Do lobsters have souls?

According to the hypothetical world created by Charles Stross in Accelerando (an EXCELLENT read), Lobsters definitely have souls- or at least consciousness.

In Accelerando, lobsters are the first organisms to have their consciousness uploaded.

Some interesting discussions/mentions on the subject.

Based on my small amount of biblical knowledge, humans are the only beings with souls as we are the only beings made in the likeness and image of God. When God created the world everything, plants and animals were spoken into being, in other words it's like speaking a spell and it happening. Man was fashioned with God's own hands and He blew s own breath into man in order for man to live.

Creatures, no matter how big or small do not have souls.

Lobsters are the closest relatives to cockroaches. If you're fine with spraying poison on roaches and crushing them under foot, then don't get too worried about lobsters. If you wanna be humane when killing them, chuck them in a freezer for two minutes to slow their nervous functions down to a crawl, split the head clean down the middle with a sharp knife to kill them before they feel a thing, and then chuck them in a pot of boiling water.

They'll scream anyway since it's the moisture beneath their shells heating up and trying to escape.

No I don't think they have souls, but they are pretty tasty!

In my own opinion and beliefs -- yes, and yes. If we thought it was unethical to eat other living things, then there would be nothing left to eat. What is important is respect for other living beings in life, and humane killing methods when it comes time to eat them, and only to kill them for a purpose.

People have varying opinions on what constitutes a soul, which I've written about here.

I was personally raised with the Native American beliefs that I detail here -- the Spirit is in everything.

The concept of soul is a bit complex and is based on one's faith and beliefs. But all living things have common stimuli like pain, hunger etc. We should remember this when we use animals whether as foods or as objects of experimentation.

Of course lobsters have no soul, but I am not saying it's fair to eat them. I know God created enough living creatures for us to eat and be satisfied, these animals have no soul just like all others. If they did and possessed one it certainly wouldn't be fair to eat from any living creature at all!

Such as a cows meat, or a chickens flesh, but we do and don't feel a thing while doing it so, the same way we don't feel a thing when we kill a pig to eat his head and so on.

I know we as human beings carry something that is called compassion. We feel compassion towards the weak or towards the unfair situations around us. Certainly many situations call our attention, and killing certain types of animals is one of them, and this is towards animals that bring no benefit towards us, meaning we can't feed on them but people kill them just for profit or fun.

But most people don't worry when it comes to eating animals from the waters, there are some species that should be preserved of course, but when it comes to an ethical point of view towards lobsters, everyone will have their own different perspective since lobsters are part of our everyday meal and have been for hundreds of years. I see nothing wrong in eating lobster.

I don't know if anything has a soul, but one thing is for certain, lobsters are living creatures just like you and me. Are they entitled to life? Yes, but that doesn't stop the guys at the top of the food chain,us, from eating them.

I think people relate the size of the animal to how much "soul" they have. Ants are living creatures too, don't they have souls. Think of how many you crush under your foot everyday or wash away as you water your grass.

Say Ants were as large as Lobsters and Lobsters were as small as Ants, now what? The least we can do is treat the animal with dignity, it being another living creature of this world, and kill it as "humanely" as possible. Don't take your food for granted.

Don't all living creatures! I would say yes but a soul in a differnce sense than that of humans!

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.