Animals

[Pete_1]

Does anyone know what reason the Church provides for the behaviour of animals? i.e why do animals kill each other etc.

This has been puzzling me too does the church say to take this literally?

Isaias 11
“6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. 9 They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea. 10 In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.”

I would appreciate it if people who reply could provide the sources of their information.

 

[mschrank]

Your question is a good one but the thing is, people should really not try to do ‘natural theology’ from the Bible and Christian tradition.

Natural theology is a kind of animism, what I believe is a kind of pagan holdover built into the human imagination by God in order to prompt us to seek Him.

Whenever the Bible speaks of things like lions laying down with lambs, you’ve got to take it as an allegory. Lions can’t eat straw they don’t have the third stomach or whatever it is needed to ruminate. Felines don’t even eat vegetables at all, they’ll die if they don’t have certain amino acids only found in meat.

Ancient people knew that. They knew cats didn’t eat vegetables just as well as we do- even if they didn’t understand cell biology. So, the inspired author of Isiah (whether it be Isiah himself or someone who wrote down his tradition) must of meant this in the allegorical sense.

We have to stop trying to Anthropmorphize nature. Nature is nature, it is morally neutral, only the gift of the logos (i.e., image of God) confers quality and morality. Otherwise there is just quantity, even the word indifferent is inappropriate because it implies that good or bad can be applied to nature. Nature just is.

Sorry, I don’t have a source for this, but a famous person once said “the Bible tells us how to get to heaven, not how the heavens go”.