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Can you tell us what the Greek orthodox stance is on Dogs, I was told here in Cyprus that the orthodox church does not believe or recognises that dogs have a soul which I was quite upset about
Answer to Question 352
When you say soul what do you actually mean, because from a recent post on the subject, most people associated a soul as having feelings, but that is something completely separate from having an eternal soul. Dogs and all animals have feelings and can show love and fear and many other kinds of sentiments, but this is not what the church understands as having a soul. When God created man from the dust of the earth, He then breathed into his face a breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Man therefore is a special creation like no other creation: he is a psychosomatic being, in other words he is both body and soul. Man’s soul is eternal and that is why it lives on in paradise. God did not breathe into the face of animals so they do not possess a living (eternal) soul.
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