If creationist is true, why is God's world so cruel?

[Cuddles333]

If God created the world, why is there so much cruelty in nature. Animals eating animals, to survive?

Some Christians who hold to the literal account of the Genesis creation, have tried to maintain that humans and animals were vegetarians until the time of the landing of Noah's ark. To me, it is difficult to support this position. We have spiders, poisonous snakes, constricting snakes, scorpions, komono dragons, etc. that kill other things for their food in the most vile sort of way. Do we say that they did differently before Adam & Eve sinned? Or can we say these critters did not exist at that time? I do not believe that we can understand why our creator made these things to do as they do. Or if He didn't, why He allowed them to become as they are. Our own immune system is just as vicious. The white blood cells attack foreign bodies ferociously to kill them.

No matter how horrible to us Evolution works, it still took many, many, interventions by God to keep it going. We do not know if there was another process that could have been employed to make an eco system carry on. We could speculate to no end and many skeptics do just that. This is the eco system given to us by Him and it must have been the only kind that could have been employed to accomplish His will for us.

 

[chris4243]

Cruelty is in this world because Satan is the prince of this world.

Did someone make Satan prince of this world, or did he take the position by force?

 

[Hentenza]

If God created the world, why is there so much cruelty in nature. Animals eating animals, to survive?

There was no death before the fall of man. All pre-fall diet was vegetarian. Death, of both animals and man, came into the world because of sin.

And yes, God was fully aware that it would happen.

 

[Hentenza]

A debate is if someone makes an assertion and someone else disagrees.

My comment was two questions.
I see no reason why you can't answer a question.

You simply can not argue a point with another Christian in this forum. Please read the posting rules of this forum that Mr. Dave linked for you before continuing to post here. If you wish to ask a question then please start a thread in the Theology forums. Thanks.

 

[razeontherock]

God himself claimed in Isaiah 45:7 KJV, that he DID created evil.

You are overlooking a significant part of your answer - the difference between created and made. This distinction is preserved in the passage you are quoting, and you must wrap your head around that before ... "getting to the point" that you seek ...

 

[razeontherock]

I thought God made everything perfect!

What gave you that idea?

 

[oi_antz]

Some Christians who hold to the literal account of the Genesis creation, have tried to maintain that humans and animals were vegetarians until the time of the landing of Noah's ark. To me, it is difficult to support this position. We have spiders, poisonous snakes, constricting snakes, scorpions, komono dragons, etc. that kill other things for their food in the most vile sort of way. Do we say that they did differently before Adam & Eve sinned? Or can we say these critters did not exist at that time? I do not believe that we can understand why our creator made these things to do as they do. Or if He didn't, why He allowed them to become as they are. Our own immune system is just as vicious. The white blood cells attack foreign bodies ferociously to kill them.

No matter how horrible to us Evolution works, it still took many, many, interventions by God to keep it going. We do not know if there was another process that could have been employed to make an eco system carry on. We could speculate to no end and many skeptics do just that. This is the eco system given to us by Him and it must have been the only kind that could have been employed to accomplish His will for us.

Read this:

Isaiah 11:6-9
New Living Translation (NLT)
6 In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together;
the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.
The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion,
and a little child will lead them all.
7 The cow will graze near the bear.
The cub and the calf will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
8 The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.
Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.
9 Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,
for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.

Lions will eat straw like the ox, simply because the earth is filled with people who know the Lord.

 

[Gettothepoint]

razeontherock...the reason i thought God made everything perfect was because the bible said so...Deut 32:4.....His work is perfect. So the bible is wrong and you know better

 

[Taylor Lee]

God DID create everything perfect, but because of the fall Satan corrupted Gods Holy creation and thus we have an imperfect world. As the man said before there is a significant differance between being made perfect and being created perfect. Adam was created perfect but when he violated the words of his creator he was MADE imperfect.

 

[drich0150]

dricho150 cruelty is a matter of common sense and that is my judgment. I don't have to think of what some God, who may or may not have existed, thinks. If i go by God's word in the bible, then i see lots of cruelty. for example, a God who gets his followers to tie the tails of 300 foxes together and set fire to them in order to get his way, lacks credibility. So does a God who enjoys the smell of thousands of animals sacrificed to him.

So your measure of cruelty is compiled by what our Anglo/western society tells you cruelty is... For example, killing animals that "we" do not deem purposeful in today's society is cruel, but killing unborn babies is not..

