DO DOGS (ANIMALS) HAVE SOULS?

[conce nunes]

An article that appeared (01/05/2012) in today.msnbc.msn.com said:

"A lawsuit filed in against a New York pet store aims to change the way a pet is legally viwed..."etc.

Though the issue relates to "pet" I think it is still very interesting "to prove the existence of soul" (or spirit) for all animals,  which will only make any sense for those of us, humans that believe in souls and spiritual content in humanas...

And I am not talking about religion, any of them.

I also found the idea and taking it to court very interesting because the law suit is attemptting to change the legal concept of AN animal (therefore, any animal...) and to question the whole issue of animals as property.

The article had all ready a lot of comments...

Care to comment and look it up?

[conce nunes]

p.s. the word ANIMAL is exactly spelled the same in english and portuguese and in french and spanish... (I think)

[conce nunes]

About the notice of this lawsuit, I wrote in my facepagebook, for the comments on THAT site:

/ Discussing  the "sould concept" FOR ANIMALS is very interesting because right away those against animals rights or animals being considered beyond "things" or "property",will say: "Of course animals don't have souls!" One comment in this site said: "feeling pain is no proof that they have souls"...! This made me LAUGH, because, if you/I7WE/anybody, as a human being "believe" that humans have souls, HOW DO YOU "prove" that? If on the other hand you/I/we/anybody don't believe at all in souls or spiritual contect of any sorts (I am not talking about religions...) the question is not even there.

BUt, from the point  of view of those, like I, that do believe that there is such "a thing" (of course, it is not "a thing"), better said, that soul "exists" (in a spiritual sense, of course, not in a material sense) and that humans have "spiritual content" (as I call it) among others (physical/phisiological, emotional/personality/ego, intellectual/brain reasoning),why NOT believe that all animals also "have" souls?

I do, of course.

If one belives in a "superior being as Creator", which I don't,, why would he/she or "it" "give soul" only to the human species and not all othet species? What logic would that have?

In my case that do not believe in any "superior" being but in a cosmic spiritual essence (I don't have this really worked out in a definte way in my brain or heart or soul ) animals, of course,participate in the essence.

from "SOUL RETURN", book by Aminah Raheem, M.D. (1987), that I read in the early nineties, she says:

/C. G.Jung said that «there is only one striving, namely, the striving after YOUR OWN BEING...traditionally body, psyche, and spirit nature have been adressed separately :medical and bodywork specialists focus on health of the physical body;psychologists investigate the role of mind and emotions in behaviour; and spiritual teachers attend the transcendent function of the soul...

/Socrates believed that soul EXISTED before the body.prior to its immersion in the body, the soul was endowed with all knowledge...Jung defined the deep archetypal consciousness he encountered in many patients as the "collective uncosncious", to denote a bank of historical, non-personal information that carried a record of mankind's (and womankind's...) history. Within that level we are all connected with a common SPECIES heritage./

I say then:

WHY should it not be the same for all species? In fact in some cultures it is believed that we (humans) may have had prior (other, non-human) animal's life existences and experiences, or may have them in the future, in another re-incarnation...wouldn't that mean something...if others believed the same as me! BUT MANY PEOPLE DO.

from the book:

/ According to Eastern view (please remember that easterns out number greatly westerners in the planet...plus one would have to add north and south american indian cultures, esquimos and polynesian cultures...and "converted" believers like I), the soul collects a history, traumatic (or unfinished) experiences, strenghts, skills,debts (or karma) - the sum and consequences of many previous lives. During the long and evolutionary journey from a soul's infancy to maturity (which may encompass thousands of years) it accumulates information about life on earth...

/Jung believed that the final and most important task of life was individuation - an unfolding process in which a person would come fully into his/her own self, OR SOUL, and live out it's purpose.

-COULD not the same be said of any animal's life and experience and purpose?, I ask.

//The concept of soul as an immaterial principle ESSENCE or ENERGY which ANIMATES (animates, animal...)LIFE appears in most philosophical and religious literatures from the earliest recorded history, Eastern or Western (see Gary YOurofsky's lecture page and in "other animal's rights", about religion and animals, quoting fromthe Old Testament, in his case) , yet is is not easily defined.

The soul is "the ANIMATING and VITAL principle in man (...) forming an immaterial entity distinguishe from, but temporarily co-existent w. his or her body/

I say: from the Latin, the word ANIMA means (correct me if I am wrong) that vital principle or life-force and is connected to a spiritual meaning and is connected to the concept of having a soul.

In the Bible it is said that "the breath of LIFe (or Spirit)" enters the baby upon it's first breath outside the womb...soul might be understood as more than just breath throughout the whole body but an almost "material"/immaterial place or souce in the body...that leaves the body upon death...

I saw this incredible movie where it is said that upon death the body looses some minuscule amount of weight that can not be attributed to anything at all materially speaking...

BUT for our concerns:where does the wored ANIMAL come from?

From ANIMA.

In portuguese we also have the word "Ânimo" which means fortitude or spirit mindednes to confront obstacles and difficulties...and is "linked" somewhat with "anima" from the latin and ALMA which is the word for SOUL, in portuguese.

ANIMAL: a VITAL being FULL OF SPIRITUAL FORCE and SOUL and EMOTIONAL LIFE.

[conce nunes]

thank you.it is really more the issue that I have no patience AT ALL for technology...I wrote something on this issue in my face page but here I go running off again...

[Kath Worsfold]

Conce, if you ever want to transfer a link to another site again, this is how you do it:

1. Navigate to the page that is the one you want to direct people to. Select the whole address in the bar at the top (like on this page it's arzone.ning.com/etc.) with your mouse. Copy that by the keyboard command "control + c". This part at the top is what is meant by "the link", and where it's typed is called the "address bar".

2. Navigate to the page where you want the link to appear. Paste what you have copied - it will still be stored in your computer's "clipboard" - into your message window here. You can paste with this keyboard command: "control + v".

Ta-da! You have given people the link.

If you can understand and do the above, well and good. If you don't understand it, I can try to make the instructions more detailed and basic. Let me know if this works for you. 

[conce nunes]

Thank you Tim Gier.

[Tim Gier]

Here's the link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45873492/ns/today-today_pets_and_anim...

[conce nunes]

Hi Carolyn: Please excuse my great ingnorance...I only stared using face book etc since last October...was allways "against it"...stupid me!

I have a link in my facebook page which is Conceição Nunes Lisboa, Bahia-Barzil, Nova Iorque.

The image is Frida Kahlo's embracing a monkey.

I don´t know how to transfer the link to this page.

Hope you can look it up and comment!

[Carolyn Bailey]

Hi Conce, 

Do you have a link to the article, please? 

Thanks! :)