It is difficult to say whether we can know exactly whether we have a soul or not, or whether other people or animals have souls or not. Although it is generally believed that souls are the immortal part of human bodies and continue into the afterlife, when analyzing the matter philosophically, this is difficult to believe when there are philosophers who even suspect their own existence, such as Rene Descartes. However, humans exhibit conscience, are aware of good and evil, and are capable of love, so these qualities could be evidence of a soul. In the case of animals, animals show sadness when they are forcibly separated from their children, such as when whales are separated from their calves while being hunted. Animals are also capable of love, so there may be a desire to believe that all living things have a soul. But at the end of the day, there is no literal way to know or prove it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay While some religions believe in an afterlife through going to heaven, others believe in it through reincarnation; while one holds that animals cannot have souls, the other holds that humans can reincarnate into inferior beings like animals. If there really is a soul, what is it? What is the essence of a soul? Yes, we can have faith in having a soul and believe that because we have consciousness, we have a soul. But we live in a technological age that represents a path to the next evolutionary stage of human beings. The definition of what it means to be human is changing. It was once believed that if one can have reasonable thinking, have conscience, distinguish good from evil, and have a brain of a certain size, or whatever the case may be, they are a human being. But today, people who have brain deficiencies are able to survive throughout their lives, people who have lost limbs are attached mechanical and artificial limbs that help them in their daily lives. There is even talk of people trying to transfer their consciousness to a computer system so that it continues even after their death. The next phase of being human appears to include the existence of artificial intelligence and even the possibility of consciousness within an AI. Does this mean robots will one day have souls? There seems to be no way to know if we have a soul.