Again as I pointed out in my previous post your measure of "cruel" is derived from a personal or a self, righteousness. Meaning it is a righteousness set on a sliding scale with no truly defined parameters, so that you may make adjustments to justify your actions.. In this case not only have you justified your own actions, you are judging God by them. I guess it is a good thing for you that you weren't born into Hitler's Germany, given the blind way you follow what society tells you to do.

 

[razeontherock]

razeontherock...the reason i thought God made everything perfect was because the bible said so...Deut 32:4.....His work is perfect. So the bible is wrong and you know better

Sorry but cherry picking stand alone verses does not yield the true meaning of the Bible. The very next words tell us "they have corrupted themselves."

Your over-simplistic understanding (or rather lack thereof) assumes that English is the primary tool used to convey these ideas, and further, that modern English is sufficient. It's not! You would need to explore what "perfect" means in this context, and when all is said and done you will come back to the point, that when G-d made everything "He looked and saw that it was good."

Which is, you know, not what we use the word "perfect" to convey ...

 

[addo]

Millions of Years of Death and Suffering: Does the Old Earth View Compromise God's Character?

I found that article which deals with the issue.

Also, there may be reasons for that to happen. For example population control. Wolves may keep rabbits from multiplying too much, sharks could do the same for fish, and so on. Anyway, the article is quite good.

 

[Gettothepoint]

Well Christians are well used to cherry picking when they tell me that I must be born again. Since it's the only time that Jesus ever used the term in the bible, I will tell them what you told me. So, forget about being born again, good works will get one into heaven. And further more, what sort of religion needs experts to try and decipher what God is supposedly trying to say? The bible is full of ambiguities, so much so, that many Christians fight and bicker among themselves as to what the correct intrepretation of certain verses should be ! What a mess ! The next time someone reads the bible, will you send them a scholar to stand over them and decipher it for them? Instead of leaving a clear, unambigious message, God has left you all a huge mess.

 

[razeontherock]

That's really not consistent with the purpose of this sub-forum, neither does it do anything to explore Christianity. On a more minor note, neither is it really responsive to what I said ...

 

[TeaRowz]

Why do you believe animals eating other animals to be cruel?

______________________________

Consider the rhinoceros that has been stuck in a swamp so long that it's lost all its strength. It is attacked by lions that realize the rhinoceros has no defense, so they begin to feed before it has died, and the rhinoceros doesn't die until enough flesh has been torn from it that it bleeds to death. Do you honestly think that an animal with a nervous system wouldn't feel pain, or at the very least, incredible distress?

Or consider the cheetah cub who is just learning to climb and falls, getting its paw inescapably caught in the fork of a tree. The cub's mother can only watch as the cub slowly and painfully dangles and dies of starvation and thirst. Where is god's concern for the sparrow?

Since no one yet can be sure of the degree of pain any animal feels, it behooves us as compassionate human beings to treat animals as though they feel as much pain as we do. And why hasn't a god that is supposedly compassionate not advised us about whether or not his other creations feel pain, and to what extent? This god has let innumerable animals be hurt and abused by us, his 'favored' creation. I am embarrassed by this god.

That there are no accounts in the bible showing god healing or saving animals demonstrates a god that doesn't have compassion or care enough to interact with our world to alleviate pain for the non-human animals he created.

All of this makes it highly doubtful that we can count on a god to alleviate our pain.

And that such a question was asked makes me embarrassed for the human race.

 

[shturt678s]

That's really not consistent with the purpose of this sub-forum, neither does it do anything to explore Christianity. On a more minor note, neither is it really responsive to what I said ...

Wouldn't basic tenets in the essentials as well as traditon = exploring Christianity's purpose?

New guy on the block,

Jack

 

[Rattus58]

If God created the world, why is there so much cruelty in nature. Animals eating animals, to survive?

You do realize, do you not, that nature manages itself without the aid of man or influence of man quite nicely in spite of the fact that one animal gets eaten by another. That's LIFE, by the way. God created us, be thankful and take care of yourself....

Aloha...

 

[Dan K]

I've struggled to find a good answer to this question. This is about the best attempt I've found so far:

http://reknew.org/2008/01/satan-and-the-corruption-of-nature-seven-arguments/

 

[juvenissun]

Re; evil: You say that evil is the absense of God: But God is everywhere, so by definition he cannot be absent from anywhere !

No. If you do not accept God, then He is NOT in your mind.

(I wonder if you still exist?)

 

[Sketcher]

When Adam and Eve sinned, they dragged down the animal kingdom with them.