitely wouldn't have been able to take any stories of cruelty to animals --- I can't even put into words how much those stories affect me.

But your post was very touching --- if human beings have souls then there is no doubt in my mind that animals do as well!

If you have a moment you might enjoy a post/thread I created a while back that

The True Story of an Incredible Dog

Thanks again!

Thanks for you kind words.

Thanks all of you guys, so great debate and great examples!

I am truly astonished by your reaction, I was thinking my OP will sink among '2.3 EQ in south pacific we're all gonna die' ones.

Awesome stories shared by some of you!

Funny thing is I meand to ignite a disscussion and it seems I brought some of you to tears (however I admit, some of these stories when I read/watched them for the first time made me cry also). But these were the good tears and I hope only these kind shall be shed

Once again I recommend you all googling for a full story of Christian the lion, some of the YT movies cut to Whitney Houston songs are unbearable, but there is a great full one by PLANETE tv station.

Also, just to share, meet Drake, my great friend, the german dog:



He surely got more soul in him than Barry White!

I think to have a "soul" you must be aware of your own mortality.

Because if you are aware of your own mortality, you must be thinking.

I'm not just talking about a deer being aware that a hunter shooting at it might cause it to die, I'm quite certain it does.

I'm talking about knowing that no matter what, time catches up to you.

I think knowing that changes a beings actions, changes how it interacts with others.

There was a story last week about a bull elk saving a marmot that was drowning,

www.mnn.com...

You have to wonder what was going on in his head.


I think the soul is what the churches called it, but what it really is is our moral compass. The church wanted our moral compass pointed in it's direction, and when you went bad that meant your soul was comprimised.

And since you don't need religion to tell you right from wrong, you don't need religion to have a soul.

Yes, all animals have "souls". It is just the word we use to describe living beings outside their earthbound shell. You don't have to be religious to believe that. Love is what binds us, whether it be love of another human being or the love for your pet. Once the strong connection is made it can never be broken. Neil deGrasse Tyson says "We are stardust". We're really made from the same things as everything else. Everything is connected.. Universally. Once you realize that it all makes sense. In the end we all go out into the universe once again. The energy, the soul, the essence that is us, continues.

For those who follow the religious path, it was explained to me this way: God in Heaven would not deny you the connections you loved in life or it would not truly be Heaven. Nor would he condemn you to an everlasting life without those you love by your side.

As humans we need to get past this anthropocentric way of thinking. We are not the center of the universe. We are one with it. Just like all living things. The respect we have for other living things and our willingness to coexist is what matters. What we learn and do while here is what will either haunt us or give us joy beyond the bounds of Earth.

reply to post by Evanzsayz


Awesome! This made my night. I had no idea how social and family oriented wolfs are. A real eye opener and very easy to see why dogs become part of our human packs.

reply to post by ChristianJihad


It is the nature of the beast.... Cats big or small "Predator". Still doesn't mean they don't have a soul.

So here in the UK we used to have hunting foxes and still have the shooting of game...... So humans don't have souls either then.... If thats the remit?
Every living thing has a Soul (or Universal Force, Energy) and everything has it's nature, place and role within the matrix that is our present existence... be it Predator or Prey, Plant or plankton.

A short video of 3 dogs that will make you laugh. Watch the two on the right look at the guilty party.

Who did this mess!

www.youtube.com...

You are an atheist yet you think animals have a soul? That’s retarded. You would be the last one I would think would go this way, but wait… let me guess… you are also a vegetarian. Your pictures are very touching yet if you didn’t look at them with your emotion you wouldn’t see any emotion in them. My tomato plants love me and I talk to them. They give me fruit every year so I can eat. When they get sick (not enough water, too much or cold) they droop and look sad. Looks like the only living creatures losing out in this relationship is the tomatoes. I violently rip them from the vine, sometimes in their prime, and brutally slice them open for my own pleasure to put them on my head cheese sandwich along with their cousin the onion!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

Watch for my post on how women really feel during child birth. The truth only a man can tell!

reply to post by riverwild


That's great. I think the two on the right did it and just tried to blame the white one!