Animals and Human Death

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RHIC12

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I’ve heard it said that animals were made for humans and that we can use them for our needs. If animals were made for humans, why do animals kill humans sometimes? I know certain animals have hunter instincts, but if they were made for us, why do we die to them sometimes?

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-RHIC
 
RHIC12 said:
why do animals kill humans sometimes?
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I would say the same reason for all of the evil and suffering we endure in this world: a result of the fallen world that was caused by Adam choosing to sin. That is pretty much always the case when there is a difference between what God intends for us or the world and what actually happens.
 
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RHIC12 said:
I’ve heard it said that animals were made for humans and that we can use them for our needs.
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This is very true. Jesus ate lamb and fish.
RHIC12 said:
but if they were made for us, why do we die to them sometimes?
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Because of the fall, however this is still very rare. Saints were not touched in many cases, and only when they voluntarily accepted martyrdom, the beasts would destroy them, like in the case of St Ignatius of Antioch.
 
What’s your point? Bacteria aren’t animals, and viruses aren’t even alive.
 
FiveLinden said:
In fact, bacteria and viruses kill people, including saints all the time.
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Technically, bacteria and viruses are separate from the animal kingdom. Besides, I don’t think the OP had microbes in mind.
 
Asinner said:
What’s your point? Bacteria aren’t animals, and viruses aren’t even alive.
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So what are viruses if they are not alive? And were bacteria not made for people too? Or were they made for something else?
 
You didn’t answer my question, so I won’t answer yours. You bringing up bacteria and viruses is off topic to a discussion about specifically animals.
 
Asinner said:
You didn’t answer my question, so I won’t answer yours. You bringing up bacteria and viruses is off topic to a discussion about specifically animals.
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OK here’s the answer to your question: Genesis includes all living things in those over which humans have dominion. Therefore viruses and bacteria are as relevant to what you are discussing as cats and pterodactyls.

20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
 
Cool. Yup, Genesis is where we get the idea that the Earth and all living in it are for us, especially verse 26 from your quote. My problem was that you phrased your original response to Dan as a “gotcha,” even though he was clearly talking about only animals. (And the saints he was specifically talking about were martyrs, who by definition all died at the hands of other people, not just infections)

Yah, that line in Genesis might be referring to all living creatures, including bacteria (until relatively recently in human history, the only control we have ever exerted over bacteria has been cheese-making). That doesn’t really change the answer theologically: all suffering we humans experience, whether that be from the protozoa that causes malaria to the odd shark attack, has its roots in the fall of Adam.

Viruses are considered nonliving particles. They’re just made out of genetic material and some proteins; they don’t consume resources, maintain homeostasis, or reproduce on their own.
 
You can’t be a Catholic and not believe that God created all living things in some way and that humans have a special and dominant role in relation to other living things. Hence my comment about viruses and bacteria. Who considers viruses to be non-living?
 
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