Answer: All living things have souls. There are three classes of souls, vegetative, animal, and rational. The souls of vegetables and animals are incomplete, when they die, the soul dies. Only man has a complete and immortal soul, which is capable of gaining heaven.
Question: Would you please elaborate your answer to question as to the difference between the soul of an animal and the soul of a human being?
Answer: First, we must address the question, “What is the soul?”
The soul is the life principle:
It is a spiritual entity, which moves of its own volition: being independent of external forces:
It is a simple substance; having no parts, it is not subject to decomposition, disintegration or dissolution from within:
It is an immaterial, indivisible, indestructible unit, incapable of extinction, therefore immortal:
It is the conscious art principle, created by God, not born of man.
Man is capable of making a moral decision, while an animal is not. The animal differs radically from a human being. Humans are capable of building or creating, with the substances, which God has given him to work with, all the while hoping for immortality. Animal acts are reflexive, such as breathing, eating, sleeping, waking.
The soul of man thinks; the soul of the animal does not, although under the guidance of man, an animal can be taught to do many things.
The soul of man is intellectual, it can reflect, reason, and hope.
The soul of an animal is sensitive, it does what its nature compels it to do; it is mortal.
The soul of man comes from God to return to God. The soul of an animal is generated from its parents, and returns with its body to the earth.
As for such “higher animals” — the ape, gorilla, ourang-outang, and the monkey, they are the same as any other animal. They live and act today the same as they did when they were created by God.
On the other hand, man builds, lives, and adjusts himself to his changing environments progressively. By the use of his art principle, he discovers new forces of nature, and new means of using the things over which God has given him dominion. Only man can create a symphony.