Viruses: do they have souls?

[TheLittleLady]

This is not spam, the Angelic Doctor explained for us the hierarchy of souls. That lichen that was scraped off the wall yesterday, it had a soul. My dog has a soul. Your chicken dinner once had a living soul. Man has an immortal soul.

 

[Gorgias]

I am asking if there has been any research/discussion/speculation about whether viruses have souls of the ‘animal’ type. The reason I am asking i the science discussion over whether they should be classified as ‘alive’. I wondered if there was a Catholic view on this.

If there were, it would have to be a discussion that began relatively recently in the history of the Church, since the discovery of single-celled organisms is relatively recent (with respect to the past two millennia). So, we wouldn’t expect to see anything on this prior to, let’s say, the 19th century? And even then, as I asked earlier, “to what point?”

 

[Servant31]

Well and viruses aren’t even as complex (debatably) as bacteria. Bacteria are all with functioning parts (organelles). Viruses are a package of RNA (similar to DNA) or DNA which are encased in a carrier. This carrier is optimized to insert that RNA into cells. Cool nerd-out video about viruse about halfway down the page under virus infection cycle.

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www.britannica.com

 

[Rau]

I have been reading up on the science of whether viruses are alive in the sense that, say, bacteria and cows are.

My high school biology of quite some years ago said they do not meet the criteria for life. Don’t ask me any questions about that though!