The Fellowship of Life
Sir, The created order is clearly "red in tooth and claw" and can
appear to affirm and deny the Deity, at the same time.
Indeed, the conditions of life and for that matter, salvation, often
serve to raise empty questions about divine complicity in cruelty.
Christian theology usually embraces 'mystery' as the most palatable and
finite human understanding of the presence of evil.
In the case of animal predation, it is important to emphasise the
distinction between Creator and creation. Fallen conditions are
certainly imperfect but reflect man's original sin rather than God's
infinite love. Throughout early Genesis, God's peaceable creation is
repeatedly referred to as "very good" - words never attributed to later
conditions which included killing.
There is an obvious peril in extrapolating the 'law of the jungle' as
a moral reference source for human conduct. For that reason, the average
vegetarian Christian is inclined to perceive slaughterhouse activity in
much the same terms as a mugging, or worse.
Surely, a major aim of any religion is to approximate divine grace,
mercy and love, amidst the standard and conduct of the world?
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