Should Christians be concerned about animal welfare? (Part 1)

by Vesa Hautala

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

This is the first post in a four-part series about animals and the Bible. The series aims to give Biblical background data to help Christian effective altruists consider whether they should care about animal welfare. The posts review Biblical texts relating to animals and their treatment, focusing on the questions of whether animals have moral value and what moral obligations humans may or may not have towards them. This first part of the series focuses on the question of moral value of animals from the point of view of creation and Biblical passages which mention God taking care of animals. The purpose of this post is to lay the groundwork for further arguments about animal welfare. The second post deals with human dominion over animals, the third is about human utilisation of animals, and the fourth reviews ethical instructions concerning animal welfare.

The glory of creation and God’s love

Creation is the theological starting point for Christian views on nature, including animals. In Genesis 1:1, God creates the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo). Its origin, ultimate value, and purpose lie with God. The doctrine of creation gives nature an intrinsic value based on its createdness. God affirms this in the Genesis creation account by deeming all that he had made “very good”. (Gen. 1:31) As a creation of God, nature is precious and in a sense even holy independent of its usefulness to humans. As part of nature, animals therefore have at least some intrinsic worth apart from their utility to humans. This does not in itself prove that animals have any more value than rocks or other inanimate parts of creation, but it negates a view where animals have absolutely no value of their own and makes further arguments about the value of animals plausible.

Various psalms urge the whole of creation to thank God and present creation as joining together to praise him. (Ps. 19:1; 96:12; 103:22; 148:3,4,7–10; see also Isa. 44:23.) The goodness of Creation proclaims God’s greatness, love, beauty and other such characteristics and glorifies him. Defacing the glory of creation is an affront to God’s glory. This is reflected in the sanctity of human life in Scripture; harming a human life created by God is strictly regulated. The taking of animal life is not forbidden, but killing animals unnecessarily or needlessly causing suffering to them goes against the integrity of creation and hinders it from glorifying God to its full extent. Again, this is not in itself a strong argument for animal welfare concerns in Biblical ethics, but it does provide reason to consider further arguments on the topic.

Creation is also linked with love, a fundamental characteristic of God. Creation is an act of love, because it is a voluntary rather than necessary act of God. God’s character as Love (1 John 4:8,16) strongly implies that God cares about the wellbeing of all beings capable of suffering and happiness, though in Scripture it is evident God also cares about other things, like justice and truth. A full treatment of the question of whether animals are capable of suffering is outside the limits of this article, but there is substantial scientific reason to believe they are, and nothing in the Bible seems to rule out this highly common-sense conclusion.

God’s cares for animals

There are several Biblical passages that speak directly about God’s care for animals. The Psalms speak in multiple places about God feeding animals (Ps. 104:27–28, 136:25, 145:15), and some psalms also speak about animals asking God for their sustenance. (Ps. 104:21, 147:9) While describing his creation and continued care over it, God rhetorically asks Job: “Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?” (Job 38:41 NRSV) Jesus says that God feeds the birds of the air. (Matt. 6:26) In the book of Jonah, God sends the prophet to preach to Nineveh so that the inhabitants of the city could repent and be spared of destruction. At the end of the book, God speaks to Jonah, saying:

And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals? (Jonah 4:11 NRSV)

The presence of many animals in the city is a reason to be concerned about its destruction. This implies that God considers animal lives to have value. Notably, animals are also included in the covenant God makes with survivors of the flood in Genesis 9.

 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,  and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. (Gen. 9:9–10 NRSV)

These examples present God as caring about animals, which gives us strong grounds to believe that God regards animals to have moral worth and values their wellbeing.

Conclusions

Consideration of God’s character, creation and God’s care for it shows that the question about the moral worth of animals is linked with deep theological themes running through the Bible. These themes and particular passages about God’s care for animals provide evidence that animals have moral value in the Bible. God shows animals special attention which he does not show to inanimate parts of creation, and his care for animals is in many ways similar to his care for human beings. These observations open animal welfare up for consideration as a cause area for Christian effective altruists, but do not in themselves tell us about the moral value of animals compared to humans.