Do Animals Get Into Heaven?

Do you think that animals make it to the Heaven or are they dammed to Hell? Let me take one animal for and example: dogs. Dogs show unconditional love and loyalty and would gladly give up their lives for us. They also have a large capacity for forgiveness. One dog was beaten and underfed to the point of near death but when police came to save it, the dog wgged its tail and didn't show even a remote amount of aggression towards the police. What do you think? I believe dogs and other animals make it into Hevean simply because they show no cruelty and go by nature which was created by God. If you're an athiest and don't believe in Heaven and Hell then don't you at least think that animals get rewarded when they die? Give your thoughts please.

I think "do animals beleive in god" is a far more interresting question.

Oh, yes they do. They serve the master (umm, God, in retrospect, that sounds weird) himself. They are his lesser earthly angels. They do as they please, and then they are told and forced instinctively to do what he wants. That's why Fido'll sleep next to you, while cringe from your father, and bark at the mailman. He develops a personality to like you 'cause you play with him, dislike your dad for disciplining him, and bark at the mailman for "being the bearer of bad news (bills)". Instinct (God) drives him to protect you, as moral may have you do for him.

All life goes to Heaven. Sin or not, these are misconceptions of human ideologies designed to surpress the actual nature of organisms' feral instincts. In the end, God or whatever the creator is, created life on this planet, therefore, He/She made life cycle the way it is right now. There is no Hell whatsoever. It's just something that human corruptions via power dominance such as, the Church for an example, to govern other individuals.

Animals do go to Heaven, same as everyone else.

Sure, ones that had done unspeakable acts should go to Hell in our views, but when you think about it, what had influence these individuals to do the things that they had committed before they were dead, from either natural causing deaths or humanistic punishments via sanctions?

I don't think they go to Heaven or Hell. Go figure.

If you want an absolutely serious answer, I guess I can attempt to give one.

In the Judeo-Christian system, animals are generally believed to become nonexistent when they die, because they don't have souls. Think of God as a geometric Line, no beginning, no end. Humans are rays, they have a beginning, but their souls live on into eternity. Animals are line segments, a specific beginning, a specific end.

As for eastern religion, Animals in most cases are just incarnations of souls, and if the animal lived a good life, will be reborn as a human or higher tier animal.

As for atheists, because you seemed to pose the question to them as well, not only do they not believe in heaven or hell, but most don't believe in right or wrong either, only moral relativism. In this system, it's impossible to be "good" or "bad," so there's really no unfairness in them dying and not going anywhere.

I hope that answers your question better than the new age hippie crap/undeducated theology that's been posted so far in the topic.

Originally Posted by Aerorian

There is no Hell whatsoever. It's just something that human corruptions via power dominance such as, the Church for an example, to govern other individuals.

I believe that there is a Hell. However, you'd have to be a Son of Perdition in order to earn that. I don't even think Hitler would be one.

I doubt animals have a knowledge of the Gospel or the Savior, therefore cannot gain a perfect knowledge of it, hence they cannot deny it, and therefore, hence, and because of, won't go to Hell.

I do think that animals will be in Heaven. It would be pretty lonely without them.

Originally Posted by Cheesy Triforce

Could ypu explain in further detail please? Do they go to Limbo or what?

Well, I would assume they don't go anywhere. At all. When animals die they decompose. Thus they go into the environment. As far as I'm concerned, there is no such thing as "Limbo" anyway. I mean, what is Limbo?

Originally Posted by Blizzaga

I believe that there is a Hell. However, you'd have to be a Son of Perdition in order to earn that. I don't even think Hitler would be one.

I doubt animals have a knowledge of the Gospel or the Savior, therefore cannot gain a perfect knowledge of it, and therefore, hence, and because of, won't go to Hell.

I do think that animals will be in Heaven. It would be pretty lonely without them.

Are you saying that Hitler would go to Heaven, or that he just wouldn't go to Hell?

Originally Posted by Asci

Psh, maybe dogs that are trained to do so. They also train dogs to attack any intruder. Don't make such sweeping judgements.

They're trained to attack an intruder. That's human influence. Dogs are still loyal, and forgiving

Religion is an idea made up by humans, and I really, really, really emphasize "made up" here; I believe that there isn't a heaven to get into, so animals aren't even applicable to the question.

-Sigh- Let me refase the question: if there was a Heaven to get into, would animals be allowed to?

Originally Posted by Cheesy Triforce

-Sigh- Let me refase the question: if there was a Heaven to get into, would animals be allowed to?

Wouldn't it depend on the method for entering Heaven? I'm not sure what method you're referring to, but the according to the Biblical method, animals couldn't enter Heaven. Or Hell for that matter.

Originally Posted by Cheesy Triforce

Do you think that animals make it to the Heaven or are they dammed to Hell? Let me take one animal for and example: dogs. Dogs show unconditional love and loyalty and would gladly give up their lives for us. They also have a large capacity for forgiveness. One dog was beaten and underfed to the point of near death but when police came to save it, the dog wgged its tail and didn't show even a remote amount of aggression towards the police. What do you think? I believe dogs and other animals make it into Hevean simply because they show no cruelty and go by nature which was created by God. If you're an athiest and don't believe in Heaven and Hell then don't you at least think that animals get rewarded when they die? Give your thoughts please.

