By Do bacteria have souls? That’s the question that has been perplexing me all week! One of the reasons I wasn’t feeling too good recently is down to bacteria in my body, or that is what I’ve been told. Apparently, there are good and bad bacteria, as well as smelly and non-smelly. Who knew all of this, and how did they find out?
Is the smelly stuff bad or vice versa, or is it a bit of both? So many questions about something that most of us will never see. Which got me thinking if bacteria is a living organism, does each one have a soul? Another piece of information about these things that confused me is that we need the good sort as much as we need the bad, or did I misunderstand that?
What I do understand is that without these things, we can’t live. They probably can’t live without us either, gnawing away at our insides or chomping 24/7 on our skin. Even when we meet our end, these things carry on, chomping and gnawing happily away. They’re pretty strong things too, with scientists having sent a batch to outer space and stored them outside the amazing space station for something like 3 months. They brought them back to earth, and yes, they were still happily alive.
So maybe they don’t have souls, maybe they can live forever. I’m hoping though, that if there is such a thing as reincarnation I don’t come back as one. They seem happy enough, and never seem to complain whether or not they’re busy sifting our daily waste or cleaning great blobs of skin. I just don’t understand it all, which brings me back to my original question, do bacteria have souls?
lbeth1950
May 20, 2016Makes you glad not to be a bacteria, doesn’t it.
admin
May 21, 2016Thanks Beth, it does. I hope if there’s re-incarnation I don’t come back as one.
Scott
May 20, 2016That is an interesting question for which there is probably no answer. However, a fellow at one of my writing groups often brought unexpected subjects like you do. One of his stories took place in a doctor’s lab. The technician, while doing some housekeeping with his slides found one on which the bacteria had not grown correctly, so he scraped it off into the garbage can only to hear the bacteria shout: “I could have done it!”
admin
May 21, 2016Thanks Scott and a great little story too. Thank you.
jacquelineobyikocha
May 22, 2016Maybe in bacteria land they do.
admin
May 22, 2016Ha, you’re probably right, Jacqueline.
Jude
May 22, 2016Yep, I reckon they just might have little souls. And as far as being reincarnated is concerned I think it would be far worse to come back as a naked mole rat! 🙂
admin
May 23, 2016A naked mole rat!! I’m not so sure, but then again…. Thanks for taking the time to reply, Jude.
Leland Olson Hoel
May 25, 2016Trev, Now you gone and done it, opened a big old can of bacteria, worms. Like you said it’s good bacteria and bad bacteria, both good and bad people have souls. Are souls only researved for higher forms of life, maybe not? The whale and dolphin are both pretty classy critters. As smart as they are you would almost think they have a soul. Without the bad bacteria in our gut we would be dead in very short order. I recently had a bad bladder infection. The pumped me so full of antibiotics. They killed all the bacteria and my body the good and the bad. I never thought I was going to poop again. There’s a lot of room in this universe. Surely must be some room for the souls of all critters, bugs, etc..
admin
June 1, 2016Ha, thank you for that, Leland.
Farida Hakim
June 7, 2020Interesting question! I would suppose that bacteria don’t have souls 😉
Trev
June 7, 2020Thank you, Farida. I honestly don’t know ????