Today I was sad to learn that the BE’ER SHEVA FRINGE-FINGERED LIZARD was on the critically threatened species list. These beautiful creatures are struggling to deal with climatic and social changes, but unfortunately they are not the only ones. There are over one million different kinds of animals on the threatened species list. It's a little depressing to imagine so many innocent animals facing extinction, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.
There is no doubt that a million species seems like a lot, but this only represents a small fraction of the animal kingdom we share the world with today. Even more daunting is that throughout history, man has cataloged hundreds of millions of other ancient animals that once roamed the earth but had plummeted into extinction. Why so many extinct animals? Why didn’t they survive?
Of course the question that should be asked is, if you believe that God created all of these animals, why did He kill them all off…completely? Did they sin? Did they present a moral dilemma to the world? Perhaps He is making up ideas for animals as he goes, experimenting with them to see how long they will last? The trash heap of failed animal species is much like a writer’s wastebasket who can’t figure out how to start his story…filled with crinkled papers full of bad ideas.
Now fathom this: Over 99% of all animal species that once inhabited the earth are now extinct. That means that God has a 1% success rate. An abysmal percentage when considering this is supposed to be the most powerful and perfect being ever known. Even if we take into consideration that humans may have had a hand in the extinction of thousands or even millions of animal species, this is still insignificant to the vast amount of species that have met their demise-permanently without any help from you or me. So again, you can see where a curious mind might want to know why there have been so many mistakes. And if they weren’t mistakes, why did God decide to go through the morbid exercise of creating and destroying animals wholesale when he knew they wouldn’t work out in the end anyway.
Perhaps the world wide flood accounts for the 99%. But wait…if we assume the flood story is true, at least two of every animal was saved on the Ark. So according to the Bible, no animals became extinct during the flood. In fact, God was trying to prevent it-that was the whole point (of course he could have just conjured up some new ones, but that’s a story for another day). So why did they die out?
Ponder the two different explanations we have today for life’s origins. There is creationism which states that a perfect God created all living creatures. If this is true, we have to conclude that he either planned for nearly all of them to be extinct (for what purpose?) or he didn’t know what he was doing. Either way, I think it paints a much different picture of God than what Christians normally perceive of him. Alternatively, we have evolution which explains in natural terms why extinction does and should take place. The “survival of the fittest” logic fits quite nicely here. We know that life experiments with different genetic combinations that can sometimes enhance a species’ probability for survival. If a species can no longer remain viable in it's environment, it will eventually die out. The animals we see active today are the “survivors” from a long line of animal “experiments” that happened to work. So why is evolution so hard to accept?
Fast Facts
*Extinction is a necessary aspect of the evolutionary process.
*Earth has seen an estimated 5 mass extinctions during its history.
*A mass extinction wiped out the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago.
*Approximately 50% of mammals that have become extinct since the 1800s lived in Australia.
*Studies show that smaller mammals are less vulnerable to extinction than larger ones.
Human Involvement
Fossil records show that the overall number of species on Earth has generally increased over time. However, recent increases in species extinction are believed to have been caused by human interference.
4 comments:
Chad,
I have to admit you have me confused.
I mean, if I were trying to convince Christians that evolution was a much better explanation (and choice) for how we all got here than believing in a Creator God, I probably wouldn't do it by telling them how MEAN it is for God to let some animals suffer extinction, but that "...EVOLUTION which explains in natural terms why EXTINCTION DOES AND SHOULD take place" is the better option (emphasis mine).
Let's talk about some of the things you've written.
Your lack of citation to substantiate your assertions leads me to believe you're pulling these ideas and statements out of thin air.
BAGHEERA--a website for Earth's endangered animals www.bagheera.com
This (secular) site states," There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List and 16,306 of them are threatened with extinction, up from 16,118 last year. THIS INCLUDES BOTH ENDANGERED ANIMALS AND ENDANGERED PLANTS." (emphasis mine.)
I don't know where you came up with the statement, "There are over one million different kinds of animals on the threatened species list."
You further state, "Even if we take into consideration that humans MAY have had a hand in the extinctiion of thousands or even millions of animal species, this is still insignificant to the vast amount of species that have met their demise-permanently WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM YOU OR ME."(emphasis mine.)
Let me quote some statements taken from the (secular) book Biodiversity and Conservation: A Hypertext Book by Peter J. Bryant 2005
"The number of described species is about 1.4 million; but the total is estimated at about 5 million. ...Whereas the natural rate of extinction is estimated at about one species per year, the present rate is estimated at 10,000 times that - about one per hour - and ALMOST ALL OF THESE LOSSES ARE CAUSED BY HUMAN ACTIVITIES."
