My son asked me yesterday whether the cat buried beneath the old maple stump in the back yard will go to heaven. I thought Rob’s essay might be a good answer for my seven year old. His follow up question though–aren’t there always follow up questions?–was whether JoJo, his favourite toy monkey, would go to heaven. “Maybe he’ll become a new monkey!” he suggested. I’m not sure Rob can address that, but here’s a blog worth reading.
One of my favorite features in the Wittenburg Door of the 1980s was a running account of “Dogs Who Know the Lord.” Having witnessed more Christlike traits in some pets than I’ve seen in many human lives, I considered the tongue in cheek title a definite possibility.
This week we bid farewell to a gentle and loving border collie who had been part of our family for more than a decade. She lived a long and full life, and like her our previous border collie, she enjoyed her family and the outdoors (both gifts of God) right up until the end. (Both had been “rescued” by us.) Then, when Tanner and Lady were each over 15 years old, simply remained on their blankets when the day arrived that they knew they had not the strength to rise.
There are two kinds of people. Pet lovers, and those whose hearts are…
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A Pilgrim in Narnia 
Good stuff, but I am far more confident in God’s interest in animals than Mr Stroud is. I love the conversation though!
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Yes, you are an Animalist (like a humanist), right? Do you think a dog is any more soulish than a tapeworm?
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Soulish? Not sure our terminology would fit the bill. I’m pretty sure that as expressions of a loving Creator they both have an independent worth maybe not measurable in human terms?
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Excellent. “Independent worth” is really interesting to me. I’m not sure anyone/thing have that independent worth in creation, but what you mean to critique is that they are not “needed” so aren’t of worth, right?
Does “worth” need to be eternal?
Also, don’t you think dogs have some sort of communicative intelligence that ants–intelligent as they are–do not?
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Ya, that is kinda my critique, I spose. I dont think God creates anything in vain, and He has a purpose (and a love [which I guess would constitute the ‘independent worth’]) for that which He creates.
I don’t think ‘worth’ would need to be ‘eternal’ but I think God is pleased to bless sentience (and even un-sentience ie: trees, plants [if they are indeed un-sentient?]) with eternity. I guess, if God is pleased with something, and that ‘something’ can enjoy existence, then it would please God, and the created thing, to continue existing. Really, from a totally anthropocentric sense, it would make no sense for their to be anything in heaven but that of human beings. I think to expand our allowances in this area would be a healthy thing for humans, not a restriction on our ‘uniqueness’.
Dogs seem to indeed have a sort of communicative intelligence that ants do not, but that is really only in regards to what ‘we’, as humans, benefit from that intelligence. We are still very speciesist in our dealings with animals, reckoning that what can be of benefit to us is more important. I dont think God views animals in this way. They are His, and respond to Him inherently (also constituting inherent worth).
On a fringe relation, as I look at the cover of The Wittenberg Door, I am reminded of St Guinefort? Thats a trip.
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ah, there it is again: I’m a speciesist. It’s true, I am, at least a little. I think humans are uniquely made in the image of Go and have inherent worth. But think about it: all creation must reflect some aspect of God’s reality, right? I don’t know what skunk cabbage and sponges and spiders reflect of God, but to assume no value (or only a service value) is to perhaps miss something.
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Indeed, tis a mystery, but we are much more aware of what cetaceans and great apes, and elephants are like now than we were say 50 years ago; who knows what the future will hold………..if the Mayans arent right.
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