Why did God create animals in such a way where they don't reflect his nature?

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I do not think you are going to be satisfied with any answer. I am not a theologian but I will say this I have seen the love and gentleness in a number of different animals from the dog I adopted to an Elephant. Have you ever felt the love from an animal, they are God’s creatures, They reflect the goodness within them just by looking into their eyes. I could not imagine this world or my world without them…🐕🐘🐰🦔🐿️🐃🐯:::GOD BLESS
 
Well I have seen someone post this before, it might help, not sure though, it talks about how evolution can be fitting to us Christians. http://www.thomisticevolution.org/disputed-questions/the-fittingness-of-evolutionary-creation/
I also don’t think that animals need to reflect God’s nature.
You would need to say the same things to plants aswell then, which we can clearly see is not needed.
Just cause something has life it does not need to reflect God’s nature.
Things are created for the glory of God and for humans, which in turn show God’s Glory again.
But then again, it depends on which part of God’s nature are you talking about. If you are talking about goodness, I would say that animals clearly are good.
They serve as food for humans, they serve as pets, they themselves are useful in many ways and
as a guy who loves to watch nature documentaries I would say they are great just by looking at them and their lives.
 
I’m not sure how you are using the word “evolve”. We are not a species of animal, but a new creation. A poster above wrote about St Thomas’ idea about the nature of living souls. They are what define what something is. To my way of thinking, even atoms have a sort of material “soul” that makes them what they are, even though they are made of “light”.

Animals do not sin; they act on instincts. Their perceptions, feelings and reactions are built-in. They have sex to procreate, not knowing why, and they can get confused.

Persons on the other hand have a free will which governs how we behave in a moral context. But just as we have lungs and bones and livers and skin, breast feed our young and so on, we share some of their instinctual nature. We get angry, sad, sexy; we feel pleasure and pain. We can see and feel, taste and smell; we hear. But we do so, grounded in eternity and with the capacity to know beauty and goodness. Our free will makes it possible to love, to give of ourselves for the good of the other. A dog will remain loyal because that is its nature. To remain loyal in the face of known adversity, to follow any good when we know it runs counter to our own will, that is love. Animals have no choice; we do and it determines who we are.

If you look at life as a whole, it most definitely reflects God’s nature by virtue of its giving itself to itself. As it does so, it lives, grows, and propagates in all its diversity. We don’t like being part of that, although intellectually we can accept that we will end up as food for worms. Nature is amazing!!

I don’t think I’ve connected with what your issues are, but that’s how I see it.
 
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OP, I think I replied to you over-hastily and I apaolige for my less-than-patient answer.
God bless
 
Jesus234 said:
But how could satan go so far as to change the biology of animals and humans who were once perfect in every way. Maybe God and satan had a bet? idk lol.
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Satan does not have to power to change biology. The world changed because God cursed it. I see it as God withdrew His protective blessing, nurturing and maintaining of this world and let everything go wild. Look what happens when you stop doing yard work. The grass dies, the trees get overgrown, weeds take over. It goes wild.
 
HELLO ALL

If anything I wanted to make clear that I do not think nature is evil, please read through my reddit posts carefully…I wanted to impose that I believe that nature does reflect God’s goodness but not fully…there are parts of it that don’t reflect his nature…So I guess what I am saying is that nature should reflect the creator…As I said I feel like it doesn’t do this job fully…

You can see how in one of my reddit posts. But an example is, how can nature reflect God if monkeys sometimes masturbate and give each other “oral sex”…even though sin requires consent it seems like despite that flaw it still seems weird that God would create something that even sorta resembles part of what sin is…I would expect God to not make animals homosexual or rape each other and instead make them act more heterosexual and not rape lol.

I would also expect God not to create them masterbate as well.

It makes me wonder if God is fully good and if he really created things like this…or maybe, if it was the fall that did all this?

But then evolution comes into mind and how before the fall things were the same after it as well…

It really makes me think maybe God is some form of a pantheist God or something since there is both good aspects of nature and innapproiate aspects of nature as well. Making God both “good” and “evil”. Obviously not totally good or evil but resembling it.

Again I am not saying nature is sinful but that it resembles sin. For something to be sin consent is needed…since nature doesn’t have that its not sin…but it still has acts in it that resemble what God would prohibit for us as humans.

You can say animals are animals but it makes me wonder why God even created them like this to start with. Why he would create something that is considered sin to us humans.
 
