They will reincarnate as stomach flukes.
It's time you visited the Penguin!
Posted on 07/26/2008 9:24:53 PM PDT by WilliamReading
Carolyn Sharp’s beloved greyhound Starr was 4 years old when she was diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer.
Sharp decided the two of them would stay together as long as Starr was not suffering too much. The greyhound received radiation treatments and pain patches for several months until the veterinarian told Sharp it was time to end it.
“When we went in for the last time, I held her in my arms for the comfort of both of us until she had left,” said Sharp, who lives in Overland Park. “I have still not really made peace with losing her so young.”
Eight years later she still doesn’t understand the “why.” But she is certain she’ll hold Starr again — in an afterlife.
“I believe I’ll have three cats and a whole bunch of dogs waiting for me,” Sharp said.
Is there an afterlife for animals? Or as a popular question puts it, “Do all dogs go to heaven?”
Jack Vinyardi of Kansas City, an ordained interfaith chaplain of pets, said he is asked that question all the time as he comforts people about to lose or who have lost a pet.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
You miss my point, or prefer to pretend you don’t understand it. There is no evidence of heaven. It apparently exists in the minds of the hopeful, but there is no evidence of that is really exists, and no reason to believe it exists. It is therefore safe to say it does not exist, but if you have proof otherwise, I would love to see it.
I hope that helps. I can only explain it to you. I cannot make you understand it.
The big question is: do nuns go to heaven?
I can see a few that I knew roasting a bit (if I still believed in all that)
Father told me mostly everything has a soul.I wanted to know if my dog Tippy was in heaven and he said no.Animals have souls but they are not immortal.
Do you pray?
I musta been lucky, all mine certainly will. My experience with the nuns was much more "Lilies of the Field" than the crude caricatures depicted on Saturday Night Live.
Anyone may reject the testimony he deems suspect, but only a myopic, closed-minded person rejects the existence of what he has not seen nor experienced personally. Such a person would be barred from sitting on any jury in any courtroom anywhere in the world.
You reject the notion of heaven based on a lack of evidence...but in order to be persuaded of its existence, you require not just evidence, but proof.
Paul, John, Peter, James, Luke and Matthew's testimonies regarding heaven are obviously not enough to convince you of its existence, just as the testimony of millions of Christians regarding their personal experiences with God are not enough to persuade you of His existence. You reject their testimonies...and because they have only testimonies and no concrete proof, and you require proof in the matter, you simple-mindedly reject the evidence contained in their testimonies.
A slightly wiser man would adopt a wait-and-see attitude in the matter instead of rejecting it outright.
I always heard that your pets are the first to greet you...
So everything has a soul?
What is a “soul”?
My nuns were 70 something virgins who hated the world and their place in life, so they taunted the kids and beat the hell out of them.
They will reincarnate as stomach flukes.
“Do you pray?”
____________________
Of course not.
There is no one listening.
What you wrote makes no sense at all.
Evidence is the same thing as proof.
In any event, you have none.
You refer to “testimony” about heaven from Paul, John, Peter, James, Luke and Matthew. What are you talking about? None of them reported from “heaven.” There is no such place.
You also refer to “testimony” of millions of Christians regarding their personal experiences with God. Again, what are you talking about? No one has ever reported having a “personal experience” with God that is believable. People who have heard from “God” are usually in psychotic wards.
You say a “slightly wiser man” would adopt a “wait-and-see” attitude in the matter instead of rejecting it outright. Wait and see what? An imaginary visit from “God”? I submit a wise man would adopt a more realistic view of the universe — one without the need for superstition and the supernatural.
These statements are either disingenuous or ignorant...I can't tell which.
Evidence is not proof. Evidence is sometimes used to prove or disprove guilt and liability. Testimony about facts amounts to circumstantial evidence, which has been used from antiquity to convict or acquit accused criminals and to decide cases between plaintiffs and defendants. Evidence is used to establish proof, and circumstantial evidence is no different. It can, in combination with other circumstantial evidence from trustworthy witnesses, be used to convict, acquit, or decide.
You refer to “testimony” about heaven from Paul, John, Peter, James, Luke and Matthew. What are you talking about? None of them reported from “heaven.” There is no such place.
You argue from a bias..."There is no such place." You aren't interested in finding out otherwise, or hearing testimony from anyone claiming otherwise...but the testimony of these men is consistent. They wrote of heaven. Some testified that they had seen Jesus ascend into heaven after His resurrection. Some claimed to have been to heaven and experienced it firsthand:
Paul:
Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
(Philippians 3:20-21)
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
12:4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
(2 Corinthians 12:2-4)
John:
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
(Revelation 4:1-2)
This is testimony about heaven containing descriptions of heaven. You may reject the testimony of John and Paul...but you cannot know that their testimony is false. You cannot know that it is the testimony of insane people. You can only presume.
To suggest that you can know with any certainty that only those things which you can physically experience or rationally understand can exist is near-sighted and at best two-dimensional. Your comments about the testimonies of millions of Christians regarding their personal experiences with God as being wholly unbelievable and the product of psychosis are insulting and have no basis in psychotherapy. You've attempted to relegate Tozer, C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Bob Seaver, George Washington, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, G. K. Chesterton and Pat Boone to the loony bin.
You don't get to do that. You're astonishingly lacking in understanding about the Bible, psychotherapy, the difference between evidence and proof and the nature of belief.
Your assertions denying the existence of heaven are sophomoric. You have no arguments, only contradictions. ("There is no such place as heaven!")
If that's the best you can do, you should probably give it a rest.
They will reincarnate as stomach flukes.
It's time you visited the Penguin!
Our Mother Superior was some of that, but even she was essentially fair minded and cared deeply for the students. (I never once saw a nun strike a student in a classroom. The Mother Superior cuffed a kid in the cafeteria once and I, at least, got the message.) The two bitchiest teachers I had were the only lay teachers I had, both middle-aged married women. But at least they stuck to the catechism and didn't make independent theological pronouncements.
The Pope may speak for God, but God checks with the nuns first.
Again, none of them went to “heaven.” They claimed to have had visions of heaven (hallucinations, perhaps), as in the case of John, but they did not die, go to “heaven” and come back to report about it.
You said that “some testified that they had seen Jesus ascend into heaven after His resurrection.” Think about that. When the ancients wrote that they saw someone “ascend into heaven,” how can you take that seriously? Do you think Jesus levitated off the ground and “flew” up into the stratosphere on his way to “heaven,” a place “above” the Earth? Haven’t you ever thought how stupid that account is? I always tell people, if you really want to understand why it is ridiculous to give credence to the Bible, just read it.
Good stuff Spunky. I am not a theological or biblical scholar in any way. Am I to assume that you do not believe animals are in heaven?
I have always been fascinated about what Heaven will be like. I don’t know the details, but am looking forward to being in Heaven for eternity some day.
It is no more stupid than the four accounts in the Gospels about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the event to which Christians have looked for 2000 years as being central to their faith.
Since faith in Christ and all he accomplished on the cross is central to Christianity, it is impossible for a non-believer to know to what extent God has touched the heart and life of any individual as a result of that individual's faith...in fact that unbeliever has a blind spot about the workings of God's Spirit within the heart of any man.
Your perceptions about Christianity are ignorant, null and void because you aren't party to the kinds of experiences believers have with God.
I always tell people, if you really want to understand why it is ridiculous to give credence to the Bible, just read it.
I hope you will continue to urge people to read The Bible. Reading The Bible changes lives. Many of these changes are documented in the personal testimony of believers who have never set foot inside an insane asylum.
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