It started off with a simple Internet search: “Are there dogs in Heaven?”<\/p>\n
It was more a hunt for comfort than a search for truth.
\nBargaining and denial are part of the grieving process.<\/p>\n
It’s an amazing voyage through various opinions, stupidities, closed minds and plain ignorance.<\/p>\n
There is no real answer.<\/p>\n
Actually, the answer depends on whether you have faith or not.<\/p>\n
One has to believe there is a heaven to have that argument of whether animals will go there.<\/p>\n
The one has to decide whether an animal, like your favorite dog or cat, has a soul and whether the Bible ever mentioned anything about Jesus or God saving them.<\/p>\n
There are those who say animals do go to heaven based of their being without sin.<\/p>\n
Others quote numerous passages from the Bible that they say point out there are no animals in heaven.<\/p>\n
And then there are those who seem to find some comfort is believing they and their favorite animal will meet someday across The Rainbow Bridge.<\/p>\n
Whatever that is supposed to be.<\/p>\n
It’s all enough to make a thinking person to want to move on to some other discussion more rational, like time travel.<\/p>\n
I’m not picking on those who believe in Heaven and Hell.
\nThey have something to give them comfort.<\/p>\n
Nor do I dismiss the people who don’t believe.
\nThey have found what they consider to be good, rational reasons for their position.<\/p>\n
I do have problems with the people who, with great kindness and the best intentions, promise me I will see my best friend again across the Rainbow Bridge.<\/p>\n
It’s hard not to be cynical when you’re hurting and this mythical, undefined, impossible to envision destination is handed out like a salve to make things better.<\/p>\n
I can’t help but compare it to leprechaun’s and pots of gold at the end of some rainbow.<\/p>\n
Something we learned was baloney about the time our belief in the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny crumbled as we paid more attention to the world around us.<\/p>\n
For those of us on Earth, death is final, whether man or animal.<\/p>\n
Whether any or all move to something else is something mere mortals will never know.<\/p>\n
It comes down to faith, not in religion but in whatever you believe.<\/p>\n