Why Did God Create Animals?

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We can’t know all of the reasons for sure, but here are a few:
  • To Demonstrate his wonderful ability to create
  • So we can admire the beauty of his creation
  • So we can use our minds to study the creation of the animals
  • For our uses like food and clothing
  • As part of the food chain, which supports us
  • So we can enjoy pets
  • We can learn some compassion from animals so animals help us to love and honor God
  • For the uses of special needs people like the blind who have dogs to guide them
Basically, God’s a nice guy so he gives us animals to help us enjoy his creation and come closer to him.
 
But the closer you come to Christ you will not want to slaughter the animals and/or eat them.
🙂
 
The answer is right there in the first book of Holy Scripture, the Book of Genesis:

(Genesis 2:18 NAB-A) The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.
(Genesis 2:19 NAB-A) So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.

So apparently God created animals because He did not want man to be alone. He made animals in an attempt to give Adam a suitable partner. But read on:

(Genesis 2:20 NAB-A) The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
(Genesis 2:21 NAB-A) So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
(Genesis 2:22 NAB-A) The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man,
(Genesis 2:23 NAB-A) the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.

As we can see in verse 20, none of the animals proved to be a suitable partner for Adam and so in verse 21, we see that God chose to put Adam in a deep sleep and then in verse 22 He made Eve, the first woman, from Adam’s rib. Finally, in verse 23, when Eve is brought to Adam, Adam starts out by saying “This one, at last,”. As you can see by the words “at last”, Adam was satisfied and he finally had a suitable partner.
 
I often wonder this very thing having small pet animals myself and I think that I would not be complete person if I couldn’t hold my cute and cuddly little bear Yogi in my arms as he rests and snuggles against my chest!
 
thistle said:
That doesn’t make sense. Christ was a meat eater.
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This is an interesting comment. A while back I did some research into what was eaten during the time of Christ. It seems meat was eaten very rarely, perhapes even once a year. They ate mostly fish, bread, dates, olives, honey, yogurt and what little the land would yield. They didn’t have much choice of fruits and veggies in that time and place.😉
But we do.👍

Back to the initial question. I thank God every day for creating animals, without whom I would be completely isolated and without intimacy where I live. Although he may not be a “suitable partner”; my brave and humble little cat, Aslan Max, stands between me and horrifying isolation. Yes, I have friends and am in choir and attend Mass often; but I live so very much alone. Animals are a gift from God!🙂
(and I, for one, prefer not to eat them…;))
 
RosalieM said:
This is an interesting comment. A while back I did some research into what was eaten during the time of Christ. It seems meat was eaten very rarely, perhapes even once a year. They ate mostly fish, bread, dates, olives, honey, yogurt and what little the land would yield. They didn’t have much choice of fruits and veggies in that time and place.😉
But we do.👍

Back to the initial question. I thank God every day for creating animals, without whom I would be completely isolated and without intimacy where I live. Although he may not be a “suitable partner”; my brave and humble little cat, Aslan Max, stands between me and horrifying isolation. Yes, I have friends and am in choir and attend Mass often; but I live so very much alone. Animals are a gift from God!🙂
(and I, for one, prefer not to eat them…;))
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That is your right and nobody should disrespect you for that.
I’m simply saying that the Church (which was given Authority by God) teaches that we are allowed to eat animals so Catholics in particular should never be telling other Catholics they should not eat meat because that contradicts the Church teaching.
 
thistle said:
That is your right and nobody should disrespect you for that.
I’m simply saying that the Church (which was given Authority by God) teaches that we are allowed to eat animals so Catholics in particular should never be telling other Catholics they should not eat meat because that contradicts the Church teaching.
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To be less severe and draconian, Catholics can suggest reasons why other Catholics should not eat meat. Many saints didn’t eat meat and some religious orders too.
They didn’t tell others to do the same; but their reasons are commendable.
However, to say eating meat is a sin, now that would contradict Church teaching.🙂
 
RosalieM said:
To be less severe and draconian, Catholics can suggest reasons why other Catholics should not eat meat. Many saints didn’t eat meat and some religious orders too.
They didn’t tell others to do the same; but their reasons are commendable.
However, to say eating meat is a sin, now that would contradict Church teaching.🙂
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There are no reasons why Catholics or anyone should not eat meat. Whatever is eaten should be in moderation and in that contect meat is good for your health.
 
Khrystyne said:
But the closer you come to Christ you will not want to slaughter the animals and/or eat them.
🙂
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This statement is against church teaching.

Not to mention it seems rather judgemental, inflammatory, divisive, and well…trollish. 🤷
 
Whitacre_Girl said:
This statement is against church teaching.

Not to mention it seems rather judgemental, inflammatory, divisive, and well…trollish. 🤷
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I don’t think the person who posted that statement meant it to be any of the things you mention. The expression was wistful and poetic and not against church teaching. St. Francis was inspired to call all animals his brothers and sisters.
There doesn’t seem to be any building bridges in these animal threads and I intend to avoid them from now. I’d rather debate topics that don’t include eating my friends. I’m unsubscribing from this thread and will try like the dickens not to get involved in any more animal or meat eating discussions on CAF, seeing as the two subjects inevitably wind up together.

Pax et Bonum
 
So there’s an order to His creation. It’s easier to ponder the angels observing us as we observe the animals.
 
Animals suffer terribly. They say Charles Darwin really lost his faith in a benevolent creator when he saw how a species of wasps would string a worm/larvae and then lay their eggs in the larvae. As the eggs hatched the baby wasps would literally eat the worm from the inside out. How could such an abomination be allowed to happen, thought Darwin. Here indeed the wasps were acting out of nature and not free will.
At last Darwin gave up on the designing God of Christianity(or so how christians thought God was at the time). I think he became a Deist.

