Do Animals Have a Religion?

[syoonsh]

Animals do have group spirits. In buddhism, when those animals gets full loving
from human, their souls grows up and they eventually incarnate as human.
We are not suppose to discuss about this problems, but when after EARTH SHIFT
CHANGE occurs near future, these animals will be coming to Earth as human to be with highly involved spirits of humans. (See conversation with Nostradamus book)

 

[Bastet]

Do animals go to heaven and hell? I have heard from many spiritual people that animals don't have a soul or spirit. If that's the case, then there is no afterlife for them. So then what exactly would be the purpose of a divine being creating them? To serve humans and be their food? Or is God or religion embedded into them from conception? Do they prey and survive as following divine orders from a god?

While fictional works, Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams, and to a lesser extent The Cats of Seroster by Robert Westall deal nicely with the subject of feline spiritualism. You should give them a read.

 

[Real Sorceror]

This may sound kind of stupid, as I can't really put my exact thoughts down well, but I'll try nonetheless.

Do animals go to heaven and hell? I have heard from many spiritual people that animals don't have a soul or spirit. If that's the case, then there is no afterlife for them. So then what exactly would be the purpose of a divine being creating them? To serve humans and be their food? Or is God or religion embedded into them from conception? Do they prey and survive as following divine orders from a god?

So, my main question is, should we delve into our basic animalistic natures and forget about all the ambivalence of religion that our more intelligent brains provide?

Very interesting. I see all animals as having a soul of some kind. Some animals have very developed souls, such as gorillas and dolphins, as well as our own hominid ancesters. Other animals have a very weak soul and, in my opinion, are barely alive(ex. a cockroach). My afterlife is based largely on life choices and good/evil deeds. An animal such as a dog can conciously to be good or bad. Dogs save lives all the time. They assist the handicapped and help law enforcement. Dogs destroy lives all the time. They attack people and animals. You could certianly argue that much of this deals with how the dog is raised and what type of dog it is, but I believe that for the most part a dog can choose between right and wrong.
Still, I think the vast majority of animals just reincarnate back on Earth. Sorry, you won't be seeing your goldfish in Heaven.

 

[Druidus]

Very interesting. I see all animals as having a soul of some kind. Some animals have very developed souls, such as gorillas and dolphins, as well as our own hominid ancesters. Other animals have a very weak soul and, in my opinion, are barely alive(ex. a cockroach). My afterlife is based largely on life choices and good/evil deeds. An animal such as a dog can conciously to be good or bad. Dogs save lives all the time. They assist the handicapped and help law enforcement. Dogs destroy lives all the time. They attack people and animals. You could certianly argue that much of this deals with how the dog is raised and what type of dog it is, but I believe that for the most part a dog can choose between right and wrong.
Still, I think the vast majority of animals just reincarnate back on Earth. Sorry, you won't be seeing your goldfish in Heaven.

I disagree with this. The morality of all animals is based on the individual species. Humans evolved with a specific set of morals; because it was the one that assisted our species the most. Dogs evolved with a different set, and cats evolved with another different set.

Even the other Great Apes have different morality sets than us.

You've got to see that this world is not based on or around humans. Why should our set of moral values be the same one that every animal is judged by? Why not, instead, are our actions judged from the perspective of a bonobo (in which we would look like horrid beasts)?