Why did God make it so animals need to eat in order to survive?

[Ryukil]

May sound like an insane question, but bear with me.
It's just much easier to explain with an evolutionary worldview.
Animals competing in evolutionary arms races to kill each other is a cruel process. Why would God endorse such a system, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest?
That applies only to carnivores though.
But anyway, why would God make it so that humans die without food? Surely he knew that, in the future, people would die because they didn't have enough money to get food. A lot of people, I mean.
If the human body is so "perfect" as creationists claim, why can't it just generate its own energy? lol.
There are just so many simple things like this that are missed in the debate between creationism and atheism.

 

[LionL]

I've often wondered the same thing. Why, if you are going to create sentient beings capable of suffering, put them in a cruel and vicious world. Why have predators and prey? Why have disease? Why have old age and infirmity? Why have droughts, famines, hurricanes, volcanoes and earthquakes?

Some will say because of "the fall". - Well that's fine if you actually believe myth.
Some will say "that's the way it has to be". - But surely God, in all His unending power, could have made the universe exactly how He wished.

I have come up with three possible explanations:

1 - God does not exist.
2 - God is a sadist.
3 - The physical world is where "bad" things are, in order to keep them separate from "good" in the spiritual world, or Heaven.

 

[4x4toy]

May sound like an insane question, but bear with me.
It's just much easier to explain with an evolutionary worldview.
Animals competing in evolutionary arms races to kill each other is a cruel process. Why would God endorse such a system, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest?
That applies only to carnivores though.
But anyway, why would God make it so that humans die without food? Surely he knew that, in the future, people would die because they didn't have enough money to get food. A lot of people, I mean.
If the human body is so "perfect" as creationists claim, why can't it just generate its own energy? lol.
There are just so many simple things like this that are missed in the debate between creationism and atheism.

I don't know , but I sure did thank Him for that big ole thick medium rare sirloin a couple hrs ago

 

[JacksBratt]

I've often wondered the same thing. Why, if you are going to create sentient beings capable of suffering, put them in a cruel and vicious world. Why have predators and prey? Why have disease? Why have old age and infirmity? Why have droughts, famines, hurricanes, volcanoes and earthquakes?

Some will say because of "the fall". - Well that's fine if you actually believe myth.
Some will say "that's the way it has to be". - But surely God, in all His unending power, could have made the universe exactly how He wished.

I have come up with three possible explanations:

1 - God does not exist.
2 - God is a sadist.
3 - The physical world is where "bad" things are, in order to keep them separate from "good" in the spiritual world, or Heaven.

If God exists then it's not a myth and the fall is an explanation for the suffering in this world.

If the fall is a myth then God doesn't exist then He cannot be a sadist.

 

[SkyWriting]

May sound like an insane question, but bear with me.
It's just much easier to explain with an evolutionary worldview. Animals competing in evolutionary arms races to kill each other is a cruel process. Why would God endorse such a system, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest? That applies only to carnivores though. But anyway, why would God make it so that humans die without food? Surely he knew that, in the future, people would die because they didn't have enough money to get food. A lot of people, I mean. If the human body is so "perfect" as creationists claim, why can't it just generate its own energy? lol. There are just so many simple things like this that are missed in the debate between creationism and atheism.

Fine question.
People need things to do and caring for others
is good for the soul. Even Adam in paradise
was given work to do keeping the Garden going.

All the human hardships you see are because
helping others is good, for you.

 

[SkyWriting]

I've often wondered the same thing. Why, if you are going to create sentient beings capable of suffering, put them in a cruel and vicious world.

He put Adam in Paradise and handed him immortality.
Adam chose the harder road as God had planned.
Adam's path also offers "free will" which God feels
is important in a relationship.

If you want the benefits of life without a downside
then you have to give up free will.

I don't hear many people offering to give up free will.
It's still your choice.

 

[TillICollapse]

If you are looking for "scriptural" accounts to address these questions, I believe the Book of Enoch in conjunction with the first few chapters of Genesis does so on some of them (how the earth became filled with violence, even amongst animals, etc).

 

[Strathos]

If God exists then it's not a myth and the fall is an explanation for the suffering in this world.

If the fall is a myth then God doesn't exist then He cannot be a sadist.

People and animals still needed to eat before the fall.

 

[LionL]

If God exists then it's not a myth and the fall is an explanation for the suffering in this world.

What if God exists but the Bible is not a 100% factual account but a mythical one? That, to me, is by far the most likely explanation. If one had to believe every word in the Bible to be a Christian their numbers would plummet.

If the fall is a myth then God doesn't exist then He cannot be a sadist.

That is not true. The myth of Adam and Eve, same as the myths of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Samson, Jonah et al, by their legendary rather than factual status do not disprove the existence of God. They merely become useless as historical records.

 

[justlookinla]

May sound like an insane question, but bear with me.
It's just much easier to explain with an evolutionary worldview.
Animals competing in evolutionary arms races to kill each other is a cruel process. Why would God endorse such a system, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest?
That applies only to carnivores though.
But anyway, why would God make it so that humans die without food? Surely he knew that, in the future, people would die because they didn't have enough money to get food. A lot of people, I mean.
If the human body is so "perfect" as creationists claim, why can't it just generate its own energy? lol.
There are just so many simple things like this that are missed in the debate between creationism and atheism.

It has to do with the fact that there's no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.

On the other hand, if the only purpose of life is survival of the fittest, to procreate, then cannibalism should be perfectly acceptable.

