Into the Wardrobe

Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone has read any of Mr. Lewis' thoughts/beliefs on an afterlife for animals. I thought at one point someone had mentioned a manuscript or something he had written expressing his beliefs about an "animal soul". Just curious.

Thanks,
Katherine

Hi cooperkat -

In the chapter entitled "Animal Pain" in The Problem of Pain,, Lewis begins a discussion of animal immortality by writing, "I have been warned not even to raise the question of animal immortality, lest I find myself 'in company with all the old maids.'"

Ooh, ooh, debate material!!!

Firstly, we need to define what is a soul? Is it necessary to have sentience to possess a soul? What is sentience anyway?

Is it necessary to have emotional awareness to have a soul? What is a soul?

My cats can communicate thier wishes to me and have obvious emotional states such as happiness, contentedness, anger etc. They have personal relationships with each other and with the members of my family.

Do they have souls?

Will my cats go to heaven?

Well Biblically speaking, beings don't *have* souls, they *are* souls:

Gen 2:7 (KJV) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

(NIV) the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The idea of the soul as a separate entity that somehow resides in the body is a Greek idea. This explains it pretty well:

So, do my cats have souls or not? Or, shoud, I say, are my cats souls or not?

The Egyptians clearly thought so.

I remember once when I was still in my teens (I know, I know, in the stoneage!) I was at a church meeting of young people and someone asked the vicar if there would be animals in heaven. His answer was ambiguous but diplomatic. "There will be animals in heaven if you want them to be"
I thought he fielded the question very well.

Bill

Are there cats in heaven? I would suspect that there are. After all, it is heaven. :)

One of my cats always joins me (and even crosses her paws) whenever I am saying my morning and evening prayers. I have to take seriously what Lewis said in The Problem of Pain about our being responsible for the moral development of our pets whenever we take them out of their natural environment.