Does Satan Have a Soul?

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Somebody I know posted this elsewhere:

*After a 20 minute debate with my Mom and younger sister, I still have not reached an answer (though I think the question may be unanswerable).

Question: Does Satan have a soul?

My points:

-What is a soul? A soul, in its simplest concept, is a piece of God.
-All intellectual beings possessing a conscience have a soul.
-Angels are souls, and therefore have a piece of God.
-Satan is a fallen Angel. Hence, when he was banished into Hell, he was stripped of all sanctifying grace – in short, he was stripped of all Godly attributes (Faith, Hope, Charity, etc.).
-In the same that darkness is a lack of light, evil (sin) is the absence of God (or God’s Will).
-Satan is the manifestation of (all) Evil.
-So, does Satan have a soul?

What confuses me is my 1st point. If we say that Satan does not have a soul, then he is incapable of free will, conscience, or high intellect (this presumption, of course, goes against simple reasoning).
If we say that Satan does have a soul, then he has piece of God. This goes against my 5th and 6th point, and, again, simple reasoning and Catholicism.
My Mother and younger sister began to say that the “vessel” that contains the soul in empty in Satan. But this goes against my 2nd point.

I’m beginning to believe that this question is incomprehensible for human reasoning.
Unless, of course, all of my points and my reasoning is drastically wrong. I hope not.

Thanks for any suggestions, comments, etc.*

Looking for help in answering her! 🙂 I think some of her points and definitions may not be accurate - thus affecting the whole argument.

Thanks!
ClemtheCatholic
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
Somebody I know posted this elsewhere:

*After a 20 minute debate with my Mom and younger sister, I still have not reached an answer (though I think the question may be unanswerable).

Question: Does Satan have a soul?

My points:

-What is a soul? A soul, in its simplest concept, is a piece of God.
-All intellectual beings possessing a conscience have a soul.
-Angels are souls, and therefore have a piece of God.
-Satan is a fallen Angel. Hence, when he was banished into Hell, he was stripped of all sanctifying grace – in short, he was stripped of all Godly attributes (Faith, Hope, Charity, etc.).
-In the same that darkness is a lack of light, evil (sin) is the absence of God (or God’s Will).
-Satan is the manifestation of (all) Evil.
-So, does Satan have a soul?

What confuses me is my 1st point. If we say that Satan does not have a soul, then he is incapable of free will, conscience, or high intellect (this presumption, of course, goes against simple reasoning).
If we say that Satan does have a soul, then he has piece of God. This goes against my 5th and 6th point, and, again, simple reasoning and Catholicism.
My Mother and younger sister began to say that the “vessel” that contains the soul in empty in Satan. But this goes against my 2nd point.

I’m beginning to believe that this question is incomprehensible for human reasoning.
Unless, of course, all of my points and my reasoning is drastically wrong. I hope not.

Thanks for any suggestions, comments, etc.*

Looking for help in answering her! 🙂 I think some of her points and definitions may not be accurate - thus affecting the whole argument.

Thanks!
ClemtheCatholic
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I have a problem with the first premise. Why do you say that a soul is a “piece of God”? God is indivisible. We cannot break Him into pieces. Each soul is likewise an indivisible whole, not a fragment of some larger entity.

Perhaps we could speak in such terms in a figurative sense, but not in a philosophical sense, which is what this argument would need to do in order to logically arrive at a conclusion.
 
I’d say no.

A soul is the spiritual element in someone who is physically alive. Without physical life, while there can be spirit, there would not be soul. AIUI

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
I’d say no.

A soul is the spiritual element in someone who is physically alive. Without physical life, while there can be spirit, there would not be soul. AIUI

ICXC NIKA
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This.
 
Soul is the animating principle of the body. For human beings, soul is a spiritual animating principle. For example, the term “body and soul” means a human body animated by a human spiritual soul.

Angels and demons are spirits without bodies. They are purely spirits; they do not have a separate soul because there is no body to animate.

