The atheist blogger lustily
ripped apart the Christian
faith as he described a pride
of lions pouncing onto a badger from
different sides, clamping steely jaws
on its flesh, and playing a cruel game
of tug of war. The badger’s interminable
screaming went uninterrupted
for more than 30 minutes. The atheist
chastised Christians for believing in a
“supposed good god” who would create
this chaos of suffering in the animal
kingdom.
How would you respond to this
challenge?
As much as we love to sing about our
loving Father’s creation (and I’m usually
the loudest), is it possible we forget
the truth of nature’s dark side? Though
I love experiencing and writing about
God’s creation, I am painfully aware of
nagging reminders of tragedy that will
simply not go away. I know wonderful
things about God’s amazing creatures,
but I’ve also seen enough in the wild to
know that the earth groans with pain
and death (Romans 8:22).
Consider Flipper, the beloved dolphin
from the television show of my
youth (which was made into a movie
in the ’90s). Did you know his relatives
kill their own babies, just so a mother
will mate again? Do I really want to
admit that adorable-looking sea otters
drown seal pups? I hesitate to reveal
the cruelty of male chimpanzees as
they kill, dismember, and eat babies in
front of the baby’s mother! And what’s
going on with the elephants? They are
increasingly attacking and destroying
villages in African preserves, even
assaulting and killing rhinos.
Why is this happening? Some suggest
that this cruel behavior might be caused
by increasing animal anxiety stemming
from human poaching, human-caused
habitat loss that decreases roaming
space, and dwindling numbers of mating
partners in populations. Some of
these explanations may be true in certain
instances.
But then I’m reminded of joys I’ve
experienced in the forest that are
marred by dark reality. Many times I
have stopped to admire the beauty of
a cowbird, with its noble brown head,
lovely against the backdrop of its ebony
feathered body. The beauty of this bird
reminds me of God’s glory. Then I consider
how the cowbird’s mother laid
her egg in the nest of another mother
bird of a different species. She had no
intention of raising it and abandoned
it to the care of the clueless foster
mother. As it grew, the cowbird most
likely shoved its foster siblings out of
the nest to their death so it could be
the sole heir of that brood. That is the
norm for cowbirds.
As a Christ follower and lover of his
creatures, I hate admitting that there
is something horribly wrong with creation.
But I have learned that we must
all come to grips with that knowledge
if we are to properly understand God’s
work in its fullness and explain it to
nonbelievers who readily see all these
flaws. To benefit from the really good
news that Jesus Christ has for us, we
cannot hide the heart-wrenching bad
news in all of its pain, tragedy, and
death. We must face it head-on.
God did not originally create this
horrific situation. We did. It was our
rebellion against the only one who is
truly good that resulted in God cursing
this world with suffering and death. For
when he originally created this world
and its creatures, all was well. The first
two people, Adam and Eve, were at
peace with God and one another; creatures
were at peace in creation; and
God declared his creation “very good”
(Genesis 1).
So why are Christians, like so many
others, drawn to a peaceful and harmonious
view of nature? Is it based
on a longing in the depths of our souls
for a time when peace, harmony, and
loving relationships were once reality?
Or do we instinctively deny reality
to avoid uncomfortable doubts that
God is good? When bad things happen
in nature, do we fall back on the
story that God has always used the
death and suffering of evolutionary
processes to create and sustain life
on earth?
Once we face the fact that not evolution
but our declared independence
from God brought this suffering into
our once “very good” creation, Jesus
provides the most wonderful news in
the midst of this brokenness. He tells
us that God is good and desires to
restore relationships among all people
through the death and resurrection
of the Creator, Christ (Psalm 100:5;
Acts 13:38–39).
We have the promised hope that
one day the Lamb of God will restore
peace between himself and his people,
peace among his people, and peace
in creation itself as “the wolf and the
lamb shall graze together; the lion shall
eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be
the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt
or destroy in all my holy mountain”
(Isaiah 65:25).
That’s the perspective we should
understand and embrace, based on
Genesis, if we want to point atheists
to the flawless light of the gospel.
and ecology. He is coauthor of the newest edition of the
Wonders of Creation series, The Ecology Book.
Illustration by Dave Mottram
A Wonderful World
By Sarah Eshleman
Kangaroo—Putting the “Roo” in “Emergency Room”
Despite their warm and cuddly appearance, kangaroos are not pushovers. Kangaroos
have been known to lure predators into water and hold them under the surface to
drown them. If no water is nearby, they might try to claw out their attacker’s eyes.
In further gruesome tactics, they use their powerful back legs and sharp claws to
disembowel a creature—or a human. In short, these intense Australian natives put the
“roo” in “emergency room.”
Rabbit—Worst Mother of the Year Award Goes to . . .
Mother rabbits (called does) give new meaning to the phrase “I could just eat you up.”
If a doe becomes frightened or stressed, she might eat her litter of babies, hoping to
hide the traces of the vulnerable newborns from a predator, and save herself to start
over with a new litter. Other times, if she fears that her whole litter or just one bunny
would not survive, she starts chowing down.
Sea Otter—Cute Is as Cute Does
For most of us, otters epitomize carefree playfulness and cuteness. But for seal pups,
otters inspire terror. Male sea otters have been known to assault seal pups, often
fatally wounding them in the process. And they don’t stop there. Some otters drag the
dead body around for up to a week, continuing to assault it. Still think they’re cute?
Meerkat—Not “Meerly” Adorable
At first glance, a meerkat colony appears altruistic, with individuals working together
for each other’s good. But all is not tidy in this matriarchal mammal group. Meerkats
have been called the most “murderous” mammals, with almost 20% of their deaths
caused by other meerkats. Their specialty? Infanticide. When a larger, dominant female
gets pregnant, the war begins as she murders the other females’ pups. And that’s not
all. She proceeds to harass the other females, raising their stress hormones which
makes them infertile. The subservient females then help to raise her pups.
SourceThis article originally appeared on answersingenesis.org
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