If they only exist to serve and feed humans? Doesn't it make more sense to create robots who can't feel pain when we kill them and force labour onto them?
2007-04-09 23:26:02 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Why he created them SENTIENT (able to feel pain)
2007-04-09 23:51:27 · update #1
The answer is that things as they are now are not as they were in the begining. In Genesis, when God created the animals, he placed man in charge of them, to rule over them and have dominion. However note that this was in a vegetarian context. Man, as well as the animals, had been assigned plants, not other animals, as food by God.
So what does it mean when God tells man to rule over the animals? In the verse just before the one in which God says that, it says that God created man, male and female, in his image. An image of a god elsewhere in the bible refers to an idol representing it. So idols are forbidden because they represent false gods and also because they do not represent the true God. The true God's image on earth is not man-made idols but man himself. It would seem therefore, that in Genesis, when God creates man in his image, the intention is that man should be God's representative to the animals. And just as God rules over the universe and over the lives of people, people are to rule over the animals on behalf of God, to rule over them for their benefit. Ideed, the caretaker role of humans is further emphasised in Gen. 2:15 where God puts man in the garden of Eden to, literally in Hebrew, "serve and protect it".
When sin comes into paradise, it overturns the natural good order of things and damages all the relationships. It damages the relationship between man and God, between men and women, and between people and the animals, and indeed between the earth and man. Everything is damaged by sin. The very fabric of creation is torn and it starts to malfunction.
The effect is not total however, and God maintains control over creation, even under the conditions resulting from the curses for sin. Death and disease, thorns and weeds appear, relationships are damaged, people start to eat animals (though permitted only after the flood, and then only some types of animals), but there is still a certain balance and goodness in nature. Animals may be eaten by predators and people but this itself helps to maintain balance in ecosystems.
However as time progresses, sin increases and the effects are not just on people but also on animals and plants and on the earth itself.
The sins of people affect nature not only directly, thtough obvious cause and effect mechanisms (through sins like damaging the environment and abusing nature), but also sin has a broader effect on creation as it damages the link between earth and heaven. Since God is the source of life and the sustainer of it, damaging the connection with God affects the whole earth.
It is God's intention to restore creation to perfection and remove the effects of sin, and when he finishes doing that, both people and animals will enjoy living in peace and safety on the new earth, where things will be like in the beginning where there was no predation. Thus the prophets have utopian visions of paradise restored in the messianic age to come:
Hosea 2:18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.... 25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain," says the LORD.
2007-04-10 01:54:26 · answer #1 · answered by Beng T 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God does not "hate" animals. Far from it. He created Mankind to watch over and take care of the animal kingdom, along with the earth. Care and concern for our (tame, livestock) animals is commanded in the Decalogue, and God's concern for simple beasts is recorded in the book of Jonah (at the end, during God's rebuke to Jonah). The nobility and simple wisdom of many creatures are used as teaching points in the Wisdom books, and God chose a lowly animal, a donkey, to speak to a man (rebuking the madness of the prophet Balaam) and to carry His Son, Jesus, into Jerusalem. Pain has a purpose. Pain is a message from one part of the body to the brain: "Stop doing that, it does damage". Most animals need to feel pain (negative stimuli) in order to survive. Also, if you think about it, the animals aren't here to "serve" us (although many do). We were put here to "serve" the animals, by managing the planet. Humans alone have souls, because they are made in the image of God, and sentience is a big part of that image! The flood happened because of the wickedness of Humanity. It would be impossible for God to flood and destroy the Human population (executing a mass judgement on humans) without executing the animals around them as well. Notice, however, that not only humans were saved in the ark: animals of all types were represented as well. Guess who was outnumbered on the boat? Hint: there were only 8 people on the ark. The real issue should be: why don't people follow God's lead, and take better care of the Earth and the animals in it? PS God doesn't make animals suffer for our amusement. That is a sicko HUMAN hobby, and completely un-Godly!
2016-05-21 05:06:03 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He created them for beauty,to make the world more interesting and the main reason to make the eco system come full circle. If you go back to the beginnings of humankind humans ate only what grew from the earth, only in the last 6 or 7 thousand years humans have killed animals for food.
2007-04-09 23:39:28 · answer #3 · answered by Duncan M 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
cats dont feed humans and are quite independent. god made man and the world a garden for him. its free will that controls our interaction with animals.
2007-04-09 23:33:10 · answer #4 · answered by koalatcomics 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Robot dogs don't make very good companions. They can't love you back.
2007-04-09 23:37:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
He gave us dominion over them.That does not mean you can eat them.But some people tend to think that.The Queen has dominion over her people,but that doesn't mean she can eat them.
2007-04-09 23:33:35 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
I don't know how to answer, but good question.
2007-04-09 23:32:10 · answer #7 · answered by remy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, I'm a vegetarian.
2007-04-09 23:30:02 · answer #8 · answered by 2kool4u 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Analogy! God reveals to us that life comes from death and suffering. That is why Jesus had to suffer and die for us in order to conquor sin and death. Sin causes suffering and so it take suffering to eliminate it.
2007-04-09 23:31:36 · answer #9 · answered by oldguy63 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