Why does God allow predators to kill and eat their prey??? Why?

Question

...why has God allowed animals to kill and eat other animals. It has happened since the beginning of time. It is disheartening to watch documentaries (I know, I know, I can turn the tv off) lions and tigers killing and tearing apart their prey. Actually it makes no sense really. I'd like to learn a good reason for this.

Answer 1

Because they are hungry.
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Answer 2

Every living thing makes use of the dead. Whether it's a lion taking down an antelope, a rabbit eating grass and flowers or plants absorbing the nutrients left behind by decayed life in the soil....it is the cycle of life and the balance of nature.

In areas of the United States, the natural predators for creatures like deer and rabbits have been essentially eliminated. As a result, the populations of these animals grows to proportions that are unsustainable by the local habitat and many animals die from starvation, unless hunters are allowed to cull the herds.

In Australia, rats and mice were introduced by european settlers (not intentionally). But with no natural predators, the population of the rats in some areas have driven human inhabitants out. Cats were then introduced, but they tended to prey more on snakes and now Australia has a problems not only of an exploding rat and mice population, but also of feral cats.

What to learn from this is that everything has its place and its role to play in keeping the world in balance. Sometimes it seems cruel but the alternatives can be far more so.

Answer 3

This is the food chain at work! Predators have their place in it just like everyone else. The predators are NOT built to be herbivores (vegetarians). They need meat to survive.

Also look at it from another point of view. When predators are removed from the food chain overpopulation at the lower levels results. This leads to starvation and suffering, etc.

As a rule, predators pick on the weakest members of a group. This helps strengthen the group as stronger members live to reproduce.

Finally, a good hunter works to kill his/her prey as quickly as possible. The quick neck bite is part of natures design. In fact cats that play with their prey are those that were never taught proper hunting skills by their mother.

So it may look harsh, but it's just the way God/nature designed it to be.

Answer 4

As cheesy as this may sound, it is called the circle of life. When an animal kills another it consumes it body for nourishment and sustenance. the proteins and energy is absorbed into the predators body and the waste and excreted out. This excrement will eventually break down and fertilize the ground so that plants and fauna may grow. this in turn will then be consumed by plant eating animals until it is either killed and eaten. Predators are not excluded from this cycle. When a predator is weak or old it to is either killed and or dies. It's body is consumed and will eventually be turned back to the earth from which it came. Dust to dust ashes to ashed. You can never destroy matter. You can displace it, alter it, burn it, mash it but never truly destroy it. So hence you have the circle of life. For human we consume animals and eventually we too are returned to the earth from which we came. I know this sounds cryptic but it is the best I could do with such a short answer

Answer 5

Isn't it amazing how people completely and totally missed the point of the question? The idea behind the question is "If God is so loving and wonderful, then why would God have chosen such a violent and painful system to be the norm. Why not make us all herbivores so that no living thing has to experience being eaten alive or butchered?" The answer is simple to the Christians: Because God said so, and if you don't like it, then the infinitely wonderful, loving and wise God will send you to hell.

Thats why I like the Pagans. They had a God for everything. There wasn't some good god that pretended to be everyone's friend that just let wars happen. There was a god for war and all he did was war. He wasn't a nice guy and he didn't pretend he was. If you wanted nice, you went to one of the other nicer gods. They didn't try to squeeze all the complex concepts of the world into one god who let the Halocaust happen for the sake of some mysterious "benevolent" plan.

Answer 6

Fundamental law of the universe: life and death are not opposing forces, they are part of the same cycle. Life and death depend upon and create each other. All that lives must die, and there can be no life without death to feed it (even plants taking nutrients from the soil!).

Predators make the prey stronger, faster, smarter, healthier (watch the film Never Cry Wolf, it's awesome and very clear about this). They keep the populations down so they don't die a long slow death from starvation, or destroy the ecosystem by eating it all. They weed out diseases.

A balanced system requires Death to keep Life thriving. Too much life will collapse on itself and die harder and worse than if the tool of death keeps it functional and well.

This isn't discussed in the Bible, but it's not contradicted there either.

Answer 7

Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another.
PURPORT
A systematic law of subsistence in the struggle for existence is there by the supreme will, and there is no escape for anyone by any amount of planning. The living beings who have come to the material world against the will of the Supreme Being are under the control of a supreme power called mäyä-sakti, the deputed agent of the Lord, and this Divine illusion is meant to pinch the conditioned souls by threefold miseries, one of which is explained here in this verse: the weak are the subsistence of the strong. No one is strong enough to protect himself from the onslaught of a stronger, and by the will of the Lord there are systematic categories of the weak, the stronger and the strongest. There is nothing to be lamented if a tiger eats a weaker animal, including a man, because that is the law of the Supreme Lord. But although the law states that a human being must subsist on another living being, there is the law of good sense also, for the human being is meant to obey the laws of the scriptures. This is impossible for other animals.

Answer 8

Yeah! And on that note, how can God be so cruel as to let vegetarians kill and eat all those poor helpless plants? WHY? It's so horrible, he doesn't even give those poor plants a fighting chance! He just sticks them there, and laughs as they get killed! It's sick I tell ya, SICK!

I mean, at least the carnivore's prey can try to run away. When was the last time you saw a carrot get up and fight back? Why do animals get special privileges? Why can god be so cruel to the poor innocent Vegetables?

And now, for the soundtrack from "The Lion King."

o/` "It's the Circle! The Circle of Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife!" o/`

Answer 9

Well as deplorable as we find it, it is the circle of life. I don't believe that the Gods allow it perse', they just sit back and let NATURE take its course. Animals eat other animals to keep thier bodies sustained, and to control the population and growth of other species of both animals and plants. Some believe that in the beginning animals could talk, and noone, animal or man, ate meat. Then sin came along, and it was a curse given for man and animals to eat each other from that point on. It is part of nature. If you are a religious person, then this is the best explanation.

Answer 10

Yah, you should really read the bible more often.
In the beginning all animals and humans ate only fruit.
After we turned into sinners and round about the time of Noah - God said we & some animals can eat meat.
The point - Some animals will not servive on grass - take away the meat and see the extinction of half God's creations.
They kill to servive, they don't kill for pleasure or more than they will eat.

Answer 11

There is a law and a kingdom for each of God's creations. All of His creations are expected to live the law of the kingdom they inhabit. Animals live by the law of the kingdom God gave them. In this earthly state, a lower level of existence, each creature does what they have to do to survive. We are told that when the earth is purified and moves into a higher plane of existence, the Millenium, then the animals will coexist peacefully and plants will be their food. All things come in God's time, not ours. We, the humans, are the only creation that fails to live by the law that God gave us. We do not love one another as we are expected to do. We behave more like the members of the animal kingdom instead of like God's offspring. Therefore, I would worry more about our human behavior than about the animal behavior. How can we expect the animals to live on a higher plane if people can't elevate themselves above the violent survival mode either?
Food for thought.