All Dogs Go To Heaven

Ah....Saturday morning. Enough time to casually read the news and opinion pages.

I ended up on a story regarding Pope Francis' supposed comments about animals going to heaven.

While the story is terribly inaccurate, misquoted,  and wrongly attributed as it turns out, the subject is of some import to many people.

What was most interesting is that the comments section was full of atheists who, as one, vigorously insisted that no such thing is possible because heaven, naturally.....such a silly notion of primitive savages and Dark Age peasants.....does not exist.

Suggesting that "all living creatures" can end up in Paradise, brought up the inevitable conversation about Ebola viruses, mosquitoes, snakes, (which for some reason some people seem to hate and fear beyond reason—I'm a fan, so I don't get it)...and spiders...(another unhealthy fear, it seems to me), being "living creatures" so......"do they go to heaven too?"

Asked with a sneering smirk. And with utter confidence that no one could imagine a place where all living creatures, including hyenas, fleas and scorpions could peacefully coexist.

And suddenly it hit me. The problem with atheists is that they have no imagination.

None of them could imagine a place where every creature just "got along" with every other; where eating each other wasn't necessary anymore.

They automatically assumed that silly little hillbilly believers would choose only their personal pets and favorite animals to be included in heaven, but reject the idea that those animals they fear or think of as pests or enemies were included. They gave absolutely no credit to other humans to understand or IMAGINE how paradise might accommodate all without conflict, fear, disgust or danger.

One specifically said "what you see is what you get". Now that's a sad thought, indeed.

I guess love, hope and dreams don't exist for this poor fellow any more than heaven does.

Now that I think on it, maybe the reason people are atheists...is that they have no imagination.

That's a whole new way of thinking about it.

So I'm going to. I'll be back.

/gun