Q: Did God create animals to eat other animals?

A: No, God did not make carnivores at the beginning. When God first made the animals, He instructed them in Genesis 1:30 that they were to eat plants. In other words, they were to be vegetarian originally. Genesis chapter 1:29 teaches that humans were also to be vegetarian originally.

Before sin, God described everything as “very good”—there was no death in the world. Humans and animals ate plants. But … sin changed everything. After the global Flood, God told Noah that humans could then begin to eat animals.

While the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly when animals started eating each other, it’s obvious this happened before the Flood. The fossil record of dead things—most of which was formed by the Flood of Noah’s day—contains the fossils of animal bones in the stomachs of other animals. Thus, some animals were eating each other before the Flood.

We don’t know if carnivores developed quickly or slowly after sin. Regardless, though, we now live in a fallen world that’s definitely no longer “very good.”

This information was provided by Answers In Genesis, an excellent source of material relating to Creation and evolution. Please visit their website using the link in the upper left.