After watching All Dogs Go To Heaven:
Bella: Mommy, are we going to heaven when we die too?
Me: No, you’re going in the ground.
Bella: So only dogs get to go?
Me: Well, some people believe that heaven is a place you go to after you die. But, even if you do, you go in the ground first, unless they burn you up and sprinkle you somewhere, or keep you in a box. And dogs don’t really go to heaven.
Bella: Why not?
Me: Well, heaven is not really a place for us as we are – it’s for something that some people think is inside of us, called our souls. Something that people think is the most important part of us. Animals don’t have those.They don’t have the kind that gets to go to heaven, at least.
Bella: But why do people think when you die you go to heaven?
Me: Some people, like grandma and papa think that there is someone up in the sky called God. And if we do everything that God wants us to do, when we die, or if he comes back to Earth before we die, he’ll take us up to live with him, and he lives in heaven, for 1000 years or something like that, and then we’ll come back to Earth to live for eternity after God kills everyone that didn’t do what he told them to do. But, if you’re dead, you stay dead, and your soul sleeps until he brings you back from the dead.
Bella: Like Smitty Wednesdaybum on Spongebob?
Me: Kinda.
Bella: Well that’s just craaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzyyyyyyyyy!
Me: Heh. Some people don’t think so.
Bella: Do you think so?
Me: I don’t know if I think it’s crazy. I think it’s probably not true. But I used to think it was.
Bella: Why did you used to?
Me: Because that’s what Grandma and Papa told me. And the people at church told me. And they were grownups, and I thought they were right.
Bella: Well I think zombies living in the sky is craazzzyyyy!
Me: Well, don’t tell Grandma and Papa that.
Bella: Why?
Me: That’d be rude.
Bella: But can I tell Goobie?
Me: Sure.
Bella: Mommy, mommy? Why does God kill people that don’t listen?
Me: As punishment. He tortures and burns them first.
Bella: With fire??!!
Me: Yes. A special fire that lasts a very long time.
Bella: Well, when I don’t listen, I get time out. You wouldn’t kill me! Would you?
Me: Of course not.
Bella: Well, I don’t think that’s a good way to punish people. That’s really mean.
Me: I think so too, love.
Bella: So why do people want to be dead and live with somebody that’s so mean?
Me: I dunno. But, you have to remember that not everyone wants that. Some people think we come back to life as different things like animals or other people. But it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t think God is real.
Bella: Me neither. I think he’s like the fairy Nejla told me would go under my pillow and get my teeth when they fall out when I get big. That’s not real. Me neither.
Me: I think you’re right. But, no one really knows. I guess we won’t know for sure until we die.
Bella: No. Not until we die.
And with that, she ran off to play.
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