Do animals have souls according to the Bible?
Orthodoxy answers this question unequivocally: yes, there is. The book of Genesis begins with the story of the creation of the world. From it we learn that God was the first to create birds and fish, and only then the earth gave birth to the souls of other living creatures. Moreover, the Bible says that only man has an immortal essence, since it was given to him by the Lord God himself.
According to Christian traditions, it is customary to remember the deceased on the 9th and then on the 40th day. They do this so that the Almighty will grant the deceased eternal life. But in animals, the soul is destroyed immediately after death along with the physical body, so such rituals are not performed on them.
Some theologians believe that the destroyed soul of an animal gains immortality
According to church canons, attachment to four-legged friends is a sin. Holy Scripture says that the love that the Creator gave to man in abundance should be directed towards family and friends. However, very often cat or dog owners treat their pets as full members of the family. It’s no wonder that they often wonder where their pets go after finishing their earthly life.
Is it possible to pray for pets?
At the same time, you can pray for pets. For example, in the case of their illness (but not about their posthumous fate). This also demonstrates man’s care for all creation. You can ask in your own words, you don’t have to look for any special prayer. However, in Orthodoxy there are several saints to whom it is customary to pray for animals.
George the Victorious, the martyrs Tryphon, Blasius, Florus and Laurus - they are mainly asked for the recovery and preservation of farm livestock. In some cases, you can even sprinkle holy water on the living creatures. But it is impossible to give them such water inside, just like prosphora or any other shrine, since this desecrates the shrine itself.
Of course, you can only pray for the health of your pets, and not for their repose, regardless of whether the animals will be in heaven. And if this can somehow be allowed in a child’s prayer, out of naivety, then for an adult it will turn out to be at least strange.
Animal souls after death
Just recently, science completely refuted the immortality of consciousness. Today, more and more scientists recognize that the soul is a kind of energy that, after leaving the physical body, flows into the general electromagnetic flow. Thus, this proves that life after death does exist.
One old parable shows us a good example of the eternity of the spirit. The dog, who loved his owner very much, died of melancholy shortly after his death. Once in Heaven, the animal and the man met at the entrance to Paradise. The man wanted to take his pet with him, but the passage for his four-legged friend was closed. Then he followed further and soon saw another gate. An old man sat with them, who happily let both of them pass, saying that this was Heaven, and that was Hell.
Some theologians are inclined to believe that the initially destructible soul of a cat or dog gains immortality after long communication with a loving owner. That is, the essence of an animal merges with a person. This theory is supported by eyewitness accounts. Many mediums, conducting sessions of spiritualism, often see next to a person his deceased pet, to which he was strongly attached.
It is love for an animal that allows their essence to be identified with ours. The stronger this feeling, the faster consciousness becomes immortal. Thus, stray dogs or cats are unlikely to go to Heaven; their spirit will die along with their body. But the chances of four-legged pets being reunited with their owners are quite high.
However, there is another opinion, somewhat similar to the previous one. Its supporters claim that Paradise for pets still exists, but there they appear renewed, in a slightly different form.
The Church allows you to pray for pets who are lost or sick, because the main thesis of Christ’s teaching is unconditional love for all living things.
Is it true that dogs are unclean animals?
St. Patriarch Photius wrote: “The pure began to be separated from the unclean not from the beginning of the universe, but received this distinction due to certain circumstances. For since the Egyptians, who had the Israelite tribe in their service, gave divine honors to many animals and made bad use of them, which were very good, Moses, so that the people of Israel would not be carried away to this bad use and would not ascribe divine honor to the dumb, it is fair in the legislation called them unclean - not because uncleanness was inherent in them from creation, in no case, or uncleanness was in their nature, but because the Egyptian tribe did not use them cleanly, but very nasty and wicked.”
The concept of clean and unclean animals existed in the Old Testament, initially as a custom (Gen. 7:1-3), and after the Flood, when people were allowed to eat animal flesh, as a law (Lev. 11). The concept of purity was associated both with the ability to eat animals and use them for sacrifices (Gen. 8:20) (but not all clean ones). It was forbidden to touch the corpse of an unclean animal.
Of the mammals, it was allowed to eat animals that had cloven hooves and chewed cud. “Of all four-legged animals, those that walk on their paws are unclean to you...” Thus, both a cat and a dog are unclean animals by this biblical definition.
In the New Testament, with the abolition of the ritual side of the Old Testament Law, these norms lost their relevance for us. The New Testament knows only the concept of moral defilement - that is, sin.
Philosophy and soul
Questions about the immortality of consciousness are asked not only by deeply religious people. This topic occupies the minds of many philosophers, scientists and even atheists.
Philosophy of Tibet
Tibetan monks believe that after death we are all reincarnated into a living form. Moreover, the new hypostasis can be completely different: from an earthworm to an elephant. The chances of being reborn as a human are very small, and therefore it is quite likely that some insect in a past life was someone’s relative.
Buddhism teaches us to love and treat with care everything that has a soul. We must learn to sympathize, to show kindness to lower living beings as if they were human.
