Is the killing of animals by other animals evil?

[tomaskovarik]

Hi all,
I have been having this issue and nobody as of yet has been able to answer it. It concerns the existence of evil in the world. Not an evil in just human society, which could be approximately explained using the concept of the Original Sin (which I think should not be dismissed from christianity), but the apparent evil in nature.
In Romans, Paul says that the “invisible qualities” of God could be perceived from the creation (paraphrase) and yes, when one looks at a beautiful sunset or a nice pond, it is awesome. But how about the predator-prey situation out there, which is immanent throughout nature. How about all these incredible “weapons” that some animals use for attacking and/or defense. Did God create it? Is that a product of Evolution?
Is that “good”?
Some people say that it is good, but I feel that there is something intrinsically evil in seeing a lion eating a little baby deer (or something). This cannot be explained by the Original Sin and it seems that, except for me, nobody really cares about this issue.
So, I wonder if there is someone out there who could give me an explanation, I would be eternally thankful
Thanks
Tomsa

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Dear Tomsa,

When we speak of natural evil as opposed to moral evil, we mean those aspects of nature that can cause harm to human beings, such as earthquakes or floods, etc. But we don’t consider them to be evil in themselves. We would not consider an earthquake that takes place in the middle of the ocean and has no harmful effects on anyone as evil.

Even the killing of animals by other animals is not evil. It is a part of the balance of nature. Insofar as such experiences do not affect us, we don’t think of them as evil.

The tendency we have to think of such killing as evil is the result of our identification with the animals. We humans are renowned for projecting human qualities on to animals.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.