QUOTE=JaneGrey;9527726]
Maybe I was unclear. In my personal experience there are people I have met who for one reason or another do not have the sense of belonging that comes from the bonds of human to human relationships.
Ah ok, that is more clear. But still, how do you know for sure that there is this relationship between the lack of human bonds (if this is indeed the case), and an overly strong attachment to pets? I mean, yes people like this do exist, but in my experience people can be too quick to assume that pets are used as child replacements.
We all need to love and be loved. Some people attempt to replace this missing ingredient of human love with attachment to a pet. I have met them. Yes such people do exist, but I think the problem is either these individuals or their family members, not the pets themselves. Animals do make wonderful, loving companions (yes I am aware that many here believe that animals are incapable of love but I disagree) and I do not think it is necessarily dysfunctional for them to be an important part of an individual’s life. Just yesterday I encountered a man who chose to not have children, because he and his wife were enjoying life too much to let children interfere with their fun. He is attached to his dogs and sheep as if they were his family and he feels a sense of obligation to them as a man needs to be a provider. He says he has too many mouths to feed to retire. He was serious. Yeah but if this man really has a problem, dont you think if it was not the pets, it would be something else? I personally think devoting one’s life to caring for animals is a far more worthwhile hobby than many others, such as cars etc.
The day before I encountered another man in his sixties who had eight children. I asked him if he was going to retire soon and he said he still had children in the house to care for. He also has farm animals. They are not family. They can be bought and sold and eaten.
I am not sure I understand what you are trying to say here. I might be wrong, but are you trying to show a link between large (and presumably good Catholic) families and a more utilitarian relationship to animals? I would argue that people who live on farms just might happen to have a different relationship to animals than others, and of course it is common for people to see dogs and cats differently to how they would relate to farm animals. Pets can be family, and it does not have to mean neglecting one’s kids.
I don’t see the correlation. Sorry.
Basically the atheists I know of tend to relate to myself and other believers in two main ways. Some are able to get along with Christians and respectfully disagree about the existence of heaven and hell. These tend to be the less militant type, and are not out to prove or gain anything by ‘converting’ people to atheism. Then there are the militant, Richard Dawkins types whom I am sure you re aware of. They will go out of their way to try to convince Christians that God does not exist, and that heaven is just a myth. They seem to get something out of this and are very personally invested, even when no Christian has tried to impose their beliefs on them. They are condescending because they think believers are pathetic and need to be fixed. The tone of your post reminded me of this. I realise that I am talking about two very different topics, but my point was that as believers we should all take more care not to talk down to one another, unless of course someone is advocating for say, abortion.
Jesus gave us two commandments to sum up the entire law. He said we have to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourself. Maybe he forgot to include fido and fluffy.
When you think about pets you care for, and you think about what the Catholic Church calls the beatific vision, intended for human souls who enter eternal beatitude, do you think a dog, cat, or parakeet will participate in this heavenly communion?
I do not think that it will be exactly the same for humans and animals, but then again I simply do not see why it should necessarily exclude animals. We simply do not know the details when it comes to heaven. People wonder about all kinds of things, such as what we’ll be wearing etc. But no one can say for certainty that heaven will exclude anything which is either good or neutral.
I don’t think I said that at all. In fact I said there are people who have pets who have a proper understanding of the relationship and the difference between people and animals. Some people think their pets are their kids and act like it.
Those people who honestly believe such likely have more serious issues. Many people though, half-jokingly call their pets their kids, regardless of whether or not they have actual human kids. Yes, it does point to a different relationship than a farmer might have with say, his horse or sheepdog, but I do not see how it is inferior.
But I did not judge anyone’s character. I said there are people who have disordered attachments to their pets and often they try to replace human bonds of love and belonging, whjich are lacking in their lives, with animals. That is not a judgment on a person’s character. It is simply saying something is out of balance. They substitute human familial bonds that are lacking with an animal. Yep true, you could have been alot more judgmental I suppose. I do not know these people whom you refer to. So i can only assume, that you are also making assumptions about the state of their lives. I just dont think that it is that easy to really know what is going on in a person’s life, and that might be a tad unfair to assume that just because one is overly fond of their ‘poochie’ (as you called it) they have a disordered relationship with their pets. Again, I admit i myself am assuming that you too are assuming.
That in fact happens and when it does it is disordered. I feel sorry for people in this situation and know a good number of them.
Maybe we disagree on what constitutes ‘disordered’. Again I do not know these people you refer to and what it is that is wrong with their relationship with their oets.
I did not say all people who have affection for pets do this. Some do.
I like animals. I have a herd of deer on my property and they eat almost everything that is green. There are squirrels, rabbits, quail and other species that are all welcome. I had a nice cat till she died.
Do you think it is somehow unjust that a cat is not capable of appreciating a Mozart symphony, or reading Shakespeare, or participating at Mass or Divine Liturgy? Heaven is not simply a place where living beings go to hang out. It is a condition, a state of being, a communion of spiritual beings with one another and God. As your cat is oblivious to Mozart it is incapable of experiencing the beaitific vision. If you think otherwise, think again.
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