Please read the Glossary of My Terms to be able to follow this post.
Having awoken to the foundational, inalienable, unspeakable cruelty of earthscheme, I was curious about what the major religions had to say – specifically – with regard to this monster feature of the planet.
Zarathustraism has it that animals are either beneficent or evil. ‘Evil’ here has no connection with cruelty; locusts are evil, as are elephants. Impact on human wellbeing is the criterion. Evil animals are those that are harmful or inconvenient to humans, or repulsive (for example the lizard). The massive suffering of prey animals appears not to have been worthy of attention.
The Hebrew bible : the vision of Isaiah (11:6-9) reflects a super-adequate recognition of eating related cruelty; prophecy of a world in which “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat … and the lion will eat straw like the ox …” ie eating related cruelty will or can one day cease. The concept of a cud-chewing lion is however difficult to digest. To think of the ‘Vision’ as symbolic is a bit of a stretch, with the heavy and exclusive reference to predation.
“ The traditional Christian view : When early theologians looked at ‘nature red in tooth and claw’ they concluded that it was a natural law of the universe that animals should be preyed on and eaten by others. This was reflected in their theology.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/christianethics/animals_1.shtml So, on the one hand God, who had created everything, was the font of love and compassion. On the other hand, it was a “natural law” that animals should suffer dreadfully before – and in many cases while – they were eaten. Breathtakingly schizoid.
“Many Christians argue that natural evils, like moral evils, are ultimately to be blamed on human sin. They claim God didn’t make the world with … predators. Instead, these natural evils only came to exist after the first humans began sinning.” https://biologos.org/common-questions/is-animal-suffering-part-of-gods-good-creation
The evidence says T Rex was trotting around well before humans appeared. But, conceivably, prior to human sinning it was meek and supped on fallen acorns … which would explain the impressive biting kit.
Islam : In 2014 Dr Shabir Ally, President of the Islamic Information Centre was asked why God made prey animals suffer. He responded, “This is a difficult question for believers to answer … but at the same time we have in the Islamic tradition the understanding that on the day of judgement all the justice will be done, so if one animal hurt another one then the justice would be done between the animals. But I think it’s more than this …”; for an animal that has suffered, there will be some reward in the afterlife; “at least that is my hope.” So we have a recognition of predation related cruelty, which is not however to be considered a defect in earthscheme. Along with Judgement Day redress and after-life compensation, it is an integral part of a perfect scheme. It’s that some pieces of the jigsaw are beyond the wit of mortals … they must desist from futile reaching for answers.
Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism hold that the suffering of animals can be a consequence of their misdeeds in incarnations as humans. The monkey that suffocates to death as its body is squeezed by a python, could’ve been a henchman of Al Capone. This being’s negative karma will be discharged, in multiple incarnations possibly, by dint of suffocations, cardiac arrests, grievous tissue injuries, and lashings of terror. And when it has been fully discharged, the being shall return as human, carting much reduced wickedness. But presumably not all of the suffering of all prey animals is karmic tuition for fallen humans. Presumably therefore, in these religions too there is a degree of ignoring of the cruelty attaching to predation.
In sum, with regard to the Nastiness of our world, the major religions either turn a blind eye, or avail of the human susceptibility to lobotomy.