Questions about Christian view of animal suffering

[Magna]

I'm a rather contemplative person. Today on my walk I was thinking about the natural world and specifically the suffering of animals. Examples related to my overall question would include animal specific diseases that don't affect humans but cause animals to suffer and die from them.

Humans have and presumably will continue to discover and invent cures for animal diseases. If said cures are related to wild animals, then the efforts, discoveries, etc could be viewed as selfless acts of kindness toward animals.

From a Christian perspective, how could such endeavors to help animals be considered "doing the Lord's work" since God more than anything else could have eased or prevented said animal suffering, but didn't? Such acts of kindness toward animals by humans would be a human endeavor rather than divine, divinely inspired, etc., no?

Ultimately the question related to the above is, how were human's acts of kindness toward animals not superior to God's inaction to help alleviate the suffering of the wild animals?

 

[jsilver256]

1 Corinthians 15:35-41 indirectly alludes to this:

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

The analogy of a seed kernel needing to die, in order to give away to something more beautiful, is poignant. Although not the main point, I interpret that to mean that the food chain and circle of life are a glory to God. Suffering and death are a built-in feature of that.

Such acts of kindness toward animals by humans would be a human endeavor rather than divine, divinely inspired, etc., no?

Genesis 1:26 says we are the ones with dominion over animals, so I'm not sure what point you're making here:

Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God simply does not put the same weight on suffering and death that man does - that is self-evident through both the Bible and history.

 

[Magna]

I interpret that to mean that the food chain and circle of life are a glory to God. Suffering and death are a built-in feature of that.

Why does the "circle of life" related to animals need to include suffering experienced by them (e.g. disease)?

 

[jsilver256]

Why does the "circle of life" related to animals need to include suffering experienced by them (e.g. disease)?

Take the seasons for example.

Spring -> saplings, new leaves grow.
Summer -> Flowers, fruit.
Fall -> Harvest, leaves turning colors.
Winter -> Snow, nature makes room for new trees.

You can admire the overall glory of nature, or you can focus on the fact that individual fruits rot or that individual flowers wilt and call nature cruel.

 

[Mary Terry]

I think God gave us dominion over the animals but he also instructed us to be good stewards of his creation. Stewardship includes caring for animals with kindness and wisdom. In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were the norm. In the New Testament, it is clear that sacrificing animals is not required - indeed, it is prohibited - to please God.

Stewardship also includes taking care of the earth, the air, waters, land, plants and everything therein. I think that being an environmentalist and a conservationist is exactly what God commands us to do.

 

[Magna]

You can admire the overall glory of nature, or you can focus on the fact that individual fruits rot or that individual flowers wilt and call nature cruel.

I suppose. But applying that logic to humans you could say that humans are part of the overall glory of God's creation and should be left at that rather than focusing on trying to alleviate human suffering.

I'm glad some people do choose to focus on alleviating the suffering of individual animals, animals in general, etc. instead of considering them and their conditions to be part of the "overall glory of nature" as is.

 

[jsilver256]

I suppose. But applying that logic to humans you could say that humans are part of the overall glory of God's creation and should be left at that rather than focusing on trying to alleviate human suffering.

I'm glad some people do choose to focus on alleviating the suffering of individual animals, animals in general, etc. instead of considering them and their conditions to be part of the "overall glory of nature" as is.

It is not contradictory that individuals work to ease suffering while the cycle of life is part of God's design.

We work to freshen flowers, cure each other, heal blights, overall breed crops that are more vigorous, breed new livestock species, etc. We are commanded to show compassion individually.

God not placing the same weight does not equate to placing no weight on suffering. Without the cycle of nature, we would have no kittens, no flowers, no fruits, etc., none of the many things that make life a joy.

The Bible verse I quoted explains it well. The old must pass to make room for the new.

 

[Suzanne]

Proverbs 12:10 The righteous one takes care of his domestic animals,*mBut even the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

A spiritual sister showed this verse to an animal lover and she had tears in her eyes and thanked the sister for calming her heart. She had seen many abused animals.

 

[All-Rounder]

Take the seasons for example.

Spring -> saplings, new leaves grow.
Summer -> Flowers, fruit.
Fall -> Harvest, leaves turning colors.
Winter -> Snow, nature makes room for new trees.

You can admire the overall glory of nature, or you can focus on the fact that individual fruits rot or that individual flowers wilt and call nature cruel.