It further states...
"The reasons for extinction are changing. In prehistoric times, natural disasters and competition with other species were the main causes. In historic times, overexploitation and exotic species introductions have caused many extinctions. But today, the main problems facing wildlife are DESTRUCTION OF HABITAT AND POLLUTION." (emphasis mine.)
For Christians this means that if you accept that (in so-called prehistoric times) "natural disasters and competition from other species" came about as a result of sin at the fall of man, that means that ALL extinctions are a result of the sinfulness of man and his disobedience to God.
God did not, "...go through the morbid exercise of creating and destroying animals wholesale when he knew they wouldn't work out in the end anyway."
Sinful humans are just continuing to destroy God's (good) creation as they have from the beginning.(read Genesis chps. 1-11)
Death (and extinction) are temporary (VERY temporary in light of eternity.) God knows that this present world is cursed and on its way out (mercifully). He's allowing it to go on for A SET AMOUNT OF TIME so that many people can be born, repent of their sins, get saved, and spend eternity with Him.
Here's God's take on this world...
"So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family--calling him 'Father, dear Father.' For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we will share his treasures--for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedon from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom."
Romans 8:15-24a NLT
Hi Debi,
Let me try and iron out some of your confusion. To start, I am not trying to paint evolution as a "nicer" way to kill things. What I am pointing out is the obvious; IF you believe that God created all animals, you have to also believe he planned on them being destroyed (because as a Christian you also believe God knows everything including the future). Following this logic, He thus had to know that 99% of all the species He created would eventually meet their demise. So what was the decision making process for this? This sounds completely devoid of love and mercy we are told he exemplifies. In contrast, no one has ever claimed that evolution is this all caring being who is merciful and omnipotent. Quite the opposite, it is a process that doesn't care about the morals of any living creature. It operates without any conscience and thus we can accept its actions as purely non-emotional. This doesn't make it a prettier proposition, but at the very least it is devoid of hypocrisy.
You say that I am pulling ideas and statements out of the air (as it pertains to the statistics of endangered species). Although the statistics you cited are accurate, these only include the species scientists have 'identified and classified' so far. Researchers are able to document the endangerment of large and well-known animal and plant species. But it is impossible to measure the total number of species going extinct because (again) scientists have described and named only a small percentage of them. Only about 1.4 million species—out of an estimated 10 million to 100 million—have been described to date. So as to not 'mislead' anyone, I will say that it is 'likely' there are well over a million endangered species on the Earth.
There is no doubt that humans, since becoming the dominant species on the planet, have played a major part in the extinction of animals. Overhunting and the creation of trade for animal furs and meats was the start of this "premature extinction". When the industrialization of our societies began to take off, pollution and overcrowding became major factors in pushing even more animal species to extinction. But the extinction of animals by humans is only a small fraction of our Earth's history.
We are going to have a disconnect of some sort at his juncture because you believe that man and earth started at the same time. I on the other hand do not. According to scientific research, animals roamed the earth long before modern man showed up. It is during this time (before man) that we see extinction on a mass level. Even if you believe man was always here, what kind of God would allow innocent animals to be slaughtered to extinction even if only to prove the point that man is not behaving very well? In other words, how "good" and "just" is a God who destroys the innocent willingly and with a clear conscience? To punish the wicked (appropriately) is a morally sound precept, but to punish the innocent is deplorable.
If evolution is not a reality as you likely believe, then God has a lot to answer to.
In response to God's take on the world, you quoted Romans 8:20 "Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse."
I believe this sums it up nicely.
Good hearing from you,
Chad
Hi Chad,
Thanks for getting back so quickly, but again, I would like citations for some of the "facts" you have stated. You've ignored the conflicting numbers between the estimated species (5 mil) I cited and the number you stated (10-100mil), as well as the number of threatened plants and animals I cited (16,306) and the HUGE number (one million) you stated.
You are right that we don't agree on when man (or the earth) started. I would even guess that we'd disagree on just exactly what "extinction" is. What science calls "species" the Bible calls "kinds." Without looking up the scientific names, I believe that what science would call the Feline genus and then break down into the "tiger" species, or the "lion" species, the Bible would simply call the "cat kind".
The original male/female cats God created would have had all the genetic material necessary for producing all the various cats in the "cat kind." This is why Noah would only have had to bring a pair of "cats" aboard the ark.
Same for humans. The original pair had all the genetic material necessary to produce all the variation you see in humans today. That's why Cain could've married his sister and had no genetic difficulties with the offspring of that union. (God didn't disallow sibling marriage until after the flood, when people started breaking up into isolated people groups and the gene pool was diminished.)
