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 .

[modeller]

Although I don't believe in an afterlife of any sort I would like to think that I could meet up with my pets again especially my cats, they gave me love and affection and something to live for when I lost my wife. They needed me and I needed them . I can well understand theists needing the crutches of religion. I can't accept that nonsense but I'm glad I had my cats.

I know you are right angorstran all life continue through their progeny but it's not much consolation in the here and now.

[boxtops]

I like to think so, too, modeller...

[modeller]

percy #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? #
Yes I do ! and the older I get the more atheistic I become . I'm already 20 years past my sell by date . So I'm not likely to change now .

[dundurn]

There's a St Felix, a St Sylvester and a St Thomas - got to be!

[boxtops]

LOL dundurn, well spotted.

[naomi24]

Boxy, //I'm only sorry that this well-meant thread was "digressed" in the middle - I thought it was a nice thread until then. //

You did? I'm not sure what you're reading, but I think it went downhill from some unnecessary and irrelevant posts from the poster who started at number 2.

[NOX]

If there is a heaven, do you seriously think even God could keep cats out?

[mike11111]

Oooh, get her! Saucer of milk for pussy!

[naomi24]

^^Yes, indeed. I think that would suit her very well.

[birdie1971]

Percypineapple - “... [Bridie1971] 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...think about it...”

What? Lots of people believe in God and heaven and hell? Do they? Oh well, if you put it like that then I must be wrong. Because that is how we arrive at the truth and discover facts isn't it? If the majority think that something is true then it must be true. End of. And there's me using logic, reasoning and rationality to reach a conclusion. What a fool I am...

Seriously, is this what you think constitutes an valid argument? Saying that lots of people believe something, therefore it must be correct? Life and reality isn't that simplistic and nor should you be. Also, what on earth makes you think that I'm not already at the end of my life and have rejected as false, the concept of God? How arrogant of you to assume anything whatsoever about my age or my health.

You say 'think about it'. Thanks for that piece of advice. I have thought about it a great deal and I have arrived at two conclusions. First, you clearly haven't got a clue about me, what I believe nor what atheism is. Secondly, the likelihood of there being an afterlife, a hell and a God is so vanishingly small that it is reasonable and rational to dismiss those concepts as false.

[birdie1971]

Mike11111 - “... Oooh, get her! Saucer of milk for pussy!...”

What's this supposed to be Mike? Is it your attempt at humour or something? I remember, not too long ago, you used to contribute something meaningful to threads such as this. Lately you seem to have been reduced to posting pathetically embarrassing comments like the one above and the one you addressed to me a few weeks ago...
http://www.theanswerb...2.html#answer-7086077

Here's a suggestion Mike – since it is becoming increasingly obvious that reasonable and rational debate is something you are no longer interested in, why don't you stick to Chatterbank and stop bothering those of us with something interesting and relevant to say?

[mike11111]

"...and stop bothering those of us with something interesting and relevant to say"

Now that's boring little uninteresting and irrelevant me told off for sure!

[owdhamer]

I wish all my neighbours cats would go to heaven

[ludwig]

Watch out folks, Mike's back. He obviously didn't make enough of a fool of himself last time he was here so he's back for another go.

[NOX]

Mike had indeed used to contribute sensible, he however has not posted anything sensible for a while, which might mean several things including that he might not be very well- just a thought.

[percypineapple]

My god,
some of you are chancing your luck! I hope for your sake there is no god/afterlife for you, or you will be in the barrell on friday nights. Aethism is a terrible thing, what in life can you live for? I don't want to get into religion, but without our christian god, there would have been just death and destruction in the early world, the bible is a way of life for sensible caring people, and brought some of the heathens into the modern advanced world.
like it or like it not, the children of the bible and christian people are the most forward and advanced people in the world, and if they want to believe there is an afterlife for them, good luck and I really hope they are right.
percy..

[birdie1971]

Percypineapple - “... some of you are chancing your luck! I hope for your sake there is no god/afterlife for you, or you will be in the barrell on friday nights. Aethism is a terrible thing, what in life can you live for? I don't want to get into religion, but without our christian god, there would have been just death and destruction in the early world, the bible is a way of life for sensible caring people...”.

It seems odd to me that a person who, “... [doesn't] want to get into religion...” should post such a response in the 'Religion & Spirituality' section of this website. Since you have willingly dipped you toe into the water of R&S please allow me to retort.

Firstly, atheists are not, “... chancing [our] luck...”. The idea that one should 'believe' in God simply to hedge their bets is ludicrous. This is simply Pascal's Wager – a logical quagmire that has been done to death on this website and others. If you wish to find out why this idea is utter tosh, see here...
http://en.wikipedia.o...l%27s_Wager#Criticism

Secondly, you state that atheism is a terrible thing but you don't even try to explain why you feel that this is so. You also claim that without a Christian God, there would have been, “... death and destruction in the early world...”. Err, have you read the Bible recently? It's chock-full of death and destruction precisely because of religion. The Old Testament is replete with tales of mass murder and genocide, all committed in the name of the Christian God. The idea that Christianity brought peace to the world is demonstrably incorrect and continues to be incorrect to this very day. From the massacres of the Muslims in the Crusades (a religious war, instigated by Christians which lasted almost 200 years and was responsible for the murder of up to 200,000 Muslims) to the most recent wars in the middle-east (which were carried out under the leadership of fanatical Christians such as George Bush Junior who famously claimed the God has told him to go to war in Iraq), the Christian religion has been responsible for countless of wars both big and small since its inception. How many times have we heard that phrase, “God told me to do it”? Far too many in my opinion.

For your information, the real reason we as a society are so 'advanced' and have equality for all and real justice is not due to Christianity. In is in fact due to secularism – the removal of religious dogma and prejudice from the judicial and political system. It seems to escape most Christian's notice that the Bible calls for the murder of homosexuals, the subjugation of women, and other outlandishly vicious punishments for the most trivial of offences. Only by overtly challenging this middle-aged drivel have secularists created a society that can be truly called equal and moral. The illegitimacy of Christian dogma is clear for all to see today as it actively bans women from seeking high office within its own organisation – a obvious contradiction of its often heard claim that all people should be treated equally. I assume that by 'all people' they mean those people born with a pair of testicles. And then of course, there is the Church's monstrous record on preventable diseases in the third-world but if I start on that one I'll be here all night.

Suffice to say, I have no problem with anyone who wants to believe in any religion they chose. However, when people such as yourself attempt to misrepresent their chosen belief system to such a degree that they start to deny reality, recorded history and simple rationality then I'm afraid I and others will speak out against such nonsense.

[LazyGun]

I think Percy is a time traveller - early victorian, I would say. I mean, come on - heathens? Atheism = nihilism? Pascals Wager fallacy?

As for christians being the most advanced people in the world - hardly. That may have been true back in the victorian times from where you originate percy, but not now. As Birdie points out, secularism and the removal of theist dogma and the flowering of science has powered development, not religion.

I think percys posts indicate either Troll or Time Traveller - its difficult to believe these are genuinely held belief.................

[birdie1971]

↑ Quite. I was beginning to think that no one else had seen the 'percypineapple' post.

If I had to guess, I'd vote time traveller.

[naomi24]

//some of you are chancing your luck!//

Another one scared witless by the superstitious ramblings of ancient, uneducated, tribesmen.

//without our christian god, there would have been just death and destruction in the early world,//

We won't mention the Americas then.