Many people think ants do not have souls as these insects are not intelligent like humans and lack the power of reasoning.
However, they have a sense of self-nutrition, multiplying, and protection and are more conscious than plants, so it is difficult to believe that these living creatures do not have souls.
Do Ants Have Souls? Ants have souls, but it differs from human and plant souls. These insects do not have rational and vegetative or nutritive souls and possess sensitive souls. You can know about the presence of souls in insects by their power of cooperation, sense of discrimination or self-protection, and ability to grow. Furthermore, they have strength or energy and detect changes in an external environment to modulate their behavior accordingly.
Depending on their lifestyles and behavior, different types of souls are present in humans, plants, and animals. For example, humans have life or rational souls, while insects have sensitive souls.
How do you know if ants have souls?
You can get an idea about the presence of souls in ants by determining their life activities and behaviors. For example, a dead ant can’t detect stimuli, perform tasks, or reproduce.
Ability to detect changes
They can detect physical and environmental changes in their surroundings using their senses of smell, vision, and touch. Their sense of vision is not so strong, but it can help identify objects.
However, their sense of smell is remarkable as these insects can smell food and danger from several feet. In addition, they can efficiently detect many odor molecules with a minor difference.
It helps them differentiate between odors as they are attracted to pleasant smells and prefer to remain away from unpleasant or repelling odors.
Furthermore, it allows the detection of objects using antennae when they are touching hard surfaces.
Their antennae can identify encountered objects, which can help make decisions about whether they need to be avoided.
Power of cooperation
Humans have the power of cooperation as their body, or life soul, allows them to cooperate with each other and interact socially.
In the same way, ants cooperate socially with the same or different species to meet their goals.
You can find them engaged in a mutual relationship with fungi and aphids to get food and provide protection.
Moreover, all colony members cooperate due to similar goals, as their primary concern is colony protection to ensure its survival.
Every nest member performs a particular task according to its caste, as workers are supposed to go out and collect food, while queens remain inside the nest and produce eggs.
Presence of strength and energy
Souls possess strength and energy, giving a specific passion and vibe to a living individual. Human bodies cannot live without souls, as they lose the strength to perform functions after death.
Dead bodies lack energy when their souls depart from bodies, making them lose the power and strength to move, talk, and respond.
Similarly, they obtain energy from nutrition and keep it stored in their bodies and used to perform activities. As a result, they will lose their muscle strength and energy after dying.
So, you can consider that ants have immortal souls, as living insects possess the energy and strength to carry heavy food particles, while deceased ones can do nothing.
Ability to grow and multiply
Multiplication and growth are powers of the soul that are present in humans and plants. As a result, humans can reproduce, resulting in an increase in their population and an increase in body size over time.
Similarly, ants can reproduce and multiply; these insects can multiply many times faster than humans, as the queen lays hundreds of eggs at one time.
The size of larvae is smaller than the adult insects, indicating the growth of their bodies and internal organs when they get closer to their maturity stage.
So, the power of multiplying in ants makes you believe that these insects also have souls like humans and plants, but it differs slightly from their rational and vegetative ones.
Sense of self-protection
They have a sense of defense and respond to attacks to protect themselves and their colonies. A sense of self-protection is one of the most prominent characteristics of organisms having souls.
You can find them fighting to prevent killing attacks from invaders to ensure survival, as they will fight for their life, like humans.
It allows them to differentiate between a friend and foe to determine the extent of the threat. In addition, they can detect body smells as all members of one colony give off the same odor.
Moreover, it helps them identify and kill enemies by following defensive strategies. Finally, the injured insects can recover from injuries with the help of fellows.
Do ants have the same soul as humans?
The existence of humans and their ability to perform functions are possible due to physical structure or bodies, spirits, and rational souls.
Souls are non-physical entities, providing abilities to think and make decisions based upon understanding, as these control senses, brain activities, desires, and responses in humans.
In the same way, ants cannot perform activities after death as their bodies lose abilities to perform functions like walking, jumping, and communicating with their fellows.
It means there is a soul in insects, particularly in ants, as they rely on these non-physical entities. It is not the same possessed by humans as these insects lack intellectual thinking.
They do not have reasoning power and spend their whole lives on the basic strategies of life. They have computerized brains that are not capable of understanding and reasoning.
Accordingly, they lack rational souls, and all members of a colony behave in the same way, making it possible to replace the dead one with another one.
Additionally, there is no concept of creativity and passion in their actions and behavior, as these insects work like robots and perform their tasks.
Furthermore, they do not have feelings, emotions, and passions, making them more like robots following instructions.
So, they cannot think and find reasons for their activities and behavior, making them different from humans.
Can ants detect their death?
Ants can detect their death, as the dead one releases chemicals identified by other colony members. In addition, the decaying dead body produces specific pheromones or oleic acid after 2 to 3 days.
These odor molecules are captured and detected by the olfactory receptors in their antennae. It helps them understand that their nest mate is dead and needs to be buried.
Accordingly, undertakers will pick up the dead bodies on their backs and take them to the area designated for throwing the bodies of deceased nest members.
Some ants stack dead ones in the midden or a graveyard close to their nests. However, a few bury them in the soil as humans do.
Moreover, they have a nervous system that can help detect changes in the body and informs them about their death.
Colonies have undertakers responsible for the care of ill members and shuttling the dead bodies of deceased fellows to the midden.
So, they can identify dead members as decomposing bodies and give off a particular odor that works like an indicator for nest fellows to bury their bodies to avoid contamination of colonies.
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