T
tulliusatellus
Guest
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, about whether animals can sin or not, and I just want to put out my ideas to this forum to see if anyone has any contributions or refutations to my thoughts.
Animals cannot sin nor go to heaven or purgatory or hell.
Sin is able to be defined as “doing an act contrary to God’s law.” Now, the only law God gave to animals (as well as plants) is to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Cf. Gn 1:22). Since no animals seems to want to stop doing this, they seem to never be in a state of sin. Now, in Dn 3:35-59 (part of the Deuterocanonical section The Song of the Three Young Men) the young men invoke all of creation to bless the Lord by “singing praise to Him and Highly exalting Him for ever.” Does this mean that the mountains and the stars and the moons and the seas and the rocks and the whales and the beasts and the dogs celebrate the Mass with us or pray to God with us? No, it doesn’t. This means that creation is for the higher purpose of praising God. Since we humans are the only beings who can detect God and communicate to heavenly beings via prayer, this passage only makes sense if we consider that the only purpose of creation is to please God and to help us sinners to please God in a more fruitful manner. Thus we can conclude since Heaven is a place of perfect worship of God, whatever qualities, of which we find in God’s creation that lets us worship God in a more perfect way, will also be in Heaven and the second Earth in the beatific vision.
Thus, we come to the question of whether any of God’s creation will be in Heaven besides God (who is not a created being), the angels, and humans. Heaven is the place of perfection in which creation most perfectly worships God. This begs the question “What of creation is able to worship God?” Obviously, the heavenly created beings, i.e. the angels, are able to worship God; but why? Is it because they will to worship God, or because God allows them to worship Himself? The answer must be a combination of the two, for God gives the angels their being and their power that they may worship Him, and God gives them the free will so that they can choose to worship God if they so please. Now, with our definition of Heaven, we can ask: what of God’s earthly creation will be able to enter Heaven? The answer is “only those created beings that are able to worship God,” for Heaven is the place of worshiping God. So then, what earthly creatures can worship God? It would seem that only humans can worship God for a number of reasons given in no particular order. We humans are the most beloved of all of God’s creation, as is manifest in Gn1-3. God only converses with humans, and God became only human and God’s Church clergy consists only of Humans. Jesus says in Mt 7:6 “Do not give to dogs what is Holy,” which means Holiness is given to those beings most worthy; this can be interpreted as the only creature that is able to receive Holiness from God is human, the summit of creation. Biology shows that nothing except for humans have any concept of Eternity, and one can only worship God if one has a concept of eternity, otherwise one cannot comprehend any aspect of God. Thus are the reasons why animals cannot get into Heaven. This, therefor excludes animals from purgatory, of which the only purpose is cleanse the soul so that it may get into Heaven. Also, since animals have sinned, nor are capable of the act, there must therefor be no animals in Hell.
This lengthy work is my opinion on this subject matter, and I will be glad to see your responses, and am curious to see different points of view so that we may come closer to the truth.
Animals cannot sin nor go to heaven or purgatory or hell.
Sin is able to be defined as “doing an act contrary to God’s law.” Now, the only law God gave to animals (as well as plants) is to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Cf. Gn 1:22). Since no animals seems to want to stop doing this, they seem to never be in a state of sin. Now, in Dn 3:35-59 (part of the Deuterocanonical section The Song of the Three Young Men) the young men invoke all of creation to bless the Lord by “singing praise to Him and Highly exalting Him for ever.” Does this mean that the mountains and the stars and the moons and the seas and the rocks and the whales and the beasts and the dogs celebrate the Mass with us or pray to God with us? No, it doesn’t. This means that creation is for the higher purpose of praising God. Since we humans are the only beings who can detect God and communicate to heavenly beings via prayer, this passage only makes sense if we consider that the only purpose of creation is to please God and to help us sinners to please God in a more fruitful manner. Thus we can conclude since Heaven is a place of perfect worship of God, whatever qualities, of which we find in God’s creation that lets us worship God in a more perfect way, will also be in Heaven and the second Earth in the beatific vision.
Thus, we come to the question of whether any of God’s creation will be in Heaven besides God (who is not a created being), the angels, and humans. Heaven is the place of perfection in which creation most perfectly worships God. This begs the question “What of creation is able to worship God?” Obviously, the heavenly created beings, i.e. the angels, are able to worship God; but why? Is it because they will to worship God, or because God allows them to worship Himself? The answer must be a combination of the two, for God gives the angels their being and their power that they may worship Him, and God gives them the free will so that they can choose to worship God if they so please. Now, with our definition of Heaven, we can ask: what of God’s earthly creation will be able to enter Heaven? The answer is “only those created beings that are able to worship God,” for Heaven is the place of worshiping God. So then, what earthly creatures can worship God? It would seem that only humans can worship God for a number of reasons given in no particular order. We humans are the most beloved of all of God’s creation, as is manifest in Gn1-3. God only converses with humans, and God became only human and God’s Church clergy consists only of Humans. Jesus says in Mt 7:6 “Do not give to dogs what is Holy,” which means Holiness is given to those beings most worthy; this can be interpreted as the only creature that is able to receive Holiness from God is human, the summit of creation. Biology shows that nothing except for humans have any concept of Eternity, and one can only worship God if one has a concept of eternity, otherwise one cannot comprehend any aspect of God. Thus are the reasons why animals cannot get into Heaven. This, therefor excludes animals from purgatory, of which the only purpose is cleanse the soul so that it may get into Heaven. Also, since animals have sinned, nor are capable of the act, there must therefor be no animals in Hell.
This lengthy work is my opinion on this subject matter, and I will be glad to see your responses, and am curious to see different points of view so that we may come closer to the truth.