Animals don’t have souls

“Humans have souls, animals don’t. So it’s fine to eat them.”

We’re human guys! Of course we have souls and believe in human exceptionalism!

As I see it, there are three possibilities:

1. Humans have souls, animals don’t.
2. Animals have souls too.
3. Neither humans nor animals have souls.

My human exceptionalism won’t even acknowledge a scenario where humans don’t have souls and animals do and that wouldn’t even help me here anyway.

Let’s see if any are more plausible than the others and if any of them allow me to justify eating animals.

Soul Searching

We don’t know for sure, right? No one can definitively prove the existence of a soul, whether in humans or animals. So let’s check what each scenario would mean for our treatment of animals.

Humans have souls, animals don’t

So humans have a soul and we have this life as just a small part of our existence with the promise of eternal bliss or damnation afterwards. Pretty sick deal for us!

If animals don’t have souls then I guess this is it for them. They are born soulless with no afterlife. Just this single life to live, and then it’s over. Is it a good life for them?

For the ~80 billion land animals slaughtered each year, most of them factory farmed (and many more sea animals), that single short life is filled with confinement, suffering, and premature death. We know they feel pain and that, like us, they want to live.

It’s pretty sad to think that these sentient beings endure so much suffering in their one and only life.

Animals have souls too

If animals have a soul then there is no reason to think their suffering is meaningless. In fact it brings us right back to examining our anthropocentric view of the world or evaluating if there are any traits that justify treating them differently from humans.

Even if they end up in an afterlife, it doesn’t change the fact that they suffer in this life. Their pain and fear are real, no amount of honouring them can erase the suffering they experience here and now.

Neither humans nor animals have souls

If we don’t have souls, then we’re all just meat bags at the end of the day. Our lives are short and finite and once we’re gone, that’s it. If that’s the case and there is no afterlife, I believe it doesn’t change how I decide my morals and who I give my moral consideration to. Animals still suffer, and that suffering still matters to me.

Soul food?

I can’t prove whether animals have souls, and neither can anyone else. But I don’t need to. I don’t need to know what happens to a cow after it dies to know that I don’t want it to suffer while it’s alive.

Whatever you believe about souls, the pain is real, and it’s happening in this life.