# Do Plants Have a Spirit ## Intro Plants are alive. They grow, feed, repair themselves and reproduce, and the Bible treats them as part of God's good living creation. But the Bible never says plants have a spirit, and it draws a clear line between plants and the creatures it calls "living souls." In Genesis, plants are given as food to animals and people, the creatures "wherein there is life." The breath of life is breathed into the man, and animals share in breath and spirit. Plants are described differently, as green growth springing from the earth. When the flood kills "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life," the dove still comes back with a fresh olive leaf. ![Close-up of the feathery compound leaves of the sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica, with rows of small paired leaflets](/codex/assets/mimosa-pudica-sensitive-plant-leaves.jpg) _The sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica, whose leaflets fold up when touched. Photo: NonNerd, CC0, via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mimosa_pudica_leaves_close_up.jpg), resized._ Plants can do remarkable things. They bend toward light, sense gravity, react to touch, and send chemical signals when they are attacked. But reacting is not the same as experiencing, and growing is not the same as having a spirit. Crystals and rocks grow too. Being alive, being aware and having a spirit are three different things, and mixing them up is where most confusion about this question begins. ## In full The Hebrew Bible distinguishes vegetation from *nephesh chayyah*, "living creature" or "living soul" ([Genesis 1:20-24](/codex/genesis-1-20-24/), [1:30](/codex/genesis-1-30/), [2:7](/codex/genesis-2-7/), [2:19](/codex/genesis-2-19/)), and attributes *ruach* (breath, spirit) to humans and animals ([Genesis 7:22](/codex/genesis-7-22/); [Psalm 104:29-30](/codex/psalms-104-29-30/); [Ecclesiastes 3:19-21](/codex/ecclesiastes-3-19-21/)) but never to plants. Plants are created as self-propagating vegetation brought forth by the earth ([Genesis 1:11-12](/codex/genesis-1-11-12/)) and assigned as food to *nephesh*-bearers (1:29-30). Aristotle's *De Anima* by contrast attributes a "vegetative soul" (*psychē*) to plants as the principle of nutrition, growth and reproduction, alongside the sensitive soul of animals and the rational soul of humans, a scheme Aquinas adopts (*Summa Theologiae* I, q. 78, a. 1). Aristotle's *psychē* is a principle of life, not the biblical *ruach* of a personal or sentient creature, so the two frameworks are compatible once the terms are kept apart. Contemporary plant biology documents sophisticated signaling and adaptive responses, but the claim that plants are conscious is rejected by many plant physiologists (Taiz and colleagues, "Plants Neither Possess nor Require Consciousness," *Trends in Plant Science*, 2019). The page also addresses the inference from growth to life or spirit, which mineral growth shows to be invalid, and points to the separate philosophical arguments for an immaterial human spirit. ## The short answer - **Alive?** Yes. Plants are living organisms, created "after their kind" ([Genesis 1:11-12](/codex/genesis-1-11-12/)). - **A "living soul" (*nephesh chayyah*)?** No. Scripture uses that phrase for animals and humans, not plants. - **A spirit (*ruach*)?** No. Scripture attributes breath and spirit to humans and animals, and never to plants. - **A "soul" in Aristotle's sense?** In his technical sense of a principle of life, yes, a vegetative one. That is not what the Bible means by spirit. ## What Scripture says ### Plants are living vegetation > And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. ([Genesis 1:11](/codex/genesis-1-11/), ASV) Plants are brought forth by the earth at God's command, reproduce by seed "after their kind," and are called good. ### Plants are given as food to the creatures "wherein there is life" > and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. ([Genesis 1:30](/codex/genesis-1-30/), ASV) "Wherein there is life" renders the Hebrew phrase *nephesh chayyah*, the same phrase used of the man in [Genesis 2:7](/codex/genesis-2-7/), "man became a living soul." The plants are the food; the *nephesh*-bearers are the eaters. See [H5315 - nephesh](/codex/h5315-nephesh/). ### Breath and spirit belong to animals and humans - **[Genesis 2:7](/codex/genesis-2-7/)**, God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." - **[Genesis 