Again we catholics are confronted with the fact of evil in our universe. Why God ? As Job asked. I think we will never really understand the ways of God, but this improves our understanding of Him.

I think its good that we feel sorry for the worm, and that eventually we abstain from meat(though I like it), but I also think that it is important that we understand that death and suffering are necessary for the greater good as well. I think the evidence of that greater good is the planet and the diversity of flora and fauna. The worm suffering, or even humans suffering due to malicious lifeforms is not the worst.
If we all really accept evolution as the most likely reason for diversity in life forms in this planet then we should see it as evolution as ordained by God and not some chaotic process. But evolution brings up more than one incredible concusions, one of which, is that all life on this planet is related. Everything from a bacteria, to a redwood, to a man, can trace itself to one common ancestor, some very very simple form of life that first appeared maybe 3billion years ago. Knowing that we are all related should give us renewed reverence for all living things.

Of course man is different to other forms of life. Man is the only one that has awareness of who he is, and in that way man stands in between God and his own creation.
 
oh sorry I thought it was a legitimate theology question, not another vegetarian rant, i’m outta here, although I would suggest a discussion on the scripture forum, based on scripture, not opinion, on what biblical personages, esp. Christ, actually did eat. IMO God created animals just for fun
 
puzzleannie said:
oh sorry I thought it was a legitimate theology question, not another vegetarian rant, i’m outta here, although I would suggest a discussion on the scripture forum, based on scripture, not opinion, on what biblical personages, esp. Christ, actually did eat. IMO God created animals just for fun
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I agree with this. Unsubscribing myself.
 
TomD123 said:
We can’t know all of the reasons for sure, but here are a few:
  • To Demonstrate his wonderful ability to create
  • So we can admire the beauty of his creation
  • So we can use our minds to study the creation of the animals
  • For our uses like food and clothing
  • As part of the food chain, which supports us
  • So we can enjoy pets
  • We can learn some compassion from animals so animals help us to love and honor God
  • For the uses of special needs people like the blind who have dogs to guide them
Basically, God’s a nice guy so he gives us animals to help us enjoy his creation and come closer to him.
Click to expand...
This is the best answer 👍 However, we should respect animals even if they are for consumption. God’s gift should not be treated badly for our selfish reasons.
 
kildare said:
Animals suffer terribly. They say Charles Darwin really lost his faith in a benevolent creator when he saw how a species of wasps would string a worm/larvae and then lay their eggs in the larvae. As the eggs hatched the baby wasps would literally eat the worm from the inside out. How could such an abomination be allowed to happen, thought Darwin. Here indeed the wasps were acting out of nature and not free will.
At last Darwin gave up on the designing God of Christianity(or so how christians thought God was at the time). I think he became a Deist.

Again we catholics are confronted with the fact of evil in our universe. Why God ? As Job asked. I think we will never really understand the ways of God, but this improves our understanding of Him.

I think its good that we feel sorry for the worm, and that eventually we abstain from meat(though I like it), but I also think that it is important that we understand that death and suffering are necessary for the greater good as well. I think the evidence of that greater good is the planet and the diversity of flora and fauna. The worm suffering, or even humans suffering due to malicious lifeforms is not the worst.
If we all really accept evolution as the most likely reason for diversity in life forms in this planet then we should see it as evolution as ordained by God and not some chaotic process. But evolution brings up more than one incredible concusions, one of which, is that all life on this planet is related. Everything from a bacteria, to a redwood, to a man, can trace itself to one common ancestor, some very very simple form of life that first appeared maybe 3billion years ago. Knowing that we are all related should give us renewed reverence for all living things.

Of course man is different to other forms of life. Man is the only one that has awareness of who he is, and in that way man stands in between God and his own creation.
Click to expand...
I do not have reverance for all forms of life.
For example, rats and mosquitos cause the deaths of millions of people every year, and I for one would like to see every single rat and mosquito wiped off the face of the earth. I certainly would not shed any tears.
 
Miscellaneous comments…

Why did God create animals? I suppose one reason is that it was a darn good idea. We cannot reasonably disagree with that because as humans, we are part of the animal kingdom. Man is essentially a “rational animal”. That is, man is an animal with an intellectual, spiritual soul. Animals which lack spiritual souls represent a grade of life lower than man, and that exists in a myriad of varieties. The incomprehensible and immense diversity of animal life, as with the diversity of all life, and the diversity and variety of non-living things, too, (elements, planets, stars, etc.) reflects something of the majesty and infinity of the Creator.

Is it right to eat animals? Of course. If God did not intend man to eat animals He would not have made them out of meat. 😛

Should we eat animals? This is an individual choice. I am not a vegetarian, but more of a vegan, but I could easily become a vegetarian for a number of reasons. A well-designed vegetarian diet is a very healthy and tasty diet and it omits the many impurities and contaminants that comes with eating meat. Modern corporate farming, especially in the U.S., produces meat that has many unhealthy factors.

Also, modern corporate farming abuses animals. Animal abuse is a moral violation of the stewardship God gave man over the earth. We can protest this abuse by cutting back or eliminating meat from our diets, either temporarily or permanently.

Watch this video about animal abuse narrated by Paul McCartney. The film is sponsored by PETA. I will not support PETA in any manner, but one does not need to be a PETA sympathizer to agree that the kind of animal abuse shown in this video is unethical and should not be tolerated by anyone, especially by Christians who respect creation as ultimately belonging to its Creator:

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian
 
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