Do Animals Have Souls?

by Cold Steel 165 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • still thinking
    still thinking

  • cofty
    cofty

    Perfectly circular reasoning Tammy.

    It is identical to the way our Mormon apologist who started this thread would defend his cult manual manual - aka the book of Mormon. If you don't believe you just have to believe and then you will know its true.

    Its a con trick.

  • return of parakeet
    return of parakeet

    Cold Steel: "My own belief is that the atonement of Christ covers animals, humans, bugs, plants and everything with life."

    GREAT NEWS for the parasitic worms, tsetse flies, and the Ebola virus!!!

    I'm so glad to hear that the atonement of Christ covers plants too. I have a houseplant I'm very fond of. I call him Gustavo. He blooms with beautiful pink flowers in the winter. I'm going to tell him the good news right now.

    Obviously atheists need not pontificate on this ..."

    But we will anyway, CS. "Believers-only" threads are not allowed on this site.

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    I don’t think plants and viruses have consciousness.

  • return of parakeet
    return of parakeet

    How do you know that for sure, Seraphim?

    When I first brought Gustavo home, he didn't bloom for the first three years, even though I gave him the best treatment a plant could ask for --good lighting, plant food, regular watering. After the third year of no blooms, I ... I'm so ashamed to admit that I was that heartless ... but I threatened to toss him into the garbage if he didn't bloom the next year. Guess what? The very next year he bloomed!!! And every year since. We've been very good friends for 15 years.

    Don't you think that kind of bravery in the face of adversity deserves the atonement of Christ?

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    Sweet!

  • cofty
    cofty
    I don’t think plants and viruses have consciousness.

    So are you equating soul with consciousness?

    On what basis do you make this definition?

    Do you mean animals that experience primary or core consciousness have a soul or only those with extended consciousness?

    What about fish and birds, do they qualify? By soul do you mean something that will survive death?

    Also why do you think that consciousness is more than a function of the brain? If I hit you over the head with a big stick so hard that your brain stops working for a while you will be unconscious so how can the soul be the same as consciousness? By that definition the soul would cease to exist at death.

    Thanks.

  • return of parakeet
    return of parakeet

    As for viruses, Seraphim, the only consolation I have when I have a bad cold is that at least the viruses are having the time of their lives. Why should consciousness be requisite to be considered worthy of the atonement of Christ? God is said to have created all living things. Why should certain living things be exempted simply because we cannot understand what they may feel and know? I'm beginning to think that you have an unfair prejudice against life that doesn't have consciousness in our sense of the word. Naughty Seraphim.
  • *lost*
    *lost*

    What is 'definition' of 'soul'.

    If everyone has a different idea/opinion/belief as to what it is, relevent to them, how can people with conflicting ideals ever expect to agree.

    I don't understand why people don't just accept and respect that everyone is entitled to believe what they want to, as long as they are not hurting anyone.

    Or is the point here, proof, hard evidence ?

    Just wondering.

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    Yea I guess I am equating the two coffee and I would include anything than can experience, so animals and whatever would qualify. Bricks and stones and plants I don’t think so. As for it being a function of the brain, I think there is a problem in reducing it to a mere process because there is nothing about a mere process that explains experience, agency and choice. A better explanation is needed. The reason I think it survives death is not just the evidence from NDEs and surgeons, but a philosophical issue regarding the difference between an event that can be recorded in memory storage like a brain or CD and the experience of the event or memory of an event. Experiencing an event doesn’t seem to be an event itself but something that witnesses an event, or can initiate an event. In this sense it doesn’t seem to exist in an ordinary physical way, and so doesn’t, if this is the case, exist in time either. Memory however does. There is also the philosophical issue of infinity in that humans have a grasp of infinity that mere computers do not, or cannot have, no matter how powerful.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit