The Glade 4.0

My stepson says no, they don't. His uncle says, no, they don't and according to the bible animals have no souls and only humans (who have souls) can accept God's plan of salvation and go to heaven.

I have a really really really hard time believing this.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Animals don't accept Jesus Christ as their savior, so no, they don't go to Heaven.

Here's my view:

I agree that animals have no soul.

If heaven is God's place of love at it's purest then our beloved pets will be part of the landscape.

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“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.” - Pearl S. Buck

But...if animals have no soul, and they die and their bodies decay....then what essentially makes them who they are will be lost forever when they die since there is no soul, right?
But then again...."with God, all things are possible..."

It's so confusing.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

All Dogs Go to Heaven. 'Nuff said

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I don't know about heaven, but if those damned little Jack Russell Terriers don't go to hell, there can be no just god.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Whoa. Did you just do a quick identity change there?

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Yeah, Miala is an account I use on one of the PbP gaming forums. I forgot to switch out of it before posting.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Oh ok. I was confused for a minute.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

...hmmm...animals can't go to heaven if the don't have souls...but if animals did have souls, then it would be a sin to kill them, which would mean we should all be vegetarians....but God (at the beginning of creation) gave man dominion over all the creatures....

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Man was created in the likeness of God. And I like to think that domesticating pets causes just a little bit of that to rub off. Is that theologically rigorous? No. Do I expect it to work that way? Not really. Does it make me feel better? Yes. Teek's viewpoint plays in a bit there, too.

Pets don't have the divine spark that gives them (conscious?) free will, nor are they capable of sin or the acceptance of the Messiah necessary for salvation. However, being incapable of sin, they have no need of salvation. I like to think that they've got their own deal waiting for them that's not heaven per se, but that the heavenbound get visiting rights.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Sheep go to heaven, goats go to hell.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Other than the metaphor of sheep and goats, I don't think the Bible really goes into that question. It's yet another matter where people have a bad habit of saying "The Bible says X" when really they are inferring X from what it says.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The Preacher's Kid will now point out that the Genesis creation myth uses the same word translated "souls" in English to refer to animals the same way it does humans.

Some bible translations replace the word "souls" in these passages with other words to differentiate between man and beast, but the original hebrew did no such thing, using the same hebrew word ("Nephesh") in all cases.

It's also worth noting that the bible never speaks of "having" souls, even in the case of humans. It speaks of "being" souls. Subtle distinction, perhaps, but I'm not sure why. Lots of people will give lots of different answers.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Like Teek, I don't know how a place could be as splendid as Heaven is supposed to be, without our beloved animals.

Based on that alone, I say bring the dog biscuits with you when you go.

Pretty much this. I feel almost as though the love of an owner bestows upon that pet a soul. Call it bunk, God passing along His gift of life, or whatever you like, I don't really care. But I simply can't imagine that animals who receive the love that they do from their owners don't have a soul, or at least a close enough approximation of one to be reunited with their owners.

Growing up, I always figured that Heaven couldn't be full of everything I liked, because some of that stuff was sinful! I eventually came to the conclusion that upon entering Heaven, you'd no longer remember anything from your life that wouldn't be permitted past the pearly gates. You can't be unhappy about missing something, if you don't know it's missing! I applied this same logic to pets when someone told me animals don't go to heaven.

All of that made sense when I was ten. I suppose I looked at heavenly souls as drugged-up drones. Maybe more like happy zombies. Happy zombies without a craving for brains.

I spent an hour an the phone with a pastor-friend and the general idea is that animals have no souls and they don't go to heaven. I could agree that animals have no souls but them not going to heaven I had a tough time with.....his thinking based on theology made sense but I couldn't even begin to explain it.

Edit: Lenas is pretty close. My friend said that God takes away all our sorrows and knowledge of sin, etc so we will not hurt for nor miss our pets and animals or people we loved that did not get saved.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Credit Sasandra from the random pics thread.

Wait.. if animals don't go to heaven, that means there will be no... steak!

hrm...

Hahahahaha! That's pretty awesome, Farsky!

Midgen....there will be animals in heaven, they just won't be the ones we had down here.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

This confuses me. Do some animals have souls but not others?

I'm sticking to my original thought.

Pets will be there, as will steak!!

Apparently no animals have souls...God will just create new animals in heaven or something like that.
We may still have pets and steak...(though not necessarily in that order)...but they will be new pets and the idea that our pets will be reunited with us is apparently not possible.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

No matter your belief, that explanation sounds pretty crappy imo. I wouldn't want a new pet. I want my pet, god dammit.