XPost: alt.paranormal.reincarnation   
   From: bdplikaytis@nspmbellsouth.net   
      
   I have read more than one account of people seeing pets in NDEs which   
   may offer some circumstantial evidence that pets exist in some facet of the   
   afterlife. I, like many participants on this newsgroup, have also loved and   
   lost pets and fully expect to   
   see them in the afterlife. If you wish to read a   
   rather weighty tome that does develop this thought you may look at 'On God   
   and Dogs, A Christian Theology of Compassion for Animals', by Stephen H.   
   Webb, Oxford University Press, 1998, New York. Some of the ideas presented   
   in the book on this topic include the notion that many theologians find this   
   discussion unnerving. Even though they are reluctant to speculate about this   
   they are rarely, as a profession, known to limit their powers of speculation   
   on other issues. To think about animal resurrection means that their bodies   
   and spirits are valued and will be restored; it means their lives, as well   
   as deaths, must be treated with respect. For this reason, most Western   
   theologians have not taken animal afterlife seriously. Others have argued   
   that animals are morally neutral and, as such, will have neither the future   
   pleasures nor future pains. It could be argued that animals, by their very   
   blamelessness, share a closeness to God that sin denies to humanity. Many   
   theologians ridicule and ignore this topic, even those who discuss issues of   
   equal absurdity and impracticality. I like to think that God so enjoys a   
   great variety and that most sentient creatures so greatly enjoy their   
   existence that they will share in the restoration of the cosmos in the   
   afterlife. If you read the Bible, there are numerous verse that support   
   animals in   
   heaven (and one or two that do not - the Bible does contain contradictions).   
   Probably the most well know reference is Isaiah's vision of the lion lying   
   down with the lamb.   
       By the way, my wife and I own two Labradors. Many of our friends say   
   that when they die they would love to come back as one of our dogs.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Brian   
   --------------------------------------------------------------   
   respond to bdplikaytis@bellsouth.net   
      
      
   "Dorian West"  wrote in message   
   news:409de659$0$20347$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au...   
   > Do things like silverfish, slugs, worms, amoeba, spiders, ants, flies etc.   
   > Have souls, NDEs and/or are reincarnated? I would like to know the answer   
   to   
   > that 1, that's for sure.   
   >   
   >   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)