Hi,
I'm not much of a theologist so I was wondering if any religious people could explain their view of what happens to animals at the final judgement.
Animals appear to be fairly sinful, at least in terms of the Christian ten commandments. Theft and adultery are very widespread in nature. Do animals go to heaven or hell? Do they get judged?
I want to preempt the argument that only human beings are judged because only they suffer from the original sin, and only they have knowledge of right and wrong. Some primatologists (I don't know how many) believe that a number of primates show some form of ethics. Franz de Waal would be a prime example. He believes that higher primates show guilt, reciprocity, empathy, obligations and rules, and that they therefore have a sense of what behavior is acceptable and what is not.
If you believe that only humans suffer from the original sin, then why are non-human animals (which presumably still live in a state of grace) also apparently "sinful"? Are adultery and theft considered natural and acceptable, and a part of the state of grace, in God's eyes?
If animals are exempt from judgement on the basis that they have no knowledge of right and wrong, and no knowledge of religion, then there is a simple way that evangelical Christians could guarantee that all human beings go to heaven. All they have to do is stop evangelizing. Allow Christianity to slowly decay, so that human beings know longer know about the word of God. That way, they will all be saved because of their animal-like ignorance. If you keep preaching to people, you are guaranteeing that many of them will indeed go to Hell, because many of them will not be converted by you.
As I say, I am no theologist, so I am interested in what religious folk think about the sinfulness of animals. As a scientist I view our ideas of sin as a human construction, so I don't have to worry about whether what looks like rape in ducks, for example, is "sinful" or not. I know that it isn't sinful, and I know that it is incorrect to characterize the behavior of ducks in emotive human terms. But what do you think if you belive that morality is God-given and universal?
Mick
added in edit: I would like add one further consideration to this thread proposal. I hope it isn't creeping in too many different directions.
I often hear from religious sources that mankind's woes on earth are part of the "punishment" for his fall from grace. This happened recently when religious leaders in the US and Africa claimed that AIDS was a punishment for homosexuality. But it is also (I think??) part of the standard Christian view, namely that the fall from grace resulted in the punishment of painful labour for women and toil in the fields for men. If this is the case, why do many female mammals also suffer difficult labour? Why do all animals have to "toil" for their food? And why do simian primates also get AIDS?
edited again, to change the title [mick]
This message has been edited by mick, 03-28-2005 11:54 AM
This message has been edited by mick, 03-28-2005 11:55 AM