PS–God is pure spirit. He has no parts. Nobody can possess a piece of God.
(Not to be confused with sanctifying grace which is a created sharing in the divine life.)
 
Yes. Satan has a soul.

Everything that exists has a soul.

Animals and plants have material souls. We have eternal souls.

Angels have souls.

We are a soul but we have a body. That’s why even after people have passed from this life we continue to pray for the souls of the dead.
 
kmuestwin said:
We are a soul but we have a body. That’s why even after people have passed from this life we continue to pray for the souls of the dead.
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No, you do not have a body.

You are a body, and you are a soul. Breathing soul; thinking body.

It is the union of soul and body who is a human being. Psyche + body; psychikon soma.

In death, you would cease being, humanly, except you will be fitted with a “spiritual body” (pneumatikon soma). It is the union, not either part alone, that enables you to be alive.

ICXC NIKA
 
ClemtheCatholic said:
Somebody I know posted this elsewhere:

*After a 20 minute debate with my Mom and younger sister, I still have not reached an answer (though I think the question may be unanswerable).

Question: Does Satan have a soul?

My points:

-What is a soul? A soul, in its simplest concept, is a piece of God.
-All intellectual beings possessing a conscience have a soul.
-Angels are souls, and therefore have a piece of God.
-Satan is a fallen Angel. Hence, when he was banished into Hell, he was stripped of all sanctifying grace – in short, he was stripped of all Godly attributes (Faith, Hope, Charity, etc.).
-In the same that darkness is a lack of light, evil (sin) is the absence of God (or God’s Will).
-Satan is the manifestation of (all) Evil.
-So, does Satan have a soul?

What confuses me is my 1st point. If we say that Satan does not have a soul, then he is incapable of free will, conscience, or high intellect (this presumption, of course, goes against simple reasoning).
If we say that Satan does have a soul, then he has piece of God. This goes against my 5th and 6th point, and, again, simple reasoning and Catholicism.
My Mother and younger sister began to say that the “vessel” that contains the soul in empty in Satan. But this goes against my 2nd point.

I’m beginning to believe that this question is incomprehensible for human reasoning.
Unless, of course, all of my points and my reasoning is drastically wrong. I hope not.

Thanks for any suggestions, comments, etc.*

Looking for help in answering her! 🙂 I think some of her points and definitions may not be accurate - thus affecting the whole argument.

Thanks!
ClemtheCatholic
Click to expand...
Satan is a deceiver and therefore deceives himself. Every being has the Spirit of Truth which is the giver of life, within themselves; whether they accept it or deny it. It is the Truth, the source of life, that makes the soul possible; and the soul is because of the Truth. The truth and the body are the same. The body comes from the truth, which is the source of all life. The truth sanctifies the body and the two become one; and that is the soul, made from the sanctification of the truth inside the body.

Satan has a body too. Regardless if he is evil, he cannot exist without this sanctifying process; and therefore he has a soul because the soul is the body–the sanctification between body and truth. The source of life exists within Satan, regardless of what he believes.
 
kmuestwin said:
Yes. Satan has a soul.

Everything that exists has a soul.

Animals and plants have material souls. We have eternal souls.

Angels have souls.

We are a soul but we have a body. That’s why even after people have passed from this life we continue to pray for the souls of the dead.
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This is false, I think someone else pointed to the relevant question of the Summa, but many may not read it. A angel does not have a soul. They are not in need of one. There is no body to be animated. Both an angel and a soul are spiritual entities, but they are different. Do not believe that the souls of the dead (prior to the resurrection) separated from the body are equivalent to angelic spiritual beings. This is not correct. Do not believe that all spiritual entities are the same.
 
great question.

In a literal answer to your topic question, I agree with what other people on this thread have said. Satan technically is a spirit, and does not need a soul to animate a physical body. That being said, everything in existence, from rocks to archangels, is dependent on god to consantly hold it in existence. This includes the devil and the demons, who have rejected all of god 's presence and grace except that which is necessary to continue existing.
 
zro_x said:
great question.

