Does God love animals more than humans?

[Brian37]

Catholics eat people every Sunday and nobody bats an eye

Yep, this former Catholic always hated the taste of those wafers, always wanted to dip them in nacho cheese or peanut butter. But that motif of symbolic cannibalism stems from animal sacrifice of prior polytheism.

[Cyberman]

Going by sheer numbers, "God" apparently has a fondness for beetles. Even more so for bacteria.

[Metis]

It's fine to kill animals because one of the reasons God created animals was to provide food for us.  Animals eat other animals for the same reason.  God also gave mankind dominion over the animals, with the responsibility to care for his creation.

If mankind was designed to have dominion over the animals, why are there animals in the wild for which historically human flesh has been a part of their diet? Humans may have become the most dominant species on the planet but they certainly don't sit on top of the foodchain on a purely physical level. We can't really pounce upon and chew a great white shark, but they could do it to us.

I suppose it also begs the question why would something be designed explicitly to be eaten and suffer but that's a bit of a diverge.

I don't think animals have the ability to displease God.  He didn't give them the ability to distinguish right from wrong and, therefore doesn't hold them accountable.  I don't know if God loves animals or humans more, but he gave humans the opportunity to live for eternity with him.  He didn't say whether there would be any animals there or not.

Protestants don't usually get onto this topic but as far as Catholic/Orthodox theology goes they're pretty certain animals won't be there because of their concept of a difference between a "material" and "immortal" soul.

Young children and some of the mentally handicapped also don't have the ability to discern right and wrong, but as I've noted in several evangelical and fundamentalist sects those who don't accept Jesus as their personal savior are going to hell regardless.

It just seems odd, there are some animals more intelligent than some humans and yet the humans going to burn, possibly in this case simply for being thick (I know Catholics do have a doctrinal exception for these guys but most denominations I've encountered don't).

[Cyberman]

Not to mention that there are certain parts of rainforests where the species dominating the food chain are <shudder> huge-arse spiders.

[PiousPaladin]

Odd topic heading right? I'm intending this more for any Christians in residence but I'd welcome the input of anyone else as well.

According to more traditional theologies in Christianity, animals do not have an immortal soul. They have "material souls" that die with the body upon death. I've got a couple of questions on this point.

1. If animals do not have immortal souls and death is the end, why is it fine to kill them? You're not just killing their bodies, you're destroying their souls, erasing them from existence. We know animals can experience physical pain, even loss if one observes the behavior of packs and herds when a member of it dies. It's immoral to kill a human, but perfectly acceptable to kill a cow because you might be hungry.

In this line of thinking, would it not be more moral to eat another human and not the cow? The human can move to another plane of existence, the cow faces oblivion.

2. If animals do not have immortal souls, that means after death they cannot be tortured forever after death for displeasing God. Isn't God showing more mercy to animals that displease him than he does to the creatures supposedly made Imago Dei ? Does God like animals more than he does people?

1. It is not immoral because we have been instructed in the will of our creator and have no right to go against his will. They were explicitly made to serve our needs in this life.

2. God does not choose that any of his creations suffer, but they themselves may choose eternal separation from his glory. We have been offered the chance of spending eternity with him because he loves us, animals have not been extended this wonderful offer.

[SteelCurtain]

Odd topic heading right? I'm intending this more for any Christians in residence but I'd welcome the input of anyone else as well.

According to more traditional theologies in Christianity, animals do not have an immortal soul. They have "material souls" that die with the body upon death. I've got a couple of questions on this point.

1. If animals do not have immortal souls and death is the end, why is it fine to kill them? You're not just killing their bodies, you're destroying their souls, erasing them from existence. We know animals can experience physical pain, even loss if one observes the behavior of packs and herds when a member of it dies. It's immoral to kill a human, but perfectly acceptable to kill a cow because you might be hungry.

In this line of thinking, would it not be more moral to eat another human and not the cow? The human can move to another plane of existence, the cow faces oblivion.

2. If animals do not have immortal souls, that means after death they cannot be tortured forever after death for displeasing God. Isn't God showing more mercy to animals that displease him than he does to the creatures supposedly made Imago Dei ? Does God like animals more than he does people?

1. It is not immoral because we have been instructed in the will of our creator and have no right to go against his will. They were explicitly made to serve our needs in this life.

2. God does not choose that any of his creations suffer, but they themselves may choose eternal separation from his glory. We have been offered the chance of spending eternity with him because he loves us, animals have not been extended this wonderful offer.

Damn. God's a fucking jackass. Actually, jackasses are rather friendly. God's just an infernal douche.

[PiousPaladin]

God is the fullness of good. I sense I great deal of anger in you, to be angry at the paragon of Goodness suggests dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment in your existence rejecting him.

[The Inquisition]

Odd topic heading right? I'm intending this more for any Christians in residence but I'd welcome the input of anyone else as well.

According to more traditional theologies in Christianity, animals do not have an immortal soul. They have "material souls" that die with the body upon death. I've got a couple of questions on this point.

1. If animals do not have immortal souls and death is the end, why is it fine to kill them? You're not just killing their bodies, you're destroying their souls, erasing them from existence. We know animals can experience physical pain, even loss if one observes the behavior of packs and herds when a member of it dies. It's immoral to kill a human, but perfectly acceptable to kill a cow because you might be hungry.

In this line of thinking, would it not be more moral to eat another human and not the cow? The human can move to another plane of existence, the cow faces oblivion.

2. If animals do not have immortal souls, that means after death they cannot be tortured forever after death for displeasing God. Isn't God showing more mercy to animals that displease him than he does to the creatures supposedly made Imago Dei ? Does God like animals more than he does people?

1. It is not immoral because we have been instructed in the will of our creator and have no right to go against his will. They were explicitly made to serve our needs in this life.

2. God does not choose that any of his creations suffer, but they themselves may choose eternal separation from his glory. We have been offered the chance of spending eternity with him because he loves us, animals have not been extended this wonderful offer.

So out of the 20 or so human-like species with each species having different levels of cognition, did god send them all to hell? Or did he send them to half-hell or 3/4 hell?
At what level of cognition does god deem it necessary to send a living being to hell?
Do people with Alzheimer's, that have forgotten their past, still go to hell?
Do people that have brain damage and sit in a non-conscious state before dying go to hell if they didn't believe beforehand?
Does enough damage to cognitive capacity give that person a pass and they slide into heaven on an "age of accountability" pass?

Do your religious post-hoc fallacies convince anyone but yourself?

[Cyberman]

God is the fullness of good. I sense I great deal of anger in you, to be angry at the paragon of Goodness suggests dissatisfaction and lack of fulfillment in your existence rejecting him.

Yeah, SC, there's clearly something broken in you that makes you reject God. Why else would you be one of those atheist things?

[Pyrrho]

Catholics eat people every Sunday and nobody bats an eye

Yep, this former Catholic always hated the taste of those wafers, always wanted to dip them in nacho cheese or peanut butter. But that motif of symbolic cannibalism stems from animal sacrifice of prior polytheism.

You were a bad Catholic if you believed it was just symbolic.  The official doctrine of the Catholic Church is that it LITERALLY becomes the flesh of Jesus through the magic of transubstantiation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transubstantiation