Believers stand in awe at the beautiful creatures God made, but they seem to forget the ugly and nasty ones. If God fashioned every creature, he should be worshiped for creating all of them. So perhaps Christians should sing this Monty Python song on Sunday mornings, too:
All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom,
He made their horrid wings.
All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.
Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid,
Who made the spikey urchin,
Who made the sharks, He did.
All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.
(Thanks, Metro.)
I would imagine the answer to that is that god didn’t make the ugly stuff – it used to be beautiful until corrupted by The Fall ™.
At least that would have been my answer back when I used to by a christian.
@Pleco: Yes, that would of been my answer when I was a creationist. But the more thoughtful Christians who believe in an old earth still have to deal with the question.
Well, on second thought so do creationists. God still made them like that after the fall. He must have changed their teeth, digestive systems, poison manufacturing, etc. to be like that.
Why, you’re welcome.
I’m fond of Python. I once saw an interview with, I think it was Graham Chapman (now enjoying the status of Permanent Youngest Python), who said that while they were doing research for the film they were planning to call Jesus Christ–Lust for Glory, they decided he was a pretty good chap, and decided to make the central character of the film a nebbish named Brian.
Rah for Python, of course, and more seriously on the same point: Biology displays tons of examples of “irreducible complexity”, intelligent (looking) design, exquisite adaptation for function and so on — pertaining to truly gruesome instances of parasitism (just check out the Byzantine life cycles of some of these critters!).
Recommended reading: Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex
“Recommended reading: Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex”
But not if you’re faint of heart or weak of stomach. Ugh.
Skip the pictures, at least.
after i realized i was an athiest, i still attended a bible study, for devil’s advocacy. (the same bible study i was using as a last ditch effort to stay a christian). anyway, the topic comes around to how awesome god’s power is, and all that malarky, and it was a general circle jerk of wowee’s. i sure did shut them up though, when i started in on how god’s almighty power was manifested in hurricanes… like katrina. they started to say it was man who made the mess, and i kept on them. “man cannot make 120 mph winds” et al. they were none to pleased with me.
I have the Monty Python Sings CD. That’s one of my favorite tracks.
I’ve always liked Part 2 of The Meaning Of Life. It’s familiar to anyone who went to a British school (where you get Christian assemblies in state schools, because we have an established church), although mine wasn’t a private school like the one in the sketch. Oh Lord, please don’t burn us…