Petra: Why don’t chickens go to Heaven when they die?
Me: How do you know they don’t?
Petra: When Pickens died, I saw her dead body. She didn’t go to Heaven, she was next to the chicken coop.
Me: Oh, well, when we say that someone has gone to Heaven, we mean that their soul went to Heaven. Do you know what your soul is?
Petra: No.
Me: A soul is a part of you that you can’t see, but it’s the part of you that is where love comes from, and where your funny ideas come from and what makes you you. I believe that when someone dies, their soul leaves their body and goes to be one with God–but it’s still you. But when someone dies, their body is usually either burned up–that’s called cremation–or buried under the ground. Like when you go to a cemetary, that’s what is under the ground there, people’s bodies. But their souls aren’t there anymore. I guess the question of whether chickens go to Heaven is whether chickens have souls. Do you think chickens have souls?
Petra: I don’t know. I guess you could ask God.
Me: Yeah, I guess that’s a thing you could ask God.
Petra: But I don’t want to.
Me: ….Okay.
Nothing like a little death and theology before my coffee has really taken effect.
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