“And the
Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of
life: and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2
We adopted her when she was six months old. Her name is Agatha , named for my wife’s favorite mystery writer.
In appearance she is a perfect 10. Her beautiful face morphs
into limitless subtle expressions, her personality sparkles with more facets
than a gemstone. She communicates superbly by direct vocal interaction and an
infinite vocabulary of body language. She is acutely aware of what’s going on
in her world and sometimes tells us what’s going on in our world. She
frequently comes from the kitchen to my study to fetch me to dinner. She teases
me, scolds me, speaks softly, stridently, or conversationally, appropriately to
the circumstances.
She is endlessly entertaining, a joy, a comfort, a companion
in happy times and sad, and she expresses her love for me a gazillion different
ways many times a day. She is snuggled up against me as I write this.
I adore her!
I’m not sure she knows she’s a cat; but she knows she is a
person.
Most adults who have kids and pets have encountered
childhood metaphysical curiosity in the form of “do animals have a soul?” Just
reading everything written on the topic could be a lifetime career. “Will
non-human creatures go to heaven when they die”? Googling that question will
lead you on a mind-bending trip through the zaniest parts of religious kookdom.
Most otherwise knowledgeable people don’t have a clue how to answer.
Neither do I. I don’t even know what “Soul” is. Dictionary
definitions include:
· The
immaterial aspect of personhood.
· The
self-aware essence of a particular living being.
· Consciousness,
mind, spirit, self-awareness and self-actuation.
· The
capacity to make reasoned decisions.
· The spirit
or essence of an individual human.
· All of the
above in some kind of combination.
To speak of “having a soul” is incorrect. Living creatures
don’t have souls, they are souls. Although it is
customarily used in a religious context, soul is not essentially a religious
word
The bible verse from Genesis which begins this column
defines “life” as “having breath,” and uses “life” as synonymous with “soul.”
The words “spirit” and “soul” are used interchangeably in many biblical passages.
“Soul” is never used apart from its embodiment in a
particular unique individual. A few obtuse and sometimes mutually contradictory
passages obliquely refer to a body/soul dichotomy, and there is widespread
confusion and disagreement among seriously religious people about soul and what
happens to it after physical death.
I abhor “proof-texting” the Bible, using it to support or
refute a particular idea or point-of-view. I take the Bible to be an
authoritative statement about what its various authors believed, but not
necessarily authoritative about what I am to believe. And since the Bible does
not specifically say anything about animals being souls or going to heaven, I
feel free to create my own doctrine as it specifically refers to Agatha .
Leaving aside for the moment the problems inherent in the
phrase “go to heaven,” which implies heaven is a literal place in a specific
geographic location, as long as there’s Agatha ’s
and my souls in whatever form, I don’t want to be anywhere that she is
not close by.
If heaven is a place/condition/whatever, where:
· Unconditional
love is the norm.
· Infinite
varieties of beauty abound.
· There is
bonding between all creatures, great and small.
· Happiness
is a bundle of fur softly rumbling on its inside,
