When I was two, my family had a dog named Lady. She was a good dog and very protective of me. She treated me as if I was one of her pups. However, though she served my family for many years, even before I was born, she was hit by a car and severely injured. My dad had to put her down as she was suffering from maggots and infection. It was the first loss I ever experienced. My mother told me that Lady was in a better place and that she went to heaven. In later years I would hear preached from the pulpit that animals don’t have souls and thus just simply cease to exist. Which is true? Do animals have souls or are they simply created beings that cease to exist upon death? Was my mother’s statement just something said to comfort her two-year-old or can there be some truth in it? If I want to be truthful, what do I tell my children when their pets die?

When I have questions like this, I could turn to a pastor or a scientist, both of which may agree or disagree alike. As I already mentioned, I have heard the doctrine of non-souls from a preacher in a message before. However, I have to wonder that if God made mankind to have a soul and we are similarly made, if they too could have a soul. Anyone who has had a dear pet and lost it has pondered this question at some point in their lives. Yet, I hesitate to go to a professional to hear simply another opinion, when I can go to the Bible itself for the truth. But first, let’s visit a few conceptual problems with the existence of souls in animals.

The Problem of Souls in Animals

The concept of animals having souls or spirits is not new. Hinduism, spiritism, animism, and Shintoism clearly state that animals can have spirits, some can even be deities in these faiths. Reincarnation is a belief not shared in all these religions, but worth mentioning as it promotes the idea that human souls could have origins in animals if that human had previously existed as an animal. However, these beliefs do not coincide with what the Bible says. 

I can understand why, then, many Christian pastors steer away from the animal soul idea, because it can lead to worship of created things rather than the One True God, who is the creator of all animals (Genesis 1:20-25). 

With reincarnation, the soul of all things is essentially equal in value as it can be transferred upon death into a new being, either more or less advanced. This contradicts the idea that God made man special in that he made mankind in His image (Genesis 1:27). Reincarnation cannot fit into Christianity as it is clearly stated in the Bible “it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgement” (Hebrews 9:27). 

These answers, while they affirm that animals are not gods and that there is not a connection between animal souls and human souls, it still does not answer the question of whether or not animals have their own soul. To this we return to the Bible and the account of creation to find out how the animals were created and contrast that with the creation of mankind.

Similar Wording at Creation

When I began to look into this, I really wanted to get as close of a translation as possible. Because I also wanted this in other subjects other than just that on animal souls, I purchased an Interlinear Bible, one that has a direct English translation within the Hebrew and Greek texts (hence the name: “interlinear”). This has been very helpful in this study in particular. For in the Interlinear Bible, the word normally translated as “kind” or “being” in the creation of animals is translated as “soul.” Here are a few examples:

“And God said, Let the waters swarm with the swarmers having a soul of life; and let the birds fly over the earth, on the face of the expanse of the heavens. And God created the great sea animals, and all that creeps, having a living soul…” (Genesis 1:20-21, Note: words in italics are not actual translations of words, but are used to indicate the meaning of the original tense of the word using modern English).

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the soul of life according to its kind: cattle, and creepers, and its beasts of the earth according to its kind. And it was so” (Genesis 1:24).

By comparison, the creation of man in the first chapter does not mention a soul, but that mankind is made in God’s image. However, in Genesis 2, the Interlinear translates as follows:

“And Jehovah God formed the man out of dust from the ground, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

I am not an expert in Hebrew, but I do notice some differences in the punctuation notation, which could mean that man’s living soul is different from animals. We could argue this even by context alone for from the first chapter, man is set apart as being created in God’s image and is given the authority to rule over the earth. In the second chapter, it is recorded that God blew the breath of life in his nostrils. It is unclear if the “breath of life” is something distinct to man as it is not recorded that God did anything similar with the animals, unless it is assumed that is how all living beings were made living. Regardless, we can conclude that man was set apart to be different from animals in that he was made in God’s image and that he was put in charge of the Earth. My question however is not that man is different from animals, but whether or not animals have a soul at all. Despite man being special, the Interlinear seems to simply state that animals do indeed have souls.

One Conclusion, Yet More Questions

Another point to make here is that while the creation of animals as souls uses very similar wording to that of mankind as souls, there is no mention of souls existing when the rocks and vegetation were created on the third day. Thus, there is not any strong Biblical argument for the existence of souls or spirits in other created things in the creation account in Genesis other than animals and mankind. Thus, religions that have such belief systems cannot have biblical foundations. However, I will concede some questionable references to rocks and trees in other parts of the Bible in this regard. I intend to discuss this topic to go deeper into this in another post. 

Getting back to the point that we have basically concluded that animals do have souls, this opens up many other questions:

• Are animals considered “fallen” as man is, and if so, do they need redemption?
• What should our attitude towards animals be?
• Is it natural for humans to communicate with animals or is demon possession responsible?
• Does God place moral demands on animals for killing other animals or humans?
• If there is a heaven for animals how do they get there? Is there a hell for animals or do “all dogs go to heaven”?

It would be unfair if I didn’t answer at least one of my original questions: “How can I comfort my child when they lose a pet?” here in the last part of this post. I will go deeper into this in my next post to answer more of these questions. But for now, since God created the animals’ souls, the best answer I have right now is similar to when trying to comfort loved ones of a deceased person of unknown faith. “They are in God’s hands now.”