Do animals have spirituality?
I do not know, but I do know that our dog, Jessie, had quite a complex inner life. We observed her more than once softly barking in her sleep and even her legs would slightly jerk. She clearly had vivid dreams, probably chasing a rabbit or a squirrel - we hoped it wasn't a nightmare but something nice. But do animals have souls? Most likely they do, and it should not be a big surprise, especially for any English speaker. The very word “animal” is directly derived from the Latin word “anima” which means nothing else but “soul”. Thus per definitionem - simply by the virtue of how the words of our language are defined - animals do have souls.
But what about insects, do they have souls? Surly not! Unless we start looking at social insects. I wrote about ants a year ago and about bees just few weeks ago. A colony of ants or bees together have a neuronal capacity similar to any other animal. A colony of social insects can interact with the environment: it can learn and even develop the personality. One summer during my childhood I spent several weekends on my knees in the forest with a family friend, naturalist and author of books about insects. We observed, studied and photographed colonies of ants. We studied European forests ants, but I heard from him about other truly industrious ants - the farming ants who grow mushroom gardens, the shepherding ants - who keep herds of aphids. Social insects are indeed amazing. I am not surprised at all that biblical sages used ants to set an example for a wise living. This Sunday we will learn from Bible to learn from ants.
I do not know, but I do know that our dog, Jessie, had quite a complex inner life. We observed her more than once softly barking in her sleep and even her legs would slightly jerk. She clearly had vivid dreams, probably chasing a rabbit or a squirrel - we hoped it wasn't a nightmare but something nice. But do animals have souls? Most likely they do, and it should not be a big surprise, especially for any English speaker. The very word “animal” is directly derived from the Latin word “anima” which means nothing else but “soul”. Thus per definitionem - simply by the virtue of how the words of our language are defined - animals do have souls.
But what about insects, do they have souls? Surly not! Unless we start looking at social insects. I wrote about ants a year ago and about bees just few weeks ago. A colony of ants or bees together have a neuronal capacity similar to any other animal. A colony of social insects can interact with the environment: it can learn and even develop the personality. One summer during my childhood I spent several weekends on my knees in the forest with a family friend, naturalist and author of books about insects. We observed, studied and photographed colonies of ants. We studied European forests ants, but I heard from him about other truly industrious ants - the farming ants who grow mushroom gardens, the shepherding ants - who keep herds of aphids. Social insects are indeed amazing. I am not surprised at all that biblical sages used ants to set an example for a wise living. This Sunday we will learn from Bible to learn from ants.
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