Does animal pain really predate man’s fall?

Lewis suggests that disease and animal pain predate man’s fall. “Carnivorousness, with all that it entails, is older than humanity” (137). But, if this were true, then why does Genesis 1:31 say, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”? This statement comes after God created animals on the fifth “day” and after he created man on the sixth “day.” Why would God call this evil good, “the intrinsic evil of the animal world . . . that animals, or some animals, live by destroying each other” (138)?

I realize that the Bible’s purpose is not to inform us about every minute detail and question we could possibly have. Rather, its purpose is to inform us of the good news of Christ. However, I think it is interesting that the first time animal death , in fact death in general, is inferred in the Bible is when God makes “garments of skins” to clothe Adam and Eve after they sin (Gen. 3:20). After the fall, it is very clear that the consequences of sin affect all of creation, not just humans. The serpent was cursed above all other livestock, the woman would have pain in childbirth, and man would toil to work the land because the ground/plants would be cursed as well (Gen. 3:14-19).

One might argue that the serpent was evil prior to man’s fall. After all, it tempted and lied to Adam and Eve. Interpretation depends upon whether we view the serpent as being in control of itself or being controlled by Satan, as many suggest. I suppose that Lewis would say here that evil entered the animal word because of Satan’s fall. If animals were evil prior to man’s fall though, wouldn’t that mean they somehow chose to become evil? Or, would God allow Satan to make them become evil? If he wouldn’t allow Satan to impose evil upon the animals, then that means they brought evil upon themselves. And, if this is true, then the animals had a “fall” of their own. Yet, this would suggest that they have the capacity to choose, which Lewis would say is impossible because they are not sentient.

In the end, regardless of how evil and pain came about in the animal world, it is clear that animals are in need of some type of redemption, just as the rest of creation is. Whether by man’s initial fall or by Satan’s imposition, I do not think the animal world is currently in the state in which God originally created and intended it to be. And this is why pain and disease exist within it.

While I can see how Lewis believes that pain and suffering in the animal world predate the fall of man, I feel that Scripture supports the idea that it was man’s fall that brought about consequences for the res t of creation. I’ll end with Romans 8:18-23. Take from it what you will. “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”