Do animals have souls, and are those souls immortal like ours?
A viewer asks whether there are Scripture verses showing how animal souls differ from human souls, including whether animal souls are not immortal.
Answer
First, the difference is not that animal souls are not immortal, because human souls are not intrinsically immortal either; that idea comes from Plato. God could annihilate any soul out of existence if he chose. The real difference is that Scripture is clear humans keep their soul after death, whereas animals, if they have a soul, do not. And whether animals even have souls is debatable. Thomas says the soul animates the body, which we understand for humans, but does it hold for a one-celled amoeba that recoils when poked, or is that just nerves reacting? We have no Scripture that says animals have souls or that a soul is an ontological part of an animal, so everything we say there is speculation. And plants certainly do not have souls.