What would you say to my brother?

Has he ever said why he thinks an impersonal god would allow animal suffering?

I have a sister (7 years my elder) and she is and has been a devout atheist since the mid 70's. We spoke for the 1st time in 20+ years a few years ago. She informed me that her three children were still atheists. She informed me that she was going to make sure that her grandchildren were atheists, too.
I have been and will continue to pray for my sister Brenda and her family for Salvation.

Personally, I found CS Lewis’s book, “The Problem of Pain” very helpful. There is a chapter on animal suffering there.

Light of the East said:

My brother is a Gnostic. Doesn't believe in the teaching of God as person. We have a good relationship and he listens to me when I talk about Orthodoxy. When I told him about St. Gregory Palamas and the experience of the uncreated light, he was very interested.

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That’s atypical for the Gnostics.

jas3 said:

Has he ever said why he thinks an impersonal god would allow animal suffering?

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The issue there is that if his brother is influenced by the Gnostic heresy he might believe that this world was created by a malicious and incompetent demiurge (this is what Gnostics and related sects actually believed, going back to the Docetists and Marcionites - and to add some blasphemy to the equation, they then went on to say that our Lord was not the Son of the God of the Old Testament but was rather an emanation of the true spiritual God, who had different names depending on the branch of Gnosticism and often there were numerous emanations called dyads and ogdoads, and St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote an absolutely hilarious and devastating satire of several of the leading forms of Gnosticism where instead of the usual names they assigned to the intermediate emanations he referred to all of them as melons, gourds and so on - it remains one of the funniest things ever written by a Church Father (the Panarion of St. Epiphanios of Cyprus also has some glorious deadpan humor in it, including St. Epiphanios calling a group that denied the existence of the Gospel of John “Alogoi” (meaning unreasonable people) since they rejected Gospel that begins with an introduction to Christ as the Logos. Also St. Epiphanios delighted in likening different sects to unpleasant critters; one particularly noxious cult got likened to the Basilisk, which at the time was believed to exist, and also St. Epiphanios like many had strange ideas about how asps reproduced, but dated herpetology and accidental cryptozoology aside, the Panarion is a delightful read (the name means “medicine chest.”

The Liturgist said:

The issue there is that if his brother is influenced by the Gnostic heresy he might believe that this world was created by a malicious and incompetent demiurge

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Yes, but from my understanding (mostly coming from St. Irenaeus) the Gnostics still believed in a personal demiurge who thought he was the true God, which makes me think his brother actually doesn't believe in Gnosticism.

jas3 said:

Yes, but from my understanding (mostly coming from St. Irenaeus) the Gnostics still believed in a personal demiurge who thought he was the true God, which makes me think his brother actually doesn't believe in Gnosticism.

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Indeed, it is anomalous. It sounds a bit more like pantheism.

I might say that your brother's goodness is it. He is there for the cats as he should be. If people were as such consistently the world would be very different.

As another note;

Cats go away to die, not only for peace, but to not be a burden. In some way the cat is attempting to be selfless at their end. I hate a cat who was bitten horribly by something and went under the shed to die. We ended up moving stuff out of the shed and removing the floor to reach him. He resisted us. But when we brought him in, dressed his wounds (as the Veternarian who we took him to only offered Euthenasia and refused other treatment - rural so not many options) made a bed from blankets, hand fed him, and changed out the blankets when he dirtied them. He understood that we accepted that burden. He understood and decided to live. After a few days when able to started limping himself to the litter box. Kept on cleaning and dressing the wounds - difficult for a cat, they are so squirmy and don't like bandages. It would have been nice to have professional help, but he recovered. He was stiff from the wounds and had difficulty grooming himself for a few years, the fur at the rear of his back would get so matted. Eventually the stiffness worked itself out, because he was always an active cat. And he lived for several more good years.

Similarly, he hated the flea stuff we put on him and used to run around to avoid it. One day I said to him, "You know this is for your own good" and then he just allowed me to apply it. He listened with understanding. He would look us in the eyes and communicate. We say, "No, you can't eat the baby chicks" (we had chickens) he'd look annoyed, but listen. He was a wise cat. And I think this cat of mine was a little example (moreso than us) of the way things they should be and often just aren't. We are to be good stewards with creation and I think creation responds and is elevated. I think this is why animals trust Saints.

The relationship with this cat and the idea of the goodness of God make me believe that animal spirits don't annihilate and that God has something good set aside for his whole creation.