Do animals have souls?
- Thread starter gupy77
- Start date
I think the fact that it was my personal subjective oppinion was kind of implied.cuddly_tomato said:Wrong.DannyBoy451 said:
Right.
When discussing philosophy it is worth remembering these are questions which nobody has the answers too. Pretending that one does makes one no better than that religious education teacher telling the op that animals don't have souls. Just something you might want to think about before posting in these kinds of topics.
Also: I'm not twelve fucking years old, don't be so patronising.
I agree. I think as far as the personality similarities go, it's fair to say animals are much like humans. Do I think they have souls? Well, once that's clearly defined for me, I'll make a decision. I'm not sure if I believe either animals or humans have one because the actual meaning isn't all that clear.iain62a said:
Going by my horribly fantasized, romanticized, hippie-esque outlook on life, I'd say that yes they do. In fact, I think they might have nicer ones than humans since they don't go around smuggling drugs or polluting the ozone layer. Well, okay, they still beat things up a lot and cows have that problem with the methane gas, but the point I'm trying to make is that animals don't seem to have the same overwhelming tendency of expressing ill will that humans do.
As a matter of fact your use of caps suggested you were slamming down your opinion and woe betide anyone who said anything differently. I wasn't being patronising, I was explaining a method of posting that would enable you to engage more effectively with people who have a differing opinion, which is what foruming is all about.DannyBoy451 said:
Because, much like religion, the soul is an philosophical concept. The soul to one might be something different to someone else. I think though that what the soul refers too is the *real you* that lies behind your eyes and even behind your thoughts. That feeling you have when you are moved by something. Also that feeling you have when you have done something wrong and feel you should make amends. The essence of being alive. Think about this - is life special? Is it something beyond just simple animated matter and chemical forces? If it is something more, then what is there that makes it different? This is what people are generally talking about when they discuss the soul. I will try to go into it in more depth if this is not sufficient.Ragdrazi said:
i'm not arguing any of this - i agree with all of it, except the part about processing proteins, because frankly, i have no idea. my point was NOT that humans are designed to be herbivores, but that since we are capable of surviving perfectly well as herbivores in the modern first-world, i can see how someone would think that it was cruel to continue eating meat.RAKtheUndead said:
i wasn't referring to how efficient it is for your body, which i actually know virtually nothing about - though i will say that most of us seem to be getting FAR too much fat, energy, and protein for the typical sedentary american lifestyle - i was talking about how efficient it is to produce. the production of meat is extremely resource-intensive.iain62a said:
Bah, I say, and Bah again. I hate how some religions try and pretend that animals are here only for our amusement and varied diet. Aside from its aggronance, it is a hard position to justify. My view, either everything has a soul, or nothing does.gupy77 said:
Ah, but fellow Agnostic, we can't be certain there aren't souls. We can be statistically highly certain, but not absolutely certain.Gerazzi said:
Wow, you seem very angry. And touch zealous, I think. Ok, its highly likely that there is no life after beath, but you can't just state that it isn't so. You (and no one on this forum I think) haven't ever died, so we can't be sure. Further, science is, currently, incomplete, so we can't rule out anything completely. For all we know, there could be a god with a twisted sense of humour behind the laws of physics ("Hi guys, thanks for following the String-theories to me, bwhaha").Nedned said:
Anywho, I used to be a full on Athesis, but really, that position is faith based as any religion. Faith that science has solved everything in the universe. Which isn't true, and any scientist worth his salt should be happy to accept that. Most do, and are happy, because its the way science works. That said, I'm not sure I can believe in a religion. Welcome to Agnostism, i.e. sitting on the metaphysical fence.
As a rule of thumb i am not spiritual, but if you constitute souls as life force then yes animals have souls; nice delectable meaty souls, yum
but of course souls are often argued to represent the individual mental aspect of a...thing... but of course animals are alive with individual thought patterns so I guess they could have a "soul"
but of course souls are often argued to represent the individual mental aspect of a...thing... but of course animals are alive with individual thought patterns so I guess they could have a "soul"
