Are there cats in heaven ?

[modeller]

My granddaughter's cat was sick , nothing serious , but she asked me if it dies will it go to heaven. Now I don't believe in heaven , hell and all that nonsense but if I'm wrong what should my answer have been ?

If all life is of equal value then the answer must be yes but if it is yes where does one draw the line ? Does it include bacteria ?

If the answer is no then who and what goes there ?

Maybe the Buddhists have got it right that there is a finite number of life forms
but we keep getting resurrected so last time you might have been a bug and next time you could be a bacterium and then a bird and so on. I wonder if you could become a cabbage ? It is a life form .

My answer was yes to make her feel better .

[tastymorsel]

"sleep"

[Mick-Talbot]

tastymorsel

Night night.May God watch over you as you sleeo.I'm sure he will xx


He
gets away with murder.... if I did that I would be arrested.

[FredPuli43]

Surely they're in the lap of the Gods?

[tastymorsel]

mick, only if you were murdering

[Hopkirk]

If there are cats, I hope there are mice to keep them happy, but no dogs.

[wildwood]

For me, it would depend on how old the child is. If the thought of the cat going to heaven when it dies is of comfort for the girl then why not? It is no different than Father Christmas etc.

Once she grows up, she will realise the truth an laugh at this.

[RATTER15]

Hopkirk, so is cat heaven, mouse hell, and where do the dogs go to chase cats, cat hell and dog heaven, my head hurts!!!

Tastymorsel, clearly there is no god, even Hitler wasn't that evil, Hitler was a bit like god in some respects, he also had a compassionate side, so maybe we could refer to him as being a good guy.

[naomi24]

//May God watch over you as you sleeo. [sic] I'm sure he will //

That’s not very polite.

[jake-the-peg]

I always think it's very interesting how much difficulty the religious have in accurately deciding what heaven is like.

There's rarely so much difficulty in describing Hell

[modeller]

Q

[modeller]

Quite right jake . The description of heaven always beats them .
If animals are allowed in would it be only those who had led a good life . That rules out the ginger tom from next door and the pit bull opposite.

I liked the post about the dolphin ocean . I wonder if the big white sharks would be allowed in.?

[wolf63]

My cats are currently in heaven - wrapped up in a duvet to keep them cosy and protected from the Scottish summer. They have had lunch and will get up again later for some dinner and a fight. Then back to bed via the litter tray. Heaven!

[argorstran]

Well that's a very interesting question modeller .I'll briefly describe my own standpoint - I believe in God but I don't commit myself to any religion . I also don't believe in any kind of afterlife - I believe that the miracle of life continues with the next generation . This is what I would have tried to explain to her - that cats have kittens and the life of the cats continues via the kittens and the next generations . Same applies to bacteria , plants etc..
There are certain species of plants in the Sahara desert regions which are very short-lived but produce wind blown spores which can survive adverse conditions for maybe a decade until the next rains come . When those rains do come the spores come to life , the plants grow and bloom for a few weeks , produce the next generation of wind blown spores , die , the spores lie dormant for another few years until the next rains come and so on...... Those plants will continue doing that long after you and I have gone modeller - such is the miracle of life .
That's what I would have tried to explain - that the life of the cat will continue with the next generation of kittens .

[wolf63]

modeller - how is the cat? Is he/she feeling better?

[modeller]

wow agorstran ! She's only just 6 don't you think she would tune off long before the end. Also she's very bright and would realise that whatever Granddad said her cat was going to die. In the event the cat survived she had had a bad tummy bug and looked very ill for several days .

This reminds me of when I was about 7, I and a friend found a sick cat in a cemetery and we decided to go into the church and pray for the cat to get well. We really believed, as only child can believe, that our prayers would work . They didn't ! I think that was my first step towards atheism.

[argorstran]

Yes I think you're right modeller , it would be difficult explaining that to a six year old !- I think you probably did the best you could giving her the explanation that you did .

[boxtops]

The easiest and kindest answer is to say yes - if that's what the child wants to hear at that age. Time enough to have a theolgical discussion later.... I'm only sorry that this well-meant thread was "digressed" in the middle - I thought it was a nice thread until then.

[percypineapple]

Birdie 1971,
When you are getting towards the end of your life, i bet you will change your attitude. Do you really think all this is here for fun? do you believe that when you die it's lights out? I don't, any many other people don't, Perhaps you will be reborn as a cat, with knowledge and memories of a former existance as a person, wondering if there is a cat heaven. think about it.