You would think that religious people would see a bit of a problem here. Everyone is making up their own religion out of their heads and calling it Christianity or Islam or Scientology or whatever.
I'll bet that if we could do a Vulcan mind meld on 100 Christians, we would end up with 100 different versions of what the religion is all about, with specific variations on what god is like, who Jesus was, what he said, what you have to do to go to heaven, who will be there, what heaven or hell is like, how or why you should pray, what happens to people of other faiths, and so on. If it was perfectly clear and obviously true, there would only be one religion and only one denomination.
Just as an example, ask a group of, say Mormons or Southern Baptist Christians, a simple question:"Do animals have souls?"
Do germs, worms, iguanas, birds, horses and elephants get judged and sent to heaven or hell for all eternity? (God killed them all in the flood once; wasn't that a judgment?) If not, what happens to their beloved pets after they die? Will being in god's presence along with all the people from church be enough to overcome missing Buster? Will they remember Fluffy at all? If not, how much of their human earth personality will be left intact?
Will heaven be a wonderful paradise if they show up to find that Fluffy and Buster aren't
there, but their devoutly annoying MIL and Christian-lite Rick Warren
are floating around next cloud over--forever?
I am willing to bet that you will get every answer under the rainbow. It will all be based on imagination and feelings. And not one has any factual evidence one way or another--as far as science can tell us, all living things go to the same place when we die, and it ain't heaven.
The bible does not specify what will happen to Buster and Fluffy, because it was written by people who did not care that much about pets. It was a different cultural landscape. But the bible is good for all times and places, right? So, what about little Fluffy?
And it is the same thing with pretty much anything, even the stuff discussed at length in the sacred book. Was the passage meant as metaphor or should it be taken literally? If it was a metaphor or parable, what exactly did it mean? Did it refer to only the people of that era or is it still in effect today?