Why are animals made to be instinctively cruel? The food chain is a horrible idea, or was Darwin right?

Answer 1

Why does everyone keep justifying it by saying "well thats the circle of life" etc- the whole point of the question is WHY does the circle of life have to involve painful deaths and being hunted?

I've wondered this a lot myself. It's natural instinct to want to survive, and yet for carnivorous animals it's their natural instinct to go against another species' natural instinct and take their life. There is real fear, pain and suffering there. I dont understand it.

Why can't all food just grow on trees, and all living beings exist peacefully? If this world was created, surely it could have been created that way instead.

This is why I'm a vegetarian, i don't want my existence to deny any other species theirs. However "natural" people say it is, it just sucks.

Answer 2

An animal knows the world through its external senses only. That is why, firstly, its knowledge is superficial and seeming. It does not penetrate the things and has no access to their internal relations. Secondly, it is partial and particular, and is neither universal nor general. Thirdly, it is regional, for it is confined to the living environment of the animal, and does not go beyond that. Fourthly, it is limited to the present and is unconcerned with the past and the future. As animal is not aware of its own or world's history, it neither thinks of the future nor does it plan for it.

From the viewpoint of knowledge, an animal cannot come out of the framework of the exteriors, the particularity, the living environment and the present time. It never escapes from these four prisons. If by chance it does, it does so instinctively and unconsciously, and not by its own choice and will.

Like the range of its knowledge, the level of the wants and the desires of an animal also has a limited scope. Firstly, all its desires are material and do not go beyond the limits of eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, mating and building a home or a nest. For an animal there is no question of any spiritual needs, moral values etc. Secondly, all its desires are personal and individualistic, pertaining to the animal itself or, at the most, to its mate and the young ones. Thirdly, they are regional related to its living environment only. Fourthly, they are instantaneous, pertaining to the present time.

In other words, the dimension of the desires and inclinations of an animal's existence has the same limitations as the dimension of its perceptive existence. From this point of view also, an animal has to live within specific limitations.

If an animal pursues an objective which is outside these limitations and which, for an example, pertains to its species in general and not to one individual or pertains to the future and not to the present, as is observed in the case of certain gregarious animals like bees, it does so unconsciously, instinctively and by the direct order of the power which has created it and which manages the whole world.

Answer 3

Darwin was right. Still is.
The food chain is not "an idea."
Animals are not instinctively cruel.
Cruelty is exclusively the domain of humans.

Answer 4

It's instinct, it's not intentionally cruel, and we don't all eat animals. And contrary to popular opinion we are not at the top of the food chain, that position is occupied by bacteria and flesh-eating bugs!

Answer 5

I wouldn't say it's inherently "cruel" for animals to survive by eating each other, but it is a lot of unnecessary suffering, and if there was a god, he could have obviously made it so that animals (humans included) could live healthy lives without having to kill each other. I mean, he's supposed to be all-powerful, right?

Once again, it makes the choices "either there's no god, or he's malicious/not all-powerful." Not an easy choice for a theist, but hey, they're the ones trying to reconcile reality with a supreme intelligence. They made their bed, now they've got to sleep in it. :P

Answer 6

All creatures behave instinctively in much the same way. We try to rationalise our behaviour.
Who's more cruel, the guy with the camera filming the antelope getting eaten by a cheetah or the cheetah?

Answer 7

Animals aren't instinctively cruel. At least I don't believe that. I work with animals for a living, and I've seen a variety of personality traits in all of them. The "circle of life," though cruel, is a necessity, otherwise we'd be completely overridden with animals.

Answer 8

Watching any nature show on National Geographic should be enough to convince anyone that the world wasn't IDed by an intelligent god.


"Here, watch these hyenas eat the buffalo alive as it screams in pain."

"Here, watch the new pride leader kill all of the existing lion cubs to wash away the DNA of the last pride leader."

Answer 9

We are cruel to. We kill other animals for food. Just luckily we are at the top of the food chain.

Answer 10

2 Timothy 4
1 I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his Kingdom: 2 Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

3 For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

5 But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.