> the Bible focuses on man and God, so it makes sense to not really talk to much about creatures

We were talking about creatures because that was the question at hand: "What creatures go to the afterlife?" It was actually the cause behind the entire discussion.

The Bible is primarily about man and God, as you said, but it's also about the cosmos and about the creatures. The Bible states that the cosmos serves as God's Temple, and the creatures are part of our responsibility and good stewardship.

But I believe Genesis is really going to give you a lot of trouble here, as it’s quite clear that man became a living soul but never mentions man having a soul within him like one would have like a heart in them

That doesn't give me any trouble. If you read the first paragraph of my previous response to you, I affirmed that the Bible said exactly what you also are saying: "It's correct that Gn. 2.7 says man became a living soul. The text is saying that "soul" became a characteristic of his being." All three of us are saying the same thing. Where's the trouble?

Well the Bible focuses on man and God, so it makes sense to not really talk to much about creatures

But I believe Genesis is really going to give you a lot of trouble here, as it’s quite clear that man became a living soul but never mentions man having a soul within him like one would have like a heart in them; so I think Genesis is really going to give you a hard time there if you believe we have like some kind of actual souls within us; and obviously I take the position that we don’t; that we may have spirit within us but a soul is just a living sentient being not an actual thing within us, and Genesis seems to mostly support that.

I don't see any literary, historical, or theological reason or credence to read Gen. 2.7 as a literary device. It's correct that Gn. 2.7 says man [i]became[/i] a living soul. The text is saying that "soul" became a characteristic of his being. It is the equivalent to "self." It seems to reflect his whole self. Since nephesh does not exist apart from corporeal reality we do not possess our bodies; rather, our bodies are integral parts of our whole identities. This is said of no other creature or kind of creature in the rest of creation.

There is no reason to take it as expressing that he (humans) is now a conscious being. There were other conscious animals, but this is never said of them.

It's very possible that text is about how God ordered the cosmos to function, not about its material manufacture. It's a more literal reading of Genesis 1-2. A period of light functions to give us day, a period of darkness functions to give us night, day and night function in alternating sequence to give us evening and morning, or time. The earth functions to bring forth vegetation. The sun, moon, and star function to give us times and seasons. Humans are to function in ruling the Earth and subduing it. It's about function, not manufacture. On day 2, nothing was manufactured, either. There is only separation. On day 3, nothing was manufactured. The earth that was there brought forth vegetation.

And if the text is not about material manufacture, then this text is not about humans becoming conscious beings. "The dust of the ground" speaks to man's mortality (Gn. 3.19; Ps. 103.14; 1 Cor. 15.47-48), not to his material manufacture. Breathing "into his nostrils the breath of life" is a statement of relationship, not of bringing life. Man alone, not the animals, is the recipient of the divine breath. Humans are invested with a knowledge of God and are capable of a relationship with God. It implies intimacy and significance while stressing the unique relationship of human life to divine life.

I don’t believe we necessarily have souls, but I think it’s just a literary device, I believe somewhere in genesis a verse says that God formed man from the dust and breath into him his spirit and then man became a living soul, it didn’t say that there was a soul in man but that man became a living soul, which just tells me that a soul is a conscious being

Genesis 2:7 - [quote]“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”[/quote]

We're not told. There is no notion in the Bible that angels are part of the plan of salvation, and there's no hint in the Bible that Jesus died to save angels, for angels, or to have any affect on their souls. That leads me to believe that angels don't have souls. We are told that some angels rebelled (Jude 6), and therefore that some angels stayed faithful to God, but we know little else. The angels who rebelled will be subject to judgment (Matt. 25.41). We're not told anything about souls in angelic beings.

Do angels have souls?

> Do you think a 4 year old that does a bad thing like lie to mommy is damned to hell if they die the next day?

Of course not. That's absurd. People are damned to hell for rejecting Christ and for refusing to align themselves with Him in love and relationship.

> doesn’t say the Bible say something about the age of accountability?

The Bible hints at an age of accountability. In the book of Romans (5.13), Paul says people will only be held accountable for the information they had and what they did with it. There is a principal of reasonable accountability. According to Romans 5.13, people are not held accountable for what they had no possibility of knowing or knowing about. In Deuteronomy 1.39, the children who were too young to make a realistic decision are not judged, but are shown mercy; their level of accountability was directly related to their moral awareness. Isa. 7.15-16 teaches the same thing: God deals differently with people based on their knowledge.

Do you think a 4 year old that does a bad thing like lie to mommy is damned to hell if they die the next day? And doesn’t say the Bible say something about the age of accountability?

Humans are the only beings who are souls. Genesis 2.7 tells us that humankind (and human are the only beings mentioned) "became living souls." This is not said of any other specie of living (or non-living) being. Soulness is characteristic of humanity alone. Why that is we are not told, just as the Bible doesn't tell us why lying, cheating, stealing, or adultery are wrong; just as the Bible doesn't tell us why planets and stars are generally and basically spherical in shape. We can speculate, but we're not told. As far as we know humans are the only beings to whom or to which God has revealed Himself.

Why does God only send humans to the afterlife?