 

[4x4toy]

May sound like an insane question, but bear with me.
It's just much easier to explain with an evolutionary worldview.
Animals competing in evolutionary arms races to kill each other is a cruel process. Why would God endorse such a system, dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest?
That applies only to carnivores though.
But anyway, why would God make it so that humans die without food? Surely he knew that, in the future, people would die because they didn't have enough money to get food. A lot of people, I mean.
If the human body is so "perfect" as creationists claim, why can't it just generate its own energy? lol.
There are just so many simple things like this that are missed in the debate between creationism and atheism.

Jehovah Jirah = God provides
You will find out one day who you were called to minister too and neglected .. I'll give an account for mine .. All will .. We are sent in his stead .. Natural disasters offer us chances to share ..
There is a place you seem to yearn for and a place far worse .. Your eternal choice , just the facts

King Solomon said there is nothing better than to enjoy your food and drink and your work .. And that by the hand of God .. A hard days sweat and work , a great meal and some sweet tea prepared in love from my wife Life is hard but life is good and getting gooder I finally got to retire ...

Evolution answers nothing

 

[Ryukil]

You would have to say that lions, velociraptors, wolves, etc., all ate plants, but then after "the Fall" they suddenly became carnivores. Why is that "sin" has the power to change the internal anatomy (digestive systems) of some animals? So sin only made lion and wolves eat meat, but it didn't make rabbits eat meat.... What? There are just so many problems with not accepting evolution. To reject evolution raises so many more question than it answers.
Evolution admits that life is cruel and animals struggle for resources. To say that God just sits back while animals kill each other in the wild, or purposely designed it that way...well...yeah.
To say that God allow suffering because he wants us to help people who suffer...that's pretty crazy to me.

 

[lesliedellow]

If the human body is so "perfect" as creationists claim, why can't it just generate its own energy? lol.

Are you being entirely serious? Atheists and agnostics usually like to pride themselves on their scientific literacy.

 

[Ryukil]

Are you being entirely serious? Atheists and agnostics usually like to pride themselves on their scientific literacy.

What? I think you misunderstood what I was saying?

 

[Ryukil]

It has to do with the fact that there's no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.

Are you saying that God could not have made it so we didn't need food to survive?

 

[lesliedellow]

What? I think you misunderstood what I was saying?

Ever heard of conservation of energy?

 

[lesliedellow]

Are you saying that God could not have made it so we didn't need food to survive?

Not without creating a fundamentally different universe, with laws which can hardly be imagined, he couldn't.

 

[Ryukil]

But he could have. He could have created a universe where people don't starve to death. Right? I don't get it. He is omnipotent.
I wasn't even invoking the conservation of energy law. And to be totally honest, I don't know much about it. I know it's basic science, but I really don't know much about it.
I'm not an arrogant atheist/agnostic who thinks he knows everything about science.
But questions of physics are irrelevant when you are taking about a God who can change the laws of physics at will, right? Unless you are a deist?
I just ask basic questions about the nature of a supposedly benevolent god who seems to not be involved too much in human lives.

I'm not even kidding. I get so frustrated when people can't see how bizarre it is that this God, who determines the outcomes of the Superbowl, allows 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans to die in a genocide. I. Just. Don't. Get. It. I just don't understand how people can believe in this God when there is so much horribleness in this world. People won't even admit, "Yeah, it's a bit strange." They'll just say "sin tainted the world" or something like that.

 

[JustMeSee]

If God exists then it's not a myth and the fall is an explanation for the suffering in this world.

If the fall is a myth then God doesn't exist then He cannot be a sadist.

Assuming a judaeic god. Assuming a sentient god.

 

[Messy]

But he could have. He could have created a universe where people don't starve to death. Right? I don't get it. He is omnipotent.
I wasn't even invoking the conservation of energy law. And to be totally honest, I don't know much about it. I know it's basic science, but I really don't know much about it.
I'm not an arrogant atheist/agnostic who thinks he knows everything about science.
But questions of physics are irrelevant when you are taking about a God who can change the laws of physics at will, right? Unless you are a deist?
I just ask basic questions about the nature of a supposedly benevolent god who seems to not be involved too much in human lives.

I'm not even kidding. I get so frustrated when people can't see how bizarre it is that this God, who determines the outcomes of the Superbowl, allows 500,000-1,000,000 Rwandans to die in a genocide. I. Just. Don't. Get. It. I just don't understand how people can believe in this God when there is so much horribleness in this world. People won't even admit, "Yeah, it's a bit strange." They'll just say "sin tainted the world" or something like that.

The devil was invited in. It's like you rent a house, you invite some killers, they kill your whole family and then you blame the one from whom you rented the house who warned you not to let him in. He can't just whoop make all evil go away, then He'd have to be shooting from heaven all day long: hey that one's got bad intentions: poof dead. What kind of a God is that? He shoots innocent people? He just can't do something about it when people don't want to listen to Him. He'll make everything perfect though, it won't take long and we have a new heaven and earth without death. The evil in the world I see as evidence of the devil, I came back to God because of that. I thought: There is evidence enough of a devil, so God must exist too. If God were evil there'd be no friendly people. The only way to stop evil is by destroying people that are evil or get them saved, He waits and is patient, He wants all to get saved.
He could have stopped evil by killing Cain before he killed his brother and others like that, but maybe his mom would be mad at God and not follow Him anymore, because He killed her innocent child.