Saturday, December 13, 2014

Dead bird falls from heaven

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Dead animals are often the only animals I find to contribute to Sunday's Camera Critters meme.


This pretty bird  was freshly-dead  when I walked through the eucalyptus grove in the wadi.
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Over the last few days the media has been buzzing about what some people thought was a hint from Pope Francis that animals die and maybe go to heaven.
It turns out that one paper ran an article about Francis but with a headline that actually quoted Pope Paul VI who once in the 1960s or 70s told a boy grieving for his pet, "Heaven is open to all creatures."
But at a recent audience Francis only said, while speaking of the afterlife, "Holy Scripture teaches us that the fulfillment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us."

You can read the explanation in this CNN article or in the wide-reaching article in the New York Times, which today made the corrections.
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My own Jewish religion hardly knows what to say about what happens to people after death.
But sometimes the rabbis refer to "the next world" or "the world-to-come" as Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden, and that certainly can conjure up images of animals roaming around, no?
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Do you ever ponder this question?
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UPDATE Dec. 15:  Catholic News Service today tries to clarify this and gives more ideas about animal heaven.
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16 comments:

  1. The bird is pretty! You're lucky a dog like me didn't come by and try to eat it before you found it!

    As far as the death question, it is impossible to know, but after my Papa read the book "Cosmos" to me, I like to think that time and space are vast enough that our same bodies will eventually come into being again, in some place, some time, even if there isn't a place where our "souls" go when we die. And there's enough evidence about Near Death Experiences to at least suggest that there is a heaven-like experience at the point of death.

    But what do I know? I'm just a dog. ;)

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  2. Oh, no! It is the worst thing I can see.. I still still dead birds I saw several years ago.
    This one is so beautiful too

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  3. There is no way to comment on this without offending someone...

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  4. That bird was beautiful.
    Who knows about death? We are supposed to live in the present, not the future and we will find out when "the light" goes out. No need to worry about it now. If people are worried, maybe it is because they didn't live a very meaningful, fulfilling life.

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  5. I am more with Indians and Samsara idea of multiple attempts to live life and develop from small little bird to clear and kind human soul.
    Happy week-end, Dina!

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  6. Poor thing.

    I'm not sure what to think of what, if anything, comes after. I've fallen from the pew of faith, to borrow a phrase.

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  7. Oh please don't get me started... I think I'm with VP here!

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  8. This pope is making some waves, I hope he doesn't go the way of JP1. And a beautiful bird - now in limbo.

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  9. Such a beautiful bird.

    Having lost so many animal and bird companions over the years, I've been searching for the answer as to whether or not they share our eternal fate. I believe they do.

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  10. One of the things I love about Judaism is the humility regarding such questions, while there is infinite attention to the details of our life here.

    Sad to see such...


    Hope to see my animal pals again, yes. Some people - not so much.




    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    <3


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  11. A pretty, pretty bird.

    Science has answered so many questions we never thought it would. Maybe it will answer this one someday. Maybe we'll want to know the answer and maybe we won't!

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  12. Is there enough room in heaven for all of us and the zillions and zillions of animals too? God better put on an addition, if so. Ha.

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  13. i am not sure where we go but i am quite certain animals will be there. if they aren't i will be very disappointed.

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  14. Poor bird!

    I want to believe animals do go to heaven and I hope to see my beloved pets there (if I get to go there). I think there's some biblical support for this ... the idea that all of creation will be part of a new heaven and a new earth where the lion will lie down with the lamb. But who really knows what will happen after death to any of us?

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  15. That's such a pretty bird. How very sad. I wonder what kind of bird it was.

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