Make life worth for dogs on earth like they do for us... and heaven can be found here on earth. Anyways, that intellectual debate @ Slate:
Animal-loving Christians beg to differ. They point to the presence of animals in certain Bible passages that describe how Heaven might look. In Acts 10, for example, the apostle Peter has a vision of a great sheet descending from heaven, and opening up to reveal "all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air." And in Revelation 5:13 animals gather peacefully around God's throne.
Literal interpretation of the Bible can, of course, be misleading: Animals in the Bible often appear for symbolic purposes. Though Peter's vision could point to the existence of heaven populated by animals, theologians tend to interpret Peter's vision of this celestial motley crew as God's way of demonstrating his own inclusivity—a realization that then leads Peter to infer that he can preach Christianity to Gentiles as well as Jews. Nevertheless, some heavyweight Christian philosophers have sided with the animal-lovers. John Wesley, whose preaching eventually became the basis of Methodism,wrote in the 18th century of the restoration of "the whole brute creation," i.e., the animal world. Karl Barth, a Swiss theologian active around the turn of the 20th century, also made reference to animal life in his writings on salvation. And in the 20th century, C.S. Lewis struggled with the question of animals' place in heaven. In The Great Divorce, a Divine Comedy-esque fantasy of a trip through heaven and hell, Lewis works through the scripturally difficult notion that, through their relationship to humans, pets might actually enter the realm of heaven.
Animal-loving Christians beg to differ. They point to the presence of animals in certain Bible passages that describe how Heaven might look. In Acts 10, for example, the apostle Peter has a vision of a great sheet descending from heaven, and opening up to reveal "all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air." And in Revelation 5:13 animals gather peacefully around God's throne.
Literal interpretation of the Bible can, of course, be misleading: Animals in the Bible often appear for symbolic purposes. Though Peter's vision could point to the existence of heaven populated by animals, theologians tend to interpret Peter's vision of this celestial motley crew as God's way of demonstrating his own inclusivity—a realization that then leads Peter to infer that he can preach Christianity to Gentiles as well as Jews. Nevertheless, some heavyweight Christian philosophers have sided with the animal-lovers. John Wesley, whose preaching eventually became the basis of Methodism,wrote in the 18th century of the restoration of "the whole brute creation," i.e., the animal world. Karl Barth, a Swiss theologian active around the turn of the 20th century, also made reference to animal life in his writings on salvation. And in the 20th century, C.S. Lewis struggled with the question of animals' place in heaven. In The Great Divorce, a Divine Comedy-esque fantasy of a trip through heaven and hell, Lewis works through the scripturally difficult notion that, through their relationship to humans, pets might actually enter the realm of heaven.
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