All God's creatures are incredible. There's something really touching when an animal shows an awareness to try and save another animal or even a human.
Absolutely this I think there's more to them, possibly even on a spiritual level. When you look into any animal's eyes you can see they are aware of themselves and you and the situation.
One of my cats brought in a frog, the scream was hideous so I went to check The frog was on its back looking dead, I told the cat off and picked it up, it opened one eye and relaxed so I took it down to the pond and put it on a lily pad, it looked back at me made the frog noise like a chirrup and jumped into the water, it knew I was rescuing it
Anybody who has had a dog as a companion will know that they have souls every bit as much as we do. “You think those dogs will not be in heaven! I tell you they will be there long before any of us.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson
Cats too In some faiths they believe that animals can sense or know of misfortunes (usually health) that will befall their owners and will take those upon themselves to save them. But here's the thing... which creatures will make heaven? Is it fair that those we regard as unpleasant e.g. creepy crawlies shouldn't be there? What the fck has a spider or a beetle done to deserve being in hell? And also considering that without insects it would be very difficult for the world as it is, and us, to survive.
Should all life be in there, including viruses? If you believe in God, then God made them all. An eternity of sinusitis and catarrh. No thanks. And whilst bees would be okay, my idea of hell would be heaven without wasp-killer spray.
Well my thinking is that biomedical science wouldn't work in the same way so those ailments wouldn't exist. Lets remember that **** only came to exist because of Adam and Eve, well mainly Eve. Bloody women! There was no sickness before then. And a snake. Now he got a bad rap n all, it wasnt his fault, he deserves a second chance in heaven too.
Be careful what we wish for - I well remember a sublime episode of The Twilight Zone when an immoral mobster gets shot and dies. He wakes up to see St Peter ushering him into the afterlife, and here he has a mansion, unlimited money, all the women he wants, everybody loves him and he's famous. Heaven? After a few days of rolling 7's every time, winning the lottery every day, waking up with beautiful showgirls, etc, etc, he goes to St Peter and asks to go to "The other place". "The other place?" "Yeah, heaven is great, but I think I belong in the other place, hell". "Oh, sir, you're very mistaken - I'm not St Peter and this isn't heaven, this is "the other place" - hell".
Well this is true but the women would make it bearable I thought you were going to mention the other episode where the bloke turns up with his dog at the gates of heaven as both died together. He meets St Peter who tells him that his dog won't be allowed in. This becomes a dilemma and eventually the man decides he would rather endure hell with his dog than heaven without. He appears at another gate only to find out that this is in fact heaven and that had it not been for his dog and his decision he would be in hell.
Don't worry about hell, you are already living there, you can only go to heaven. If you don't believe me ask the people of Gaza how hell is treating them at the moment.
I'll do it! I'll even read it in the style of Ron Burgundy like in that video Sagan will be spinning in his grave.
Obviously, it's largely down to opinion where to draw the line between what is alive and what is not... But biology as a whole does not view viruses as being alive. (Bacteria are life forms though, and a small percentage of bacterial life forms can make you sick, so your point still stands)
I was cutting some serrano peppers for chili the other night and accidentally cut a chunk out of my thumb. The flap of thumb I cut eventually died and so I trimmed it off because it was getting caught in things and making my wound reopen. (Hope you're not eating dinner) My point, well, if lesser forms of life that have no sentience, make it to heaven, will the tip of my thumb also be there? It was a living mound of cells at one point in time.
I don't particularly consider anything to be anything, simply because everything may well just become nothing again in trillions of years, once black holes have gobbled everything up.
