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Pater this might sound funny to some people but to my daughter its not she would like me to ask you if animals have a soul when they die do they go up in heaven. thank you
Answer to Question 289
From scripture we see that in heaven there are certain of God’s creatures that could be called animals, but these are not the souls of animals that died on earth. We do not believe that animals have an eternal soul like man so they do not go to paradise. I know that there are people that claim to speak with the souls of animals, but that is something I wouldn’t like to comment on. There may also be a animal paradise, but we are not told of this in the Bible.
What we are told is that man is a special creation very different from animals and there are three actions by God that make man special. The first is that with all the other creations God said "let there be" this or that and it was so. When it came to creating man God said "Let Us make man according to Our image and according to Our likeness." What this means would take too long to explain here.
The second action that makes man special is that God formed man from the dust of the earth. With the animals God said let it be and they were created, but when it came to the creation of man we are not told that he was created with the Word of God, but we have an image of God forming man with his hands.
The third action of God that makes man extremely special is that after forming man from the dust, God breathed into his face a breath of life, and the man became a living soul. Man therefore is not part of the animal kingdom, he is a special creation like no other creation: he is a psychosomatic being, in other words he is both body and soul. Man’s soul is eternal and that is why it lives on in paradise. God did not breathe into the face of animals so they do not possess a living (eternal) soul
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