People have long looked at nature and wondered: ‘What type of world do we live in? Kill or be killed, survival of the fittest?’ As Tennyson put it, the world is “red in tooth and claw!”
A leopard with its kill in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. PICTURE: Colin Watts/Unsplash
It’s a challenge to the Christian idea that God is love. ‘If God is love, why all the killing?’
What is bizarre, though, is how humans can ask such questions. If we are simply another animal, where do these concepts of cruelty and love come from? As an animal such ideas would never occur to us!
The world can be horrible, and too often humans are the source of that horror. Other times humanity rises above and shows love, forgiveness, care and sacrifice.
These things are unexplainable by nature. They come from somewhere else and reveal, despite the world’s horror, there is a God imparting good into the world.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.