Well, if Mr. Snake DIDN'T have a choice, why was he sentenced to crawl on his belly? Sounds like some accountability there.

I think you are very narrow minded to think that God didn't intend his original creation to "evolve" (that wicked word). I'm almost sure He made a few sample animals and expected them to mutate or whatever to make many more kinds of creatures.

Surely He didn't intend for us all to be exactly like Adam and Eve. Same for the animals.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image" Genesis 1:26 KJV

"Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" John 14:9 NASB

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8 NASB
Regards!

"Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

And He will delight in the fear of the LORD,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,
And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.

Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea.

Then in that day
The nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be glorious.

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,"
Isaiah 11:1-11 NASB

This is commonly seen as speaking of Jesus, and I can see no reason why the God Who is love would not take the pets, who had been nurtured in love down here on this earth, to be reunited in the kingdom with their beloved masters. And the Father Who instilled love for those pets also has a promise for those who wish to claim it.

"Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 NASB

I desire my pets to be reunited with me in heaven and I delight in the Lord. The promise is for me, which only seems to be fitting from Someone Who lets not one sparrow fall to earth without His notice.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father." Matthew 10:29 NASB
Blessings!

I don't think that in our dull earth bound imagination it is possible to imagine and describe in words what God has prepared for us. That's why it is amusing to look at artists paintings as they paint Jesus and God the Father in their own image... and they paint Heaven likewise based on their own earthly experiences. We all do to a certain degree.

But as we get away to the best and most blissful man made resorts on this earth, and we feel excited and once we get there everything is awesome... then how much more the heaven will be? Imagine all the things that you enjoy doing, and now imagine them all at the same time :). I've experienced a taste of heaven to a certain degree when I've accomplished something and the load of something is lifted off my shoulders. The feeling of relief! What an awesome feeling!
I have no idea whether Heaven is in different dimension... it could be since there are things invisible to our eye (such as angels). But I don't think that it would be fair to say that heaven for sure is located in Orion's belt as it is common for ancient and occult mythologies for the most part to place their gods in stars... such as Sirius and Orion ( I don't rule out the possibility though). Yet I think this mentality too puts God in a box, just like painters put Father and Jesus into a picture frame. God is omnipresent, but he can choose to reveal himself in a certain places... yet he is still omnipresent. Which would only mean that our reality is only a speck of God's reality.
In Hinduism there's a concept of Maya which they use to describe the reality. They hold that everything that transpiring is merely god's dream. To very tiny degree it is true because God thought and spoken (speech is the direct outcome of thoughts) this world into the existence. So to say that God right now is in one particular star alignment or location is to say that God is pretty small compared to the Universe that he thought into existence :). IMO God exists outside of his creation, yet he can reveal himself in and through it.

As far as the notion of the THEORY of relativity goes, which I don't believe Einstein formulated by himself (yet the idea is attributed to him), is quite problematic when considering some statements made by it to explain the origin and nature of reality. It makes some claims that could hardly be verified.

1) Universe is expanding faster than speed of light. It does not contradict the creation account, but it undercuts it by inserting the Big Bang theory.

2) If time and space are relative to a location based on gravity and the speed of the object. Then there are very few objective ways to verify this claim as we measure time and space based on our understanding of these. So to speak if we put a clock in a spaceship which travels at near speed of light... it does not mean that the time is moving slower when clock's hands are slowed down... but it could mean that the mechanism of the clock acts differently under different circumstances. Clocks simply measure movements of their hands and we call these time. If clock would be a bit slow, or a bit fast and we would be locked in basement somewhere ... then fact that the clock is fast does not prove that the time goes faster, but theory of relativity says that it does.


The theory does make true observations about nature of light, but we tend to mix truth with lies... and now in our culture every headline that includes "Scientists say, or Scientists discovered" is being viewed as credible.

As far as dogs and cats... I don't know. Technically we are all results of devolution of or original (Adam and Eve) physical and mental abilities. But it does not mean that we won't be in heaven of course. Let's just say that dogs and cats might look different, likewise we may look quite a bit different too :).

I would like to know where you get this idea.

It is a scientific fact. I don't know of any scientist who will disagree

Well, I am not a scientist so I can happily disagree.

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: 1 Timothy 6:20 KJV.

Liz .... I don't honestly know what side to take on this. But I have heard from some theologians that our pets will not be in heaven. I will also quote a well known and accepted author. If I say who I am quoting ... I might be accused of using Snippets. So, if you want the reference ... please contact me. It is found in a well known book in SDA circles.

Redwood,

I did not say that our pets were going to be in heaven. However, I don't believe that our cats and dogs came from tigers and wolves. I believe that there were "parent" cats on the Ark, that had all the genetic information for the different species we have, same goes for dogs. I don't think my Misty will be in heaven, however, I do believe that the "parent" dogs will be and it will be just a matter of time before I can breed them back to getting my Yorkie.