Buddhism teaches love and respect for everything that has a soul
People familiar with Tibetan philosophy often wonder about the formation and development of consciousness. If you look at it through the prism of evolution, you can see that man stands at the highest stage of the evolutionary process. This theory is confirmed by the case of a psychic who was asked: “Where did the souls of long-extinct dinosaurs go?” The clairvoyant answered briefly: “They are here.”
Metempsychosis
This doctrine, which originated in Ancient Greece, preaches the reanimation of a dead being into a newly born one. In fact, the theme of the evolution of the spirit continues here. According to the philosophy of metempsychosis, before becoming human, consciousness lives through several cycles in animal incarnation.
The number of rebirths depends on self-awareness: the faster the spirit becomes individual, the greater the chance that in the next life it will acquire a human shell. However, not all souls are capable of evolving, and therefore there is the concept of a collective mind, when entities merge together.
Metempsychosis preaches the reanimation of a dead being into a newly born one.
The pet’s consciousness will move faster to the next stage of development if during its lifetime it was loved and treated like a family member or a child.
Author's advice
The idea of identifying the animal soul with the human soul is also evident here. Our essence is very strong, and therefore makes the spirit of a dog or cat gain independence.
Being attached to our pets, we have a hard time experiencing their departure to another world. However, there is no need to be sad, because souls are immortal, and therefore in Heaven we will have a pleasant meeting with our favorites.
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Animal Summoning
Animals were called to submit completely to man, subject to man's observance of the Divine commandment. Before the Fall of man, animals lived in peace among themselves and ate only plant foods (Gen. 1:30). After the Fall, man partially lost power over the animal world; death and decay inherent in the human body spread to the animal world.
Is it true that a temple needs to be rededicated if a dog runs into it?
For the Old Testament Jews, the dog was not just a dirty street animal, but also a hated pagan symbol. The Babylonians, the enslavers of the Jewish people, professed a pagan religion in which the dog, as a deified animal, was given a particularly honorable place. For a Jew to compare someone to a dog is the height of insult.
Even the money received from the sale of a dog, equivalent to the payment of a harlot, could not be brought into the Tabernacle (Deut. 23:18).
However, dogs were used in cattle breeding. Dogs, according to the Bible, appear late as pets, and with the same protective function (Tov.5:17). By the time of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, four-legged watchmen often began to be kept at homes, as evidenced by the Canaanite woman’s response to the Savior’s refusal to help her: “Lord! But the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table” (Matthew 15:27).
Now a short historical excursion into the history of Russia. From B. Uspensky’s book “Language and Culture”: “At one time in Muscovite Rus' there was a special “Rite for the cleansing of the church, when a dog jumps into the church or someone from the infidels enters,” which was abolished as a result of the reforms of Patriarch Nikon (Nikolsky, 1885 , pp. 297–306; Smirnov, 1913, appendix, pp. 148, No. 140; and also pp. 404–412; Mansvetov, 1882, pp. 148–149); So, the presence of a dog defiles the church (a holy place), just as the presence of a non-religious person defiles it - the dog and the non-religious are united precisely on the basis of uncleanness. Likewise, a clergyman was in principle forbidden to keep a dog. At the same time, a monk who violates canonical regulations can be called a dog, as well as a bear (Smirnov, 1913, appendix, p. 36, no. 40–41); it is significant at the same time that a monk who carries a flint can also be called a dog (ibid., appendix, p. 305) - this is undoubtedly connected with the role of fire in the Slavic pagan cult. This attitude towards a dog is especially clearly manifested among the Old Believers of the Olonets province, who “do not pray to God in front of a dog” (Zelenin, 1914–1916, p. 924) - the presence of a dog as an unclean animal excludes the possibility of communication with God.
In all these cases, a clear opposition of the dog to the Christian cult is revealed: the dog is associated with the anti-Christian and directly with the demonic principle. It would be wrong to assume, however, that the corresponding perception of the dog appears on Christian soil: undoubtedly, the idea of the uncleanness of the dog has pre-Christian roots, that is, it was characteristic of Slavic paganism.
It is significant in this sense that the above attitudes related to the church also apply to attitudes towards home. So, in particular, Russian peasants do not allow a dog into the hut, but always keep it outside the house, in the yard - just as a dog desecrates a church, it desecrates the house (cf. the idea that if a dog is allowed into the house, they will be offended the angels present here - Nikiforovsky, 1897, p. 162, No. 1224): both the church and the house are a clean place that does not allow desecration.”
There is a canonical rule regarding animals; dogs are not separately distinguished in it. Canon 88 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council (7th century) says that no animal can be brought into the temple, except in situations involving a direct threat to human life. According to authoritative interpreters, the meaning of this canon is not at all that an animal will desecrate the temple with its presence, but rather not to profane the house of God, to maintain reverence for it and not to use the church building for other purposes. See Canon 88 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council.
In the breviary of Peter the Great there is no rite of consecration of the temple after dogs and other animals. In the Great Trebnik there is only one rite of reconsecration of the temple related to animals: it is performed if an animal dies or gives birth in the temple. Again, no special instructions regarding dogs.
