awakeNothing in nature is evil. We may sometimes dislike flies or spiders, the skunk or snakes, and yet they only do what their Creator means them to do.
My friend said, "Oh, I can't begin to tell you how much I disagree with this. Humans are in nature, and there are some humans that have lived in history that I would consider evil. Soulless evil."
stargazercmc speaks a truth that is part of the big answer. I believe that Goble's statement is also true in the context that he was writing about animals separate from people. Elsewhere in the book Goble says, "God made man and woman after making everything else. Because the birds and animals, the weeds and grasses, the fishes and insects, are so much older than us, we respect them." I believe mankind has a place in the world that is part of nature and also separate from nature. Why? We are inherently congruent with nature, but somehow we forget this fact. Perhaps it is because we did come after everything else like Goble says. Perhaps we forgot our place next to nature because we've been told things like:Genesis 1:28, God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."We are challenged to remember our relationship to nature as we forget or transmute the above teachings of our society. A true remembrance of our connection to nature short circuits the feelings of dominion over both nature and our fellow men. Cruel and stupid actions will remain. Mankind will always embrace cruelty and stupidity as we stumble through sin, our disconnection from our higher selves. More on that in another blog.
Genesis 2:15, The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:19-20, 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
Genesis 9:1-7 , Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4 "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.
6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made man.
7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."