7:22](/codex/genesis-7-22/)**, the flood destroyed "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land." The olive leaf the dove brings back in [Genesis 8:11](/codex/genesis-8-11/) shows that plant life was not counted among them. - **[Psalm 104:29-30](/codex/psalms-104-29-30/)**, of the animals: "Thou takest away their breath, they die, And return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created." - **[Ecclesiastes 3:19-21](/codex/ecclesiastes-3-19-21/)**, of humans and beasts: "they have all one breath," and "Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goeth downward to the earth?" The word for breath and spirit here is *ruach* (see [H7307 - ruach](/codex/h7307-ruach/)). ### The human spirit is set apart further - **[Zechariah 12:1](/codex/zechariah-12-1/)**, God "formeth the spirit of man within him." - **[Ecclesiastes 12:7](/codex/ecclesiastes-12-7/)**, at death "the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it." - **[James 2:26](/codex/james-2-26/)**, "the body apart from the spirit is dead." Humans share breath and life with the animals, and something more: they are made in God's image and their spirit returns to God. See [Imago Dei](/codex/imago-dei/) and [Soul](/codex/soul/). | | Biologically alive | Called *nephesh chayyah* | *Ruach* attributed | Made in God's image | |---|---|---|---|---| | Humans | Yes | Yes (Genesis 2:7) | Yes | Yes | | Animals | Yes | Yes (Genesis 1:24, 1:30) | Yes (Ecclesiastes 3:19-21) | No | | Plants | Yes | No | No | No | ## Aristotle's "vegetative soul" Aristotle, in *De Anima*, defined the soul (*psychē*) as the principle that makes a living body alive. On that definition every living thing has a soul, and he distinguished three kinds: 1. **Vegetative**, nutrition, growth and reproduction, shared by all living things 2. **Sensitive**, perception, appetite and movement, added in animals 3. **Rational**, thought and understanding, added in humans Thomas Aquinas took over this scheme. So a Christian can say, in Aristotle's technical vocabulary, that a plant has a vegetative "soul," meaning only that it is a living organism organized from within. That is a different claim from saying a plant has a spirit, a self, or experiences. See [Aristotle](/codex/aristotle/). ## Growth is not life, and life is not spirit One common argument runs: *plants grow, so they must have a spirit.* Rocks answer it. Rocks and crystals grow too, by mineral deposition, crystal growth, concretion and the cooling of lava. | | Rocks and crystals | Plants | |---|---|---| | Can increase in size | Yes | Yes | | Made of cells | No | Yes | | Metabolism | No | Yes | | Biological reproduction | No | Yes | | Responds biologically to stimuli | No | Yes | | Contains DNA | No | Yes | Growth alone does not show something is alive, and being alive does not show something has a spirit. The real question is the further one: does life itself require an immaterial principle, and does awareness? Those are separate questions with separate arguments. ## What plants can do Plant science has found real sophistication: - **Tropisms.** Plants grow toward light and orient to gravity. - **Touch responses.** The sensitive plant folds its leaflets when touched; climbing plants coil around supports. - **Chemical signaling.** Damaged plants release compounds that can trigger defenses in neighbors. - **Stress memory.** Plants can respond more quickly to a repeated stress. None of this requires a spirit or consciousness, and many plant physiologists argue that plants have neither the anatomy nor the need for consciousness (Taiz and colleagues, *Trends in Plant Science*, 2019). Responding to the environment is something a thermostat does too. Experiencing it is something else. ## Is there proof of a spirit? The related question is whether there is evidence for spirit at all. The answer depends on the kind of evidence asked for. - **Biblical.** Scripture teaches a human spirit distinct from the body: [James 2:26](/codex/james-2-26/), [Ecclesiastes 12:7](/codex/ecclesiastes-12-7/) and [Zechariah 12:1](/codex/zechariah-12-1/) above. For someone who does not accept the Bible's authority, these state the doctrine rather than prove it. - **Philosophical.** Three lines of argument point to an immaterial aspect of the human person: the existence of conscious, first-person experience; *intentionality*, the way thoughts are "about" things, including abstract things like truth and infinity; and *personal identity*, the persistence of the same self through constant bodily change. See [Argument from Consciousness](/codex/argument-from-consciousness/), [Intentionality](/codex/intentionality/) and [Argument from Personal Identity](/codex/argument-from-personal-identity/). - **Scientific.