In a literal answer to your topic question, I agree with what other people on this thread have said. Satan technically is a spirit, and does not need a soul to animate a physical body. That being said, everything in existence, from rocks to archangels, is dependent on god to consantly hold it in existence. This includes the devil and the demons, who have rejected all of god 's presence and grace except that which is necessary to continue existing.
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Are angels solely spirits? Their ability in the Bible to appear as humans, to eat and undertake human activities implies physicality. Think of Tobit’s angel for example. Angels at least have the ability to manipulate matter and form a temporary body. Or they may simply have a body of a different matter in a different dimension which can interact with our dimension when they desire. Both cases seem to imply bodily substance at some level. Don’t forget that when we get to Heaven, we will have “resurrected bodies” not simply spirits, implying a physicality to Heaven as well.
 
hieroglyph said:
Are angels solely spirits? Their ability in the Bible to appear as humans, to eat and undertake human activities implies physicality. Think of Tobit’s angel for example. Angels at least have the ability to manipulate matter and form a temporary body. Or they may simply have a body of a different matter in a different dimension which can interact with our dimension when they desire. Both cases seem to imply bodily substance at some level. Don’t forget that when we get to Heaven, we will have “resurrected bodies” not simply spirits, implying a physicality to Heaven as well.
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Although we will have a body-- pneumatikon soma, or “spiritual body” in Heaven, this is because we are human beings and need a body to remain so. It’s your body that makes you somebody!

Angelic beings are not human and never had a body of their own. They can assume one if they wish to be visible to us.

ICXC NIKA
 
hieroglyph said:
Are angels solely spirits? Their ability in the Bible to appear as humans, to eat and undertake human activities implies physicality. Think of Tobit’s angel for example. Angels at least have the ability to manipulate matter and form a temporary body. Or they may simply have a body of a different matter in a different dimension which can interact with our dimension when they desire. Both cases seem to imply bodily substance at some level.
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Perhaps that’s true. Another possibility is that angels influence the minds of people in order to make them see, hear, and even feel a person.

But it may be possible that purely spiritual beings are able to influence matter. Consider God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, who are purely spiritual.
Don’t forget that when we get to Heaven, we will have “resurrected bodies” not simply spirits, implying a physicality to Heaven as well.
Click to expand...
While this implies a physical heaven, it does not necessarily imply physical angels
 
Elsewhere somebody posted this. Does it seem accurate?:

*…Secondly, as multiple people have said earlier, what the soul is needs to be definitively defined if this discussion is to progress. But the term ‘spiritual’ should also be defined. And maybe this will help.

The simplest way to define spiritual would be as follows. A spiritual substance is that which is immaterial and which is not dependent upon matter for its existence. What do you all think of that?

As to the soul: the soul (the ‘anima’) is what early philosophers decided to call the principle which differentiated the living from the non-living (the animate from the inanimate) amongst material beings. Recognizing that non-living substances were so much less noble than the living ones, they wanted to name that difference. Thus, the soul, in its original meaning is not necessarily a spiritual thing, inasmuch as even plants and irrational animals have it (they have a principle of life).

But the human soul (principle of life) is different - it has rationality. With that rationality comes the ability to know spiritual realities, and to therefore also choose them. Thus man’s principle of life must include these powers, since these powers are part of the life of man. But, since the powers are spiritual, so must the the principle of those powers be. Hence, man’s soul is spiritual.

As to an angel, I think two things need to be noted. First, as Clem wrote, the term angel denotes an office, not a nature. When considering the nature of an angel we say it is a spirit in the sense that it is an immaterial being which is not dependent upon matter for its existence. Secondly, though, we should note that an angel wouldn’t have a ‘soul’ in the way soul has been articulated above, since it doesn’t have a material (bodily) existence.

This would mean that Satan is spiritual, but not that he has a soul - he doesn’t need a ‘soul’ to be spiritual.*
 
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