Hypothetically (I'm an atheist), if there was a heaven to enter when we die there would be many other animals (humans are animals too) far more deserving of such treatment than many humans.

Originally Posted by MMKB

Hypothetically (I'm an atheist), if there was a heaven to enter when we die there would be many other animals (humans are animals too) far more deserving of such treatment than many humans.

What makes an animal worthy? What method for entering Heaven are you talking about? Elaborate.

Originally Posted by ShadowVaati

What makes an animal worthy? What method for entering Heaven are you talking about? Elaborate.

Humans are animals too, what sort of animals are you talking about?
I'm assuming you're talking about animals that can't reason or have self-awareness to the same degree as humans. (Speaking hypothetically again) If so, going by Christian values, surely animals that do their best to care for and nurture each other (I.e. pack behaviour) are following quite a few of these values? It isn't really their fault that they don't have the same capacity for higher thought as humans to be able to accept Christ as a saviour, so is it fair that they be excluded from heaven?

Originally Posted by Cheesy Triforce

They're trained to attack an intruder. That's human influence. Dogs are still loyal, and forgiving

Firstly, "that's human influence?" I hardly think human's have to "influence" and animal to make it attack an intruder. I mean, following this logic, we've "trained" animals to do anything that isn't good and grand and moral. We trained dolphins to move in packs for the purpose of smacking porpoises around until they die and then kick the bodies away and move on. We've trained lions to attack hyenas, snap their necks, and then leave the bodies untouched.

These are two examples that, assuming animals were capable of moral behavior that changes under influence which we would be guilty of doing.

Of course, since dogs are loyal - is this loyalty human influence, too? Are wolves loyal to creatures outside their species, naturally? Is any animal but rational thinking man loyal to animals outside its species or do they all act in self-interest (or group interest)? The answer should be obvious, but unfortunately people like to ascribe human emotions to animals that cannot have them.

Is this to say that animals have no natural bonds or morals? Of course not, but their morality is based in self-interest - not in a concept of morality!

To give Robert Heinlein's example: "As one drives through the bushveldt of East Africa it is easy to spot herds of baboons grazing on the ground. But not by looking at the ground. Instead you look up and spot the lookout, and adult male posted on a limb of a tree where he has a clear view all around him -- which is why you can spot him; he has to be where he can see a leopard in time to give the alarm. On the ground a leopard can catch a baboon. . .but if a baboon is warned in time to reach the trees, he can out-climb a leopard.

The lookout is a young male assigned to that duty and there he will stay, until the bull of the herd sends up another male to relieve him.[...]

[...]We have two situations, mutually exclusive: Mankind surviving, and mankind extinct. With respect to morality, the second situation is a null class. An extinct breed has NO behavior, moral or otherwise.

Since survival is the sine qua non, I now define "moral behavior" as "behavior that tends toward survival." I won't argue with philosophers or theologians who choose to use the word "moral" to mean something else, but I do not think anyone can define "behavior that tends toward extinction" as being "moral" without stretching the word "moral" all out of shape.

We are now ready to observe the hierarchy of moral behavior from its lowest level to its highest.

The simplest form of moral behavior occurs when a man or other animal fights for his own survival. Do not belittle such behavior as being merely selfish. Of course it is selfish. . .but selfishness is the bedrock on which all moral behavior starts and it can be immoral only when it conflicts with a higher moral imperative. An animal so poor in spirit that he won't even fight on his own behalf is already an evolutionary dead end; the best he can do for his breed is to crawl off and die, and not pass on his defective genes.

The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for your own immediate family. This is the level at which six pounds of mother cat can be so fierce that she'll drive off a police dog. It is the level at which a father takes a moonlighting job to keep his kids in college -- and the level at which a mother or father dives into a flood to save a drowning child. . .and it is still moral behavior even when it fails.

The next higher level is to work, fight, and sometimes die for a group larger that the unit family -- an extended family, a herd, a tribe -- and take another look at that baboon on watch; he's at that moral level. I don't think baboon language is complex enough to permit them to discuss such abstract notions as "morality" or "duty" or "loyalty" -- but it is evident that baboons DO operate morally and DO exhibit the traits of duty and loyalty; we see them in action. Call it "instinct" if you like -- but remember that assigning a name to a phenomenon does not explain it.

But that baboon behavior can be explained in evolutionary terms. Evolution is a process that never stops. Baboons who fail to exhibit moral behavior do not survive; they wind up as meat for leopards. Every baboon generation has to pass this examination in moral behavior; those who bilge it don't have progeny. Perhaps the old bull of the tribe gives lessons. . .but the leopard decides who graduates -- and there is no appeal from his decision. We don't have to understand the details to observe the outcome; Baboons behave morally -- for baboons."

