Soul.. or no soul?

                                        Soul…or no soul? by Felecia Burgett
    Small animals, whether wild or tame, as well as large, may seem cute and sweet superficially, like they have an inner “soul,” or that they are mean because of misjudgment or mistreatment, and people are starting to cling to that.
    I find nothing wrong with having tame pets that are treated well. But wild animals weren’t meant for indoors…neither were the tame before they became so. But either way, they’re animals. God put animals on this earth to be eaten and worked and for us to guard and protect as our willing servants. They don’t know right from wrong, don’t get sad, don’t hate. What good would emotions like these do for keeping whatever species they happen to be survive? Animals do experience aggression, fear, submission, dominance, territorial urges, all of which would better keep them alive in the long run. 
    Fear: if a situation is life-threatening, they need to know it so that they can escape or take action, and fear greatly drives both.
    Submission: it is crucial for an animal to submit in order to better serve, or as in most cases, weaker animals submit the most, which helps them, because a fight would be fatal.
    Dominance: the strongest will be dominant, and need to be. It’s a doggie-dog world our there; when weaker animals fight with stronger ones, they die- it’s survival of the fittest. Weak animals simply wouldn’t survive in the world.
    Territorial behaviors: keeping and defending a territory insures both dominance and, often and very importantly, food. Sometimes even assures reproduction. Marking their scent around their territory warns weaker foes to keep out.
    But many people have taken to believing that animals have “souls.” Yes, they feel outward pain, no they’re not robots that don’t bleed, or squeal, no they’re not cruel, man-eating monsters. But they simply don’t have souls; we were put on earth in the likeliness of God (see Genesis 1: 27), not animals.
    Another thing; most animals have very short memories. Dogs, for example, only have memory of around 20 minuets. The main reason to look back is to learn from your mistakes, but animals have instincts and they can’t judge for themselves like we do (sometimes too much, some would say.) But they can recognize things. Like a dog knows his master, or like a queen knows the scent of her kit and the kit her queen. If they couldn’t recognize each other for long enough in the baby’s life, imagine what would happen! (And after the right amount of time with their mothers they are kicked out. If they lived there their whole life, how would they reproduce and keep the species going?) They know the scents of things that can or have hurt them (or the sound and sometimes the sight.) So they can avoid them- and live. 
    Animals were put on earth for a reason- to serve and thrive under our care. They wouldn’t survive, wouldn’t be lower than us, if they could feel, if they knew right from wrong. That itself was man’s stupid choice, back in the garden of Eden, but God knew even that would be so. There’s no reason for animals to know right from wrong, no reason to feel as we feel.
    Animals are not humans.  Men are men, dogs are dogs, apes are apes. Period. End of sentence.