Is the soul essentially the difference between human beings and animals?

Human beings have souls, no doubt about that, at least the HUMANE ones do. Clearly some do NOT. Animals have been, in the past, considered to have no souls. That is an arrogant misconception by so-called 'learned people' in an attempt to prove their own superiority. Animals very clearly feel pain, miss their owners when they are absent, anticipate, become excited, and VERY clearly become attached to other pets and people---which takes feelings and longing and LOGIC, therefore it is FAR more likely that animals DO have souls. God didn't invent stupid stuff by any means.

animals are one of kind just as people. I believe they do have a soul. They love and care as we do...just in a different way.

Your religion decides the idea of a "soul" and who is entitled to one. Science does not, so scientifically, a soul is *not* the difference between humans and animals. In fact, scientifically, humans *are* animals.

Humans and animals are quite similar in many ways except for certain things...... But sometimes i feel animals are more loyal then humans!

dont tell me that the followers of socrate all believe like that. the difference is the brain and body shapes of course. everything is alive. animals mate and care for their young, build houses, hunt, gather, communicate, fight, and play just like 'those who are alive'. they have the ability to offer themselves when the human gets hungry, but must be told this in prayer and offering before the hunt so that they can offer themself to the hunter. if you cover a plant with an upside down jar, it will die. why is because it would have been alive. it had that life energy that we all are sustained by. so it is just a difference in body type (wood body, flesh body etc) and brain ( small brain, insticts and prgramming of the genetics)... have a good day.

An Anthropologist wouldn't say so (this is in the Anthropology section, so I will answer you in that capacity.) a human is simply an animal with a.) opposable thumbs (though most primates have these) b.) bipedality (though of course birds are better at it) c.) culture (although many other animals exibit culture) and d.) the ability to use tools (though many other animals do this as well.). In short, we are nothing special. I would say culture and tool use are the most important, as bipedality isn't anything special and neither are thumbs, it is, as they say, how you use it. And while other creatures do use tools and exhibit culture we have evolved to a point where it is the main focus of our survival. That is, we don't rely on instinct to do just about anything, in fact, we generally ignore our instincts for the sake of culture. Other animals may use tools and have culture, but instinct is still #1. For better or worse. Whether or not humans or animals have souls is beyond the realm of Anthropology, but since humans are just animals, then why should we have souls when other animals don't?

I really don't know if they have a soul, but I would like to think that they do. My pets have all had personalities, and seem to have emotions. This is a great question! I know this is going to sound crazy , but I had a beloved pet that I was forced to leave behind when I had to move. I had a dream one night, a very vivid dream, that my pet and I were together and were "communicating"... (my pet and I COULD communicate, but in this dream, neither one of us had to "speak" aloud in order to do this).. . I went to visit my pet three days later, and found out from the person taking care of her that she had died mysteriously 3 nights before... I honestly do believe she (or I, or both of us) had our last "reunion" just before or just as she passed away- in that dream. I don't feel like I didn't get to say "good-bye". Something was going on there, more than meets the eye. Does it mean she communicated with me from the "other side"? I don't know. Maybe our love for one another was the connection that caused some sort of telepathy between us, but if so, does THAT mean she has a soul? If animals and humans can "connect" spiritually, and I'm now a true believer that they can (I've always suspected that to be true, it's just now I KNOW it is), than don't BOTH have to have souls or "spirits"? You ask a very interesting question. When or if you finally figure out the "answer", please let me know what you come up with. I'd be interested to hear your perspective. I desperately want to believe that someday when I leave this earth I will get to see/be with those I love who have already "crossed over", including my pets, and call it "faith" or whatever you want, but I believe.

Personally, I believe there is no such thing as a soul, unless you believe in it yourself. If you believe you have a soul, then you have one. It's all in your mind and how you feel spiritually. I am not religious, because I haven't found one that makes sense, but I feel I have a soul, but not in the religious going to heaven or being reincarnated sense, but more that it's the deep feeling I have inside me. Really, it's up the individual. Since I don't allow religious zealots to cram their religions down my throat and teach me to hate people that are different than me, I have the choice. If a religion tells people they have a soul, then they do have a soul, because this is what they believe. So, if an animal is intelligent enough to understand the difference between having a soul and not having a soul, then it could be. If said animal eats it's own excrement (er, is there a difference between one's own and another's?), then it probably doesn't have a soul.

not really humans too have a soul . signed:a philantropic monkey