Do Animals Have Souls?
Exploring religious perspectives on "All dogs go to Heaven."
This question is one I have wondered about since childhood. Growing up, one of my favorite movies to watch was “All Dogs Go To Heaven”, a movie about a morally questionable dog and his fate after death. In the end, he is forgiven and allowed into Heaven. This is an interesting and comforting sentiment to a young mind, and it urged me to think about the souls of animals.
I remember around ten years old discussing this question with my grandmother. To her, no animal has a soul or goes to Heaven (or any form of afterlife), to which I would respond “Aren’t there animals in Heaven?” An idea I had formed in childhood. But according to her, “They were already there.” I didn’t take her response to heart, but it broadened my perspective on the topic and allowed me to think even further.
If animals have no souls, every aspect of them would completely cease to exist after death. Is it possible? If they have no souls, what force is driving them? What moves their body? It is difficult to imagine that they are a completely empty vessel.
Thomas Aquinas: Rational Vs. Sensitive Soul
“Animal” comes from the Latin “anima”, which literally means “soul.” So it must be true that they all have souls, right? From a Catholic perspective, animals do not have “rational” souls like humans. Meaning, a soul that can be independent from the body. This indicates the idea that humans have rational souls, since after death our soul has the ability to separate from our body and go elsewhere.
The type of soul that an animal consists of according to Catholicism is called a “sensitive” soul. This was proposed by Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the most influential philosophers. The main difference between these two types of souls is that the rational soul has a conscience. From our knowledge, animals cannot tell right from wrong. They just act on instinct alone.
This would also mean that the sensitive soul relies on the body for its existence. In Summa Theologiae, Aquinas says:
“Motive power is of two kinds. One, the appetitive power, commands motion. The operation of this power in the sensitive soul is not apart from the body; for anger, joy, and passions of a like nature are accompanied by a change in the body. The other motive power is that which executes motion in adapting the members for obeying the appetite; and the act of this power does not consist in moving, but in being moved. Whence it is clear that to move is not an act of the sensitive soul without the body.”
So, body movement is not reliant on the soul. Emotions like hunger, joy, and anger are also a part of how the body functions. Since an animal can experience these urges and emotions but cannot operate from a higher intellectual basis, they have sensitive souls. But according to Aquinas, these souls are not going to Heaven.
The Hindu Perspective
Most Eastern religions believe in reincarnation, the idea that the soul is constantly being re-birthed after death. This is Hinduism’s main belief, and their word for soul is “atman.” One’s atman moves through different lives determined by their karma; the principle of cause and effect based on an individuals actions. In Hinduism, animals are not omitted from this.
Hindu’s put all living beings on the same pedestal. No creature is more or less valuable than another. A tiger could be re-birthed into a human and vice versa. Many Hindu’s practice vegetarianism for this reason.
They do not believe in the concept of a “rational” or “sensitive” soul; rather, we all possess the same level of soul with the ability to be passed on to another type of creature. Therefore, according to Hinduism, animals do have souls.
An Open Interpretation
Throughout all of the world religions, there is no definitive answer to this question. This leaves us to our own devices. I personally choose to believe animals have souls, but maybe that is because I want to feel comforted thinking about what happens to my pets after death. Or maybe I want to continue this belief I formed in childhood.
I end this post with the same question I had when it started. We can realize that we may never know the answer while also being empowered to decide what we think. So, what do you believe? Do animals have souls?