What I'm saying is that if a certain type of tiger becomes extinct, that doesn't mean God has allowed His original "cat" creation to go extinct. We've just lost some of the genetic diversity within the "cat kind."
Since God did not cause any of this loss, He has nothing to "answer to"(your words). We do, though.
God gave mankind dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:27-28) and we've really blown it. (See my original post for what has really caused any of these "extinctions.")
You've stated that God isn't "good" or "just" because the innocent suffer along with the wicked.
I don't claim to understand all God does, but let me offer a few thoughts on the subject:
Adam and Eve were created in a perfect world. They knew only good. They knew they were responsible for caring for His creation (that's what dominion means, after all).God warned them that if they used their freedom and dominion to disobey Him, evil and death would ensue. They freely chose to disobey God and listen to Satan. I don't need to tell you what the outcome of that choice was.
Today we, Adam and Eve's offspring, continue to choose to sin against God and the outcome is equally sad, but obvious. The innocent still suffer (just ask the child of any alcoholic or drug abuser.)
But I see a different side to God than you see. I see a God who is so "just" and so "merciful" as well as so loving (John 3:16) that even though we blatently continue to sin against Him, He offers us a way out and a way "back to the garden." It's free and available to all. He just wants us to accept responsibility for our sin, and ask Jesus to forgive us and save us.
Unfortunately, just like Adam and Eve, most people won't admit that their sin is their fault--and that will keep them out of the garden. You can blame God for that if you want to , but it's kind of like the teenager who's angry at his parents for grounding him for getting home at 4am when his curfew was 11pm. He's being illogical--and that doesn't change the fact that bad choices will produce just punishment. (If his parents love him and want to protect him, anyway.)Even when the punishment hurts the parent more than the kid. I understand that, having raised children.
So for a LIMITED period of time, God is allowing us to suffer (along with the creation) to bring about salvation for those who are willing to repent and obey. Just like the parents of the teenager, He would have much preferred that it didn't have to be this way (Luke 13:34b "How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!), but as a loving parent He knows He has to correct our disobedience or chaos will never end.
Some of us will accept His correction, some will not. I may not understand all about either God or man, but I don't blame God for the choices people with free-will make. The alternative would be for God to have made us nothing more than "puppets."
Hi Debi
I have heard the species argument before (i.e. 2 cats spawned off the whole feline race), but we have to look at the Noah predicament with a little more skepticism. What you are inferring, perhaps unknowingly, is that if you only have one kind “saved” on the ark, lets say a beetle, you are now invoking something called “SUPER EVOLUTION”. To insist that over a 4 to 5,000 year span two beetles (or 7, based on which biblical story you believe) are responsible for the current 350,000 different species of beetle in the world is unconscionable. Not even evolutionists claim super evolution. Keep in mind that this hypothesis only has the 2 beetles responsible for the beetle species and not the other species of insect. If you believe the 2 beetles also spawned off the rest of the insect population, then your argument gets even more absurd.
I could argue the impossibilities of the Ark story until my face turns blue, but it wouldn’t matter. No significant proof will ever change your mind because you have preconceived notions of what the conclusion is-which is a biblical one. To use a timely analogy, you already casted your vote before you heard the candidates speak. You only accept what the bible says regardless of what the evidence says.
Before I wrap things up, I feel it’s necessary to point out that the analogy you used about God teaching us a lesson (the teenager who gets grounded) lacks the true sense of what ‘you claim’ God is actually doing. God doesn’t ground anyone. He doesn’t put them in timeouts either. NO, he kills them. Indiscriminately destroys them. No swat on the behind, he doles out death and suffering. Death is permanent, not just a "limited time". Bare with me here, if a child does something wrong (i.e. stays out until 4 AM), the parents TEACH that child that he/she has consequences for their bad choices. That is called being a responsible parent. I get that…I do it myself. God, on the other hand, kills his child. No lesson, no endless conversation about right and wrong or why he was upset. Just death. So how is the lesson learned by the child? How does the dead child apply his new knowledge from his lesson? You’re right; he can’t. God isn’t teaching us anything in this regard…this is called punishment; pure and simple. A wise man once said, “He ain’t gonna learn nothing, if you kill ‘em.” This is simple logic, but you won’t find this quote in the bible.
Now, I obviously don’t believe in God, so I understand that good people die along with bad people everyday-sometimes for insignificant reasons. This is what happens in nature. But if you believe, that an all knowing, loving God controls things, you have a lot of sorting out to do.
I can only hope that one day you will give merit to what you know is true scientific fact, and it will overwhelm your need to believe in a paternal figure who exists beyond our senses. Only then will you be able to truly think for yourself and become less puppet-like, and more human. Take care Debi,
Chad
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