I interpret this as God providing animals for the benefit of humanity.
But does not **all **life have intrinsic value?
I find this anthropic view too limited. All the animals were created for homo sapiens to use as seen fit? The planet was created for homo sapiens? The cosmos was created just for our species?
This is why animals suffer?
Sure, animals don’t experience mental anguish (as far as we know), but they certainly experience pain, and clearly exhibit emotions such as fear and sadness. I’m sure all of us have seen an animal in distress at some point.
From a biblical perspective then, explain to me why animals suffered before the rise of homo sapiens/adam & eve ?
I think if there is a loving God, then “nature, red in tooth in claw” is part of the creation process. I really don’t see how love or compassion fits in this divine creation though.
I have never heard a satisfactory answer on this matter. The only serious attempts I’ve seen is “it’s a mystery”, or a more detailed quote such as “For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
Sin and* free will *are irrelevant to natural evil, unless you seriously want to argue that all species, extinct or living did not experience pain and suffering before the rise of homo sapiens.
I often ask, along with the philosopher David Ray Griffin “can the the suffering of billions of other species throughout evolution just for the sake of one species possibly be considered morally justifiable?”
The claim that animals don’t feel pain and suffering in the same way as humans is only a partial solution. I’ll grant that they are spared the anxiety (in most cases) of knowing that they are going to die. But any organism with a nervous system is going to feel pain. It’s disappointing to read the opinions of some 19th century writers trying to claim that animals in fact did not feel pain, they might as well have been rocks.
Surely we’ve progressed since then?