But that would be a product of black and white thinking, a mistake of the human brain thought, and it is better to be grey-thinking and acknowledge the truth as it is, not entirely black neither wholly white, instead of romanticizing the idea.

 

[All-Rounder]

I think God gave us dominion over the animals but he also instructed us to be good stewards of his creation. Stewardship includes caring for animals with kindness and wisdom. In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were the norm. In the New Testament, it is clear that sacrificing animals is not required - indeed, it is prohibited - to please God.

Stewardship also includes taking care of the earth, the air, waters, land, plants and everything therein. I think that being an environmentalist and a conservationist is exactly what God commands us to do.

In the New Testament God becomes tenfold cruel unfortunately when instead of abolishing slavery within human realm, he promites it.

If laws nowadays in the West were respecting of the New Testament I would want to move to extraterrestrial land, as they would hopefully not still be barbaric towards one another and whoever happens to be near.

 

[All-Rounder]

Proverbs 12:10 The righteous one takes care of his domestic animals,*mBut even the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

A spiritual sister showed this verse to an animal lover and she had tears in her eyes and thanked the sister for calming her heart. She had seen many abused animals.

I'm not surprised as with a lot of the aggressive and vengeant nature of the Bible people have a lot of nervousness and stress when they see what has been produced in the writings and what has been taught. Particularly people with a lot of empathy, compassion and a developed progressive justice sense.

Because now we no longer believe in punishing parents by punishing their children because then the prisons would be a terrible and gross mistake. Unlike the Almighty we recognize it is a good thing to not perform acts of cruelty to get what we want and it's a good feature to protect the children, especially of psychopaths who care more about themselves than it'd hurt them if their children were suffering. But there is a sense of even if it works, I will choose not the path of cruelty for living things. (Except in abusive ideologies\cults\pill ideologies) and our animals as well, as we see more research suggests positive animal training to be a non confrontational and effective means to communicate with animals.

 

[All-Rounder]

"From a Christian perspective, how could such endeavors to help animals be considered "doing the Lord's work" since God more than anything else could have eased or prevented said animal suffering, but didn't? Such acts of kindness toward animals by humans would be a human endeavor rather than divine, divinely inspired, etc., no?"

You're right because if nobody does anything and it's recognized animals have a harsh life and disease the same as we do, and somebody can help it's a good thing. The fact that God doesn't do anything on Earth could be associated with the fact there is plenty of proof against the biblical stories such as Adam and Eve, The Arch, we have massive evidence of evolution and anyone can find the data in 1 minute Google search. And zero evidence of creation, so yes.

Nothing people do on Earth affects the Earth on a Divine level, if God would Technically take offence that we clean up our planet and create on it and develop, then the whole Earth literally goes to Hell. Like there is no person who has not benefitted of human intervention, help, buildings, research. It's just part of life, and it's the only thing with evidence of reward and improvement, and the evidence is great.

If I'd be of animal realm I would honestly want human help and care, with all the power that humans have I'd like them to consider me in one way or another. If someone in a book would say otherwise I'd still want help like I'm heeere. The book stuff isn't here, I am here.

 

[Neia]

I'm a rather contemplative person. Today on my walk I was thinking about the natural world and specifically the suffering of animals. Examples related to my overall question would include animal specific diseases that don't affect humans but cause animals to suffer and die from them.

Humans have and presumably will continue to discover and invent cures for animal diseases. If said cures are related to wild animals, then the efforts, discoveries, etc could be viewed as selfless acts of kindness toward animals.

From a Christian perspective, how could such endeavors to help animals be considered "doing the Lord's work" since God more than anything else could have eased or prevented said animal suffering, but didn't? Such acts of kindness toward animals by humans would be a human endeavor rather than divine, divinely inspired, etc., no?

Ultimately the question related to the above is, how were human's acts of kindness toward animals not superior to God's inaction to help alleviate the suffering of the wild animals?

The earth is in the state it is because of the curse brought down by sin. Everything, from animal and human disease, natural catastrophes and death, all of those things are the consequence of sin.

We have indeed been ordered to look after creation, and beg God for mercy. The fact that things aren't much worse than they are is a proof of that mercy.

It's written In Romans 8:18-25

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 

[Cryptid]

There is no monolithic "Christian" perspective on animal suffering. Ask any ten Christians what it might be and you'll likely get 10 different answers. The Judaic perspective is that if an animal must be killed, it should be done as swiftly and painlessly as possible.

