Yesterday after posting my blog about state sponsored suicide, something I just can't agree with, the conversation turned to euthanizing animals. Now that is something I have had to do and although quite a difficult thing, I feel a necessary one. I don't understand how the state can sponsor assisting someone taking their life but making it illegal to put your pet down if that becomes necessary. Now you can pay a professional to do that, but you can't. To me another example of letting the government decide what is right or wrong. Is the thinking if we get permission from the government that makes the action justified ? Does that mean if the government agrees with us we can just dismiss our moral or ethical concerns ? Hey, as long as it is legal. But what the conversation turned to was whether animals have a soul. My thinking is they do not. I base that on the reasoning that the Bible says God made man is his own image. It doesn't say he did that with the animals. I believe that is what separates man from the animals. It is just not that we are smarter and have an imagination or that we posses cognitive powers. No, I believe we all have a soul, or a spirit if you prefer that term,but animals do not.
Some years back a poem about the rainbow bridge was published. That is where this notion of pets going to heaven came from. It is a comfort to those that have lost a dear pet. Personally I don't believe that. They are animals , they live and die and back to the earth they go. They do not have a soul that goes to heaven. That is based upon my belief that heaven isn't a physical place and I will not be in a physical form should I gain entrance. I was made in the image of God. I don't believe that means a reflection of a physical being, it isn't that kind of image. I was given a " soul " a piece of God himself and that is the image being referred to. That image wasn't given to animals. I understand the love we can develop for our pets, I had my first dog for fifteen years. A true and loyal companion beyond compare. He died in 1973. He didn't cross any rainbow bridge and isn't waiting for me in heaven, or a field outside of heaven. The fact is I buried him under his favorite pine tree where he lies decomposing to this day. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust same as us in a physical sense.
I do believe that we posses a soul that continues on. I base that not only upon what my Bible tells me but science as well. Science tells us that energy can not be created or destroyed, only transformed from one state to another. What is energy ? Our most brilliant scientists have not and can not give us a definitive answer to that question. A force that produces work is one answer. Energy is a force with the ability to change form is another. Who or what is God ? No one can really answer that question either. The reason is because they are the same thing, God and energy. Neither one can be created or destroyed. Remember the Bible says there was darkness and everything was still and God said, let there be light ! Let there be energy. Energy began to transform the earth and God said it was good. It also says that God made man. The key phrase to me is that we were made in his image. That means we must possess energy, a soul. At least that is my thought.
There is nothing wrong with loving your pets. There is nothing wrong with believing your pet will meet you in heaven. If that is what comforts you that's fine. I believe that we should treat all animals as humanely as possible. To do otherwise is just sick and cruel. Yes we need laws to protect animals from people that would do otherwise. Was a time when no law was needed because folks had been taught morality and ethics. Those ideals were enforced by the society. Now we feel it is the job of government. As long as it is legal we bear no responsibility is the current thinking. Should we attempt to enforce, or even as much imply, that an action is wrong when it hasn't been delineated by law as such, we are being judgmental ! And judgement is always condemnation right ? Interesting that our society now finds it acceptable to sponsor suicide as a moral and legitimate choice. It is alright to end the life of a human being. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the same society now assigns a soul to an animal. But that is just my take on it. I agree it is a comforting thought, this idea of the rainbow bridge and all that. Now, the only other thing that confuses me is why do the Gay people wave a rainbow flag around ? Are the two ideas somehow related to each other ? Hey, not judging, just wondering. And just why are unicorns involved in all of this ?
Some years back a poem about the rainbow bridge was published. That is where this notion of pets going to heaven came from. It is a comfort to those that have lost a dear pet. Personally I don't believe that. They are animals , they live and die and back to the earth they go. They do not have a soul that goes to heaven. That is based upon my belief that heaven isn't a physical place and I will not be in a physical form should I gain entrance. I was made in the image of God. I don't believe that means a reflection of a physical being, it isn't that kind of image. I was given a " soul " a piece of God himself and that is the image being referred to. That image wasn't given to animals. I understand the love we can develop for our pets, I had my first dog for fifteen years. A true and loyal companion beyond compare. He died in 1973. He didn't cross any rainbow bridge and isn't waiting for me in heaven, or a field outside of heaven. The fact is I buried him under his favorite pine tree where he lies decomposing to this day. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust same as us in a physical sense.
I do believe that we posses a soul that continues on. I base that not only upon what my Bible tells me but science as well. Science tells us that energy can not be created or destroyed, only transformed from one state to another. What is energy ? Our most brilliant scientists have not and can not give us a definitive answer to that question. A force that produces work is one answer. Energy is a force with the ability to change form is another. Who or what is God ? No one can really answer that question either. The reason is because they are the same thing, God and energy. Neither one can be created or destroyed. Remember the Bible says there was darkness and everything was still and God said, let there be light ! Let there be energy. Energy began to transform the earth and God said it was good. It also says that God made man. The key phrase to me is that we were made in his image. That means we must possess energy, a soul. At least that is my thought.
There is nothing wrong with loving your pets. There is nothing wrong with believing your pet will meet you in heaven. If that is what comforts you that's fine. I believe that we should treat all animals as humanely as possible. To do otherwise is just sick and cruel. Yes we need laws to protect animals from people that would do otherwise. Was a time when no law was needed because folks had been taught morality and ethics. Those ideals were enforced by the society. Now we feel it is the job of government. As long as it is legal we bear no responsibility is the current thinking. Should we attempt to enforce, or even as much imply, that an action is wrong when it hasn't been delineated by law as such, we are being judgmental ! And judgement is always condemnation right ? Interesting that our society now finds it acceptable to sponsor suicide as a moral and legitimate choice. It is alright to end the life of a human being. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the same society now assigns a soul to an animal. But that is just my take on it. I agree it is a comforting thought, this idea of the rainbow bridge and all that. Now, the only other thing that confuses me is why do the Gay people wave a rainbow flag around ? Are the two ideas somehow related to each other ? Hey, not judging, just wondering. And just why are unicorns involved in all of this ?
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