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Still i would assume the world was different before the fall so much so that the biology of plants and animals was different as well…Assuming this is the case how did the fall change that? How could the fall change the biology of everything if satan cannot do this.

I mean if the fall changed how everything acted, why is that things were the same before the fall assuming evolution is true…which i believe it is.
 
But still animals do stuff like masterbate, rape, and other things…they do reflect God but why would God create something that would even resemble sin. I just think instead of allowing animals to masterbate God could have instituted a brain chemcial that activated if the animal went without sex for awhile. For example.

I feel like nobody truly understands what I am asking…What you guys reply with isn’t really attacking my problem at all tbh…maybe consult with me so we can better understand the problem?
 
I think I understand your problem, but I am having trouble it myself. We can only hope someone comes by with a good answer. If it does not end up well, try contacting actual catholic answers.
 
Jesus234 said:
But still animals do stuff like masterbate, rape, and other things…they do reflect God but why would God create something that would even resemble sin. I just think instead of allowing animals to masterbate God could have instituted a brain chemcial that activated if the animal went without sex for awhile. For example.

I feel like nobody truly understands what I am asking…What you guys reply with isn’t really attacking my problem at all tbh…maybe consult with me so we can better understand the problem?
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Catechism
302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created “in a state of journeying” (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call “divine providence” the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:
By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, “reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well”. For “all are open and laid bare to his eyes”, even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures. [161]
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161 Vatican Council I, Dei Filius 1: Denzinger-Schönmetzer Enchiridion Symbolorum 3003; cf. Wis 8:1; Heb 4:13.
  • Wisdom 8:1 She reacheth therefore from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly.
  • Heb 4: 13 Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to his eyes, to whom our speech is.
Dei Filius
Chapter 1 - On God the creator of all things
  1. Everything that God has brought into being he protects and governs by his providence, which reaches from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well [11]. All things are open and laid bare to his eyes [12], even those which will be brought about by the free activity of creatures.
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https://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/v1.htm
https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-...tio-dogmatica-dei-filius-24-aprilis-1870.html
 
Jesus234 said:
But still animals do stuff like masterbate, rape, and other things…they do reflect God but why would God create something that would even resemble sin. I just think instead of allowing animals to masterbate God could have instituted a brain chemcial that activated if the animal went without sex for awhile. For example.
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Jesus, you are over-thinking things. Animals and humans behave exactly alike, but sin only applies to humans. We are expected to use our intellect to rise above sin, and not act like the animals. God gave people the gift of intellect, conscience and soul so we can reject animal-like sinful behavior. He did not give these gifts to animals, He gave them only to us so He could commune with us.

He gave us rules to live by so we can “rise up” to meet Him. Animals weren’t given any rules; they are here to serve us, and make it possible for us to live here in exile until we go Home. Animals are not subject to His judgement, so God doesn’t give a horse’s patootie what they do.
 
This helps somewhat, but still i think I can accept that there may not be a perfect answer for this question. Pray for me nonetheless that i may get totally what i want if possible.
 
I see so if you could summarize this in your own words what would you say your answer is ?
 
I know this… tbh I feel like you don’t get what I mean…

When I say animals act sinful I don’t mean they are sinful…I just wonder why God would create something that would even remotely resemble “sin”.

I know sin requires consent and since animals don’t have that they don’t technically sin. But it just makes me wonder why God created them in a way that even resembles sin.

You say maybe the fall caused all this kind of activitiy but your persepctive doesn’t seem compatible with evolution, since animals acted this way before the fall as well. It is only really compatible if you believe the earth was created in 6 days.
 
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Jesus234 said:
I see so if you could summarize this in your own words what would you say your answer is ?
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We will only have that perfection after this world has passed away and there remains only the New Jerusalem in its perfection.
 
So you believe that the animal world is imperfect because of the fall? Like another poster implied
 
Jesus234 said:
So you believe that the animal world is imperfect because of the fall? Like another poster implied
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God put mankind in charge of the care of the world. When mankind fails as a result of loss of original justice, then there will be other failures due to lack of proper care.
 
I see but i don’t think its man’s fault that aside from the fall that animals do this type of stuff that we would consider a sin.

Idk, I think a few people understand my point, others don’t and maybe answer the question indirectly.

Which is okay. Just pray for me if you can.
 
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