** Brain activity is closely tied to memory, personality and decision-making, which every Christian view of the person affirms, since body and soul are united. Correlation between mind and brain does not show that the mind is nothing but the brain. See [Consciousness Emerges from Neurons Objection Defeater](/codex/consciousness-emerges-from-neurons-objection-defeater/) and [Substance Dualism](/codex/substance-dualism/). These arguments concern the human spirit. None of them gives any reason to think plants have one. ## Why the question matters - **Animism and pantheism.** Some spiritualities hold that everything living, or everything at all, has spirit. The Bible distinguishes Creator from creation and draws lines within creation. See [Animism](/codex/animism/), [Pantheism vs the Christian God](/codex/pantheism-vs-the-christian-god/) and [New Age Spirituality vs the Christian God](/codex/new-age-spirituality-vs-the-christian-god/). - **Death before the fall.** Young-earth creationists note that eating plants in Eden is not the death [Romans 5](/codex/romans-5/) speaks of, because plants are not *nephesh*-bearers. See [Death Before the Fall](/codex/death-before-the-fall/). - **Human dignity.** The ladder of life, spirit and image shows why human life carries unique worth, and why that worth rests on God's gift, not on biological capacities alone. See [Personhood](/codex/personhood/). ## Scholarship Published academic works this page draws on, each matched to a publisher, index or library catalog record. - Lincoln Taiz et al., "Plants Neither Possess nor Require Consciousness," *Trends in Plant Science* 24 (2019). [doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2019.05.008](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2019.05.008) [PubMed 31279732](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31279732/) ## See also - [Soul](/codex/soul/), the Christian doctrine of the soul - [Mind, Soul, Consciousness](/codex/mind-soul-consciousness/), the wider philosophy of mind - [H5315 - nephesh](/codex/h5315-nephesh/), "living soul" in Hebrew - [H7307 - ruach](/codex/h7307-ruach/), breath, wind and spirit - [Imago Dei](/codex/imago-dei/), what sets humans apart - [Death Before the Fall](/codex/death-before-the-fall/), plant and animal death in Genesis - [Animism](/codex/animism/), the belief that everything has spirit - [Aristotle](/codex/aristotle/), the vegetative, sensitive and rational soul - [Personhood](/codex/personhood/), what makes someone a person
## Common questions this page answers **Q: Do plants have a spirit according to the Bible?** No. The Bible treats plants as living and good, but it never attributes breath or spirit (*ruach*) to them or calls them "living souls" (*nephesh chayyah*). Those terms are used of animals and humans. **Q: Do plants have souls?** Not in the biblical sense. In Aristotle's technical sense, where "soul" just means the principle of life, plants have a "vegetative soul" responsible for nutrition, growth and reproduction. That is a different idea from a spirit or a conscious self. **Q: Are plants conscious?** Plants respond to light, gravity, touch and chemical signals, but responding is not the same as experiencing. Many plant scientists argue that plants have neither the anatomy for consciousness nor any need for it. **Q: Can rocks grow?** Yes. Rocks and crystals can grow by mineral deposition, crystal growth and the cooling of lava. That is why growth alone cannot prove something is alive, and certainly cannot prove it has a spirit. **Q: Is there any proof that humans have a spirit?** Scripture teaches it ([James 2:26](/codex/james-2-26/); [Ecclesiastes 12:7](/codex/ecclesiastes-12-7/)), and philosophers point to consciousness, the "aboutness" of thought, and the persistence of the self through bodily change as signs of an immaterial aspect of the person. Science shows the mind is closely tied to the brain, but correlation is not identity. **Q: Did plants die before the fall?** Plants were eaten before the fall ([Genesis 1:29](/codex/genesis-1-29/)), so Christians generally agree that plant "death" is not the death Scripture says entered through sin. Plants are not described as living souls in Genesis.