Do Animals Have Souls?

Yes, they do. Some people don’t like to believe that non-human animals have souls, because thinking animals are incapable of feeling makes it easier to brutally murder innocent creatures, or perhaps humans just like to feel superior. Humans are just animals – nothing more – and we have souls, don’t we? (Sometimes I wonder).

You may be thinking, “But animals kill other animals with no regard for what they are doing. How could something that cruel have a soul?” Animals only kill if they need food or if they are defending themselves. They are only fulfilling a basic need for survival. Humans, on the other hand, find pleasure in going out and mindlessly slaughtering other living beings in cold blood for the “sport” of it. Humans, when they hunt, are mostly just trying to get a “trophy” to show off to their friends. Humans may eat some of what they kill, but a good portion of it goes to waste. We also raise animals for the sole purpose of killing them for food, clothing, experiments, etc., with no regard for the torture we put them through, even though we could get by just fine using only plants for such things. This is much more barbaric than an animal killing just what it needs for dinner.

Humans love feeling superior to every other animal on Earth, and so refuse to admit that non-human animals have souls as well. Humans don’t like to acknowledge that they are only another animal (what, did you think you were a plant? a fungus? Open a biology book. Humans are separate from the natural world), because that would mean humans aren’t as special. Heck, there have been entire religions created on the idea that humans “more special” than all other life. This sense of human superiority causes people to think of their pets as nothing more than property, giving them (in their own pathetic minds) the right to mistreat and neglect them and to think it’s alright to murder animals for food, clothing etc. This isn’t even taking into account all the religions that believe that humans can be reincarnated as animals, and vice versa. That idea has to have come from somewhere, right?

Some humans find amusement in torturing other living creatures, and find keeping their pets happy to be unimportant. People force their pets to stay outside in the freezing cold and extreme heat, while they themselves are sitting inside complaining about the weather. Humans experiment on animals as if pathetic consumer products are more important than the lives of innocent beings (even though this is a very inefficient way to test products meant for humans, as they might have a different effect on the test animals than they do on humans). We justify this by fooling ourselves into believing that animals can’t feel.

If you have a pet there really should be no doubt in your mind that non-human animals have souls. Every individual animal has it’s own personality, just like humans. Every animal has emotions (that in itself proves that animals do, in fact, have souls) and can most definitely feel. Animals won’t torture other living beings for amusement. Animals won’t mindlessly destroy their environment with no regard for the consequences. If anything has a soul, it’s non-human animals.

With all this in mind, doesn’t it seem that if humans have souls, other animals most definitely do as well? After all, if someone who can take the life of another living thing for profit or amusement with no remorse has a soul, every other animal definitely has one. If you still think that humans are better than all other animals, you may have an inferiority complex, and should really try to get over it.