Did neanderthals have a soul like we do?
I don’t know where Neanderthals fit into Salvation history. It could be that they had limited souls (similar to, but greater than animals), but this sounds like a question for Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World : )
More than likely I would say yes. But I’ve always wondered if Adam and Eve were neanderthals. I struggle with this, cause, in one sense it would make sense. The first woman and the first man being neanderthals. However, they were with God, and God told them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil (Which never made any sense to me. Why would you deprive your own Creation of knowledge of any sort? God wouldn’t want a bunch of ignorant people living on this Earth, even though right now that seems to be the case.) But who knows? God could’ve spoken in a different way, through symbols or something else. So I dunno, I’d like to think Adam and Eve were at least coherent and they could innerstand certain concepts, but who knows? All I know is God was able to communicate with them.