Are there Dogs in Heaven?

[wussup]

I don’t think we can talk about morality with regard to animals at all.

I respectfully disagree. Adam and Eve prior to the fall did not know sin. They had no morality not because they were immoral but because, like dogs, they did not know good from evil. This did not diminish them in the eyes of God, it did not prevent them from a Heavenly existence, but in fact guaranteed it. Is it not possible animals are the same, immoral because they do not know good from evil.

I would have to say I disagree regarding this to some extent. When my dog make doo-doo in the house, I never punish them or sanction them (at least since they were puppies), yet the shame they display is way out of character. They do not flinch when they come to me, they do not shy away, they just hang their heads. When they are playing frisbee and it lands in something my neighbor should have cleaned up (I clean up after my dogs, and in the end, theirs), they will not go near it to pick it up, yet when on activities of walking, they will happily smell the same ‘stuff’ to get the low-down on the neighbors dog.

 

[severus68]

Very much so. Humans are animals as well as rational creatures, and also have instinctual, biologically based urges and behaviors. That emotion that humans feel with regard to their child, or someone they are"in love" with is not really different than that that felt by other animals.

Christian love, that particularly human love, (which was recognized as unique by many pre-Christians too) is NOT emotional. We are to love our neighbor, no matter how we feel about him. We vow to love our spouse, but a person could never vow to continue to have a particular emotion his or her whole life. We are to love God, but again, that is not dependent upon emotion. We are required to do all of these things despite instinct.

That is not to say that these emotions are bad. What better way to learn what selfless love should look like than to experience being in love, or the love of a child. But those things are not the sum of love.

Consider also non-material beings - angels and God himself. They are capable of love, God IS love, but they have no emotions - they are passionless, as St Anselm tells us (among others).

Thank you. I do understand the love in “love thy neighbour” and have no issue with non human animals not loving in that way. They do not need to do so and it would be ridiculous to expect them to do so. Since you said animals went on instinct and referred to conditioning, I assumed, wrongly I see, that you did not believe non human animals have emotions and are just automated things like any programmed computer. That has been stated in some posts on another thread. They are much more than that.