Of course, any assumption that this behavior is necessarily a sign of higher thinking, or a soul, or any other such thing is nonsense. Anyone who has to seriously ask this kind of question is inputting their notions about their fluffy pet and its behavior and their need for someone to say "no, dear, of course it goes to heaven - just like all good girls and boys" onto a platform that categorically cannot accept it. Lacking any understanding of even the notion of being dead, how the dog grasp an afterlife or a code of moral behavior? It can't. Anthropomorphic animals is the silly delusion of people who have never had anything troubling at all happen to them. Carried to an extreme it is usually a criminal offense, or at least lewd conduct in company. Throughly distasteful line of questioning.

Originally Posted by Holic

I'm an atheist through-and-through, but my understanding is that animals don't go anywhere because they don't have the holy spirit? Am i on the right track here?

Technically holic you are corrct, except they dont have a soul to accept the holy spirit into...so as far as that goes i dont think animals will go to heaven..not to say that there wont be any in heaven! there will probobly be plenty of animals in heaven.

Now this is an interesting topic. Do animals go to Heaven? As said before, animals, in most cases, are blameless before the eyes of God, and are only doing what is in their nature to do so, or what their instincts encourage them to. The Bible says 'Thou shall not kill', but I'm sure almost every living carnivore on the planet has violated that rule more than once, and also plenty enough herbivores too. An elephant will kill a lion if it can, despite being a strict herbivore. A cow can charge, attack and kill a person. So can a pig. Or a dolphin. There's no end to what Nature has produced, and of what it is capable of. Humans are simply an extra product that Nature has produced, despite being by far about the most ingenious, creative and, for lack of a better word, more twisted, than most other animals in nature?

Dogs are not 'always' loving and forgiving. I myself was attacked by nothing less than a Golden Retriver as a young child when I was walking down the street with my mother one day, when a man and this dog walked by when the dog suddenly snarled and lashed out at me for no apparant reason. Does this mean that this dog will go to Hell for an unprovoked attack? I don't believe so, no more so than my pet dog downstairs that is an absolute sweetheart. Of course, this brings up the question: Why would a human have a 'soul', and an animal not? As far as I knew, humans are animals too, and I'm not sure why simply having a higher sapience and a greater understanding would afford one creature possessing a 'supernatural' status over that of something else that's simply less intelligent.

If some animals are 'blameless', would creatures having higher intelligence go to Hell too? Primates, dolphins and some species of parrot are highly intelligent and we don't even know how fully capable of intelligence they are, despite even being able to talk, such as a particular African Grey parrot that can speak, form it's own sentences, converse with a human and more. Dolphins are highly intelligent, yet will kill smaller creatures simply for enjoyment or sex. Bonobos engage in infidelity and have group sex, even performing homosexuality in many cases, being very bisexual. If intelligence is the degree that enables one to sin and understand sin, then obviously violation of this code will make the sinners go to Hell. Again, I ask that do more intelligent creatures go to Hell? Personally, I don't think so.

Myself, I simply believe that humans nor animals possess 'souls', and that there are more unique factors, codes, nature, learning and genetics that all contribute into shaping us into being the way we are, and that there is no 'divine' being hovering over our heads just waiting to punish us for infinity for finite sins. It just doesn't add up to me that only humans would be the ones 'singled out' by God for punishment for things like this when we are but animals ourselves.

Originally Posted by Holic

I'm an atheist through-and-through, but my understanding is that animals don't go anywhere because they don't have the holy spirit? Am i on the right track here?

The reason that animals would not be able to get into heaven is because God did not create them to worship him. Getting into heaven does not require aquiring the Holy Spirit, it only requires the beliefe that Jesus Christ the one and only son of God died for your sins and through his blood your sins are forgiven. Since animals cannot understand that they cannot enter the kindom of heaven. Also animal exist phisically but not spiritually so there for when that body dies the animal no longer exists.

Originally Posted by ShadowVaati

What makes an animal worthy? What method for entering Heaven are you talking about? Elaborate.

What makes an animal unworthy? How do we justify who's worthy or not? Status labelling to determine worthiness is one of the ugliest forms that humans can display.

Originally Posted by benhelmuth

The reason that animals would not be able to get into heaven is because God did not create them to worship him. Getting into heaven does not require aquiring the Holy Spirit, it only requires the beliefe that Jesus Christ the one and only son of God died for your sins and through his blood your sins are forgiven. Since animals cannot understand that they cannot enter the kindom of heaven. Also animal exist phisically but not spiritually so there for when that body dies the animal no longer exists.

I believe that only applies to us humans and not animals. Even if you did die not believing in Christ, you still have a chance to learn in the Spirit World before resurrection and judgment. Animals are exempt from all this though, I believe.

Originally Posted by Blizzaga

I believe that only applies to us humans and not animals. Even if you did die not believing in Christ, you still have a chance to learn in the Spirit World before resurrection and judgment. Animals are exempt from all this though, I believe.

Is this a personal belief or do you have evidence to back it up? If so what evidence and where is it from?