“Bacteria and viruses don’t have much biblical support for having souls.”
Well they are God’s creatures, so is the Pope just pulling this out of his ass?
He said it about dogs. That doesn’t equate to a papal dispensation for cats, let alone disease germs :-).
Actually, following the creation account, certain animals are referred to with the same term, nephesh, that refers to human souls elsewhere in the bible. These tend to be the more intelligent animals, the ones that have a degree of what we would call anthropomorphism.
I’m one of those horrible Protestants, I don’t require the pope to tell me dogs have souls.
““Bacteria and viruses don’t have much biblical support for having souls.”
Well they are God’s creatures, so is the Pope just pulling this out of his ass?”
Yep. Dogs are God’s creatures ... and so are humans. If dogs can get to heaven without belief in Christ then humans can as well. Pit bulls and muslims are both God’s creatures. So are insects. This sort of ‘thinking’ veers away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I’ll go with Balaam’s judgment on this one!