My personal perspective is that my pets are both my friends and part of the family. I can't stand to see a friend or family member suffer. I have gone so far as to take my cat in to the vet when he acted sluggish and wouldn't eat for a day, only to find out he just needed more vitamins in his diet. He's a good boy, and I want him to be well.

Insofar as my diet is concerned, I have become less dependent on meat, having found a few vegetable-based meat substitutes that actually taste good. This has more to do with my cholesterol levels than any ethical or moral considerations, however.

 

[jsilver256]

There is no monolithic "Christian" perspective on animal suffering. Ask any ten Christians what it might be and you'll likely get 10 different answers. The Judaic perspective is that if an animal must be killed, it should be done as swiftly and painlessly as possible.

Yes, in the end, it's not like the Bible has a long meandering philosophical section on why nature is the way it is. Only the barest of hints that renewal was always part of God's plan, renewal involves washing away of the old, and animal cruelty isn't a good thing for a Christian to practice.

 

[Magna]

God not placing the same weight does not equate to placing no weight on suffering. Without the cycle of nature, we would have no kittens, no flowers, no fruits, etc., none of the many things that make life a joy.

The cycle of life. I understand. My point was not asking why life dies. I was referring to suffering on a grand scale, but in this thread, more specifically, the needless suffering of animals (e.g. diseases). Unless your point is that diseases "make way for the new"? There are many diseases that cause suffering but may not hasten or cause the death of the animal.

 

[jsilver256]

The cycle of life. I understand. My point was not asking why life dies. I was referring to suffering on a grand scale, but in this thread, more specifically, the needless suffering of animals (e.g. diseases). Unless your point is that diseases "make way for the new"? There are many diseases that cause suffering but may not hasten or cause the death of the animal.

The Bible does not address this as far as I know. But it is noteworthy that the cycle of nature also involves a tight dependency on germs and viruses (gut bacteria, decomposition of organic matter back to fertile soil, all that), and keeping animals and humans away from diseases has detrimental effects on the immune system.

 

[All-Rounder]

"But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
From relationships I have learned that the unseen is generally not there, the words come but it's empty promises without the proof necessary.

Now what kind of father would ask his children to drop the means we use to distinguish crime from friendship and lies from truth so that he would accept us?!

 

[NB79]

I think there is a verse, don't know if already mentioned that says.
"don't be cruel with beasts, because they feel just like you"

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I don't have many Bible verses memorized. But I know this one by heart. I learned it a few years ago.

"A good man looks after the welfare of his animals. Only the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."

I remember my grandfather often reciting something like that when I asked why he was up so early. But I didn't know it was from the Bible. I hardly even knew what a Bible was.

I was not raised Christian, but my paternal step-grandfather was a strong Christian. My father came to faith later on in life, but his whole life of environmental stewardship was a living testament to that proverb, that he had heard, but like me, probably didn't know was in the bible either.

The men in my family would get up before dawn, way before breakfast, every day, putting on heavy coats and go out and feed and water all the stock and pets. They'd water them, muck out the stalls, spend time with them, and open up the pasture.

The women and kids would assist, doing a whole lot of work too, but the biggest heaviest physical tasks belonged to the men, with women doing all they could along side, or in their own jobs. The women would work fast, and try to wrap up early and go inside to make breakfast.

Time would be spent gentling and saddle breaking any horses we were boarding, waking with the dogs, tending to all the animals.

Starting at the top of the hill, and working their way down, great big feed sacks, slung over one shoulder, as my father or whomever else would walk down the row of feed troughs, filling them. Hungry snouts aggressively running up and fighting over territory, to feast. The hose filling water tank after water tank.

Once all the predawn chores were done, then and only then would they come in for breakfast.

After breakfast would be more chores, landscaping, repairs. All outdoor work after the month of March would usually cease by 10 am due to the desert heat. If someone had to be out til noon, you knew they were feeling it. Iced tea and lemonade, sun hats, and cold, wet bandanas would be brought out to those outdoors in the sun.

But even in the heat, the animals had to be taken care of, for different reasons, different tasks, all day long.

And if an animal, whether domestic or wild, was injured or very sick, a hard lesson learned young, is that often the kindest thing you can do for an animal, if you know it's going to experience long, drawn out misery, is to quickly and painlessly euthanize it. That is also a part of responsible animal husbandry.

And if an animal ever bit anyone hard enough to really injure them, that animal would be put down as well. But it would be quick and painless. With mercy and precision.

It is cruelty to animals to think of yourself before thinking of helpless creatures that depend on you.