Death and suffering before humanity implies an unmerciful God (Talk.Origins)

Claim CA650:

Evolution implies that animals suffered and died for billions of years before human beings appeared. This implies that God is not really a god of mercy and grace, because the suffering was not necessary to create human beings for fellowship with himself. This, in turn, implies that the loving God of the Bible does not exist.

Source:


 * Morris, Henry M. 2000 The vital importance of believing in recent creation. In: Back to Genesis, p. 138 (June): a-c.
 * Morris, Henry M. 1998. The Fall, the curse, and evolution. In: Back to Genesis, p. 112 (Apr.): a.

CreationWiki response:

Talk.Origins is taking this out of context. It is not an argument against the theory of evolution itself but attempts to reconcile the biblical account with evolution.

Thank you Talk.Origins for proving Morris' point, which is that if evolution is true, then the “the loving God of the Bible does not exist.” This proves that reconciling the biblical account with evolution is impossible.

While there is some truth to this, based on what the Bible says about God it would be inconsistent with His nature, which is the point of Morris' claim.

Once again Talk.Origins shows that they did not get the point. It's not a question of time but of cause. If animals were suffering and dying for billions of years before man, then God is the cause of death and suffering; but according to the Bible man’s sin is the cause of death and suffering as stated in Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 15:21 (KJV).

Not relevant since this claim is an issue of Biblical interpretation and its incompatibility with evolution, and not about which view is actually correct.