Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
I had always wondered about this passage. It didn't make sense to me that the lovable family pet would be included with the rest of this lot. I had always thought that the ravenous wolf would be better suited for the position.
And then I was reminded about the studies of Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov had taken a natural response and caused it to be evoked by an unnatural stimulus. His test subjects were dogs. The process became known as classical conditioning. And I realized, most people have also been trained to salivate to the bell. See Contract.
