Bed Bugs ?

[Gilligan]

I understand why God created carnivores and why predatory activity is necessary so that an ecosystem meltdown doesn't happen. I understand the purpose for death before and after the Fall. I also understand how these things exist in a "very good" creation.

But how do bed bugs fit into the ecosystem? They are not prey for anything. Their only purpose is to bite humans and irritate us. This seems to be an argument that bed bugs came after the Fall. But Satan cannot create life including pests.

[RickD]

I understand why God created carnivores and why predatory activity is necessary so that an ecosystem meltdown doesn't happen. I understand the purpose for death before and after the Fall. I also understand how these things exist in a "very good" creation.

But how do bed bugs fit into the ecosystem? They are not prey for anything. Their only purpose is to bite humans and irritate us. This seems to be an argument that bed bugs came after the Fall. But Satan cannot create life including pests.

Google is your friend.

This is the first hit on a Google search:
http://askbettybedbug.blogspot.com/2013 ... s.html?m=1

[Gilligan]

I saw in the article they are for keeping other parasites from filling a niche, but why would God have parasites in the first place? Why this niche?

[RickD]

Google it!

[Nessa]

Well, obviously if we didnt have bed bugs we wouldn't be able to say 'mind the bed bugs dont bite' before we go to sleep. No brainer!

Its all about the saying

[theophilus]

I saw in the article they are for keeping other parasites from filling a niche, but why would God have parasites in the first place? Why this niche?

Conditions were very different before the fall. For one thing, there was no death and all animals were vegetarians.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
(Genesis 1:29-30 ESV)

Obviously there could have been no parasites either, so bedbugs must have had another function. We can speculate about what it was but there is no way we can ever know for certain.

[RickD]

I saw in the article they are for keeping other parasites from filling a niche, but why would God have parasites in the first place? Why this niche?

Conditions were very different before the fall. For one thing, there was no death and all animals were vegetarians.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
(Genesis 1:29-30 ESV)

Obviously there could have been no parasites either, so bedbugs must have had another function. We can speculate about what it was but there is no way we can ever know for certain.

[Hortator]

Your argument is a good one, why would God create a universe where parasites can exist.

I think it goes like this, though it is very abstract: if we as humans were immune to parasites, we'd think we had "special blood" or were somehow divine beings, which is not biblical truth. Now, of course we know better than to think we are somehow of sacred lineage. But our ancestors of yore, pagans, would have believed this. Thus Christianity would have been a hard sell to Europe. Thus history would be a lot different, and possibly affect prophecy both past and present.

We as humans have little idea just how finely tuned this universe is. One single tweak, and the entire equation can turn into a mess, like an error in programming code crashing the whole server for instance (I dont know computer science lingo)

[neo-x]

I saw in the article they are for keeping other parasites from filling a niche, but why would God have parasites in the first place? Why this niche?

Conditions were very different before the fall. For one thing, there was no death and all animals were vegetarians.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
(Genesis 1:29-30 ESV)

Obviously there could have been no parasites either, so bedbugs must have had another function. We can speculate about what it was but there is no way we can ever know for certain.

Ditto on that, Rick.

[Gilligan]

Google it!

The reason I didn't use Google is because I'm sure it would have led me to a YEC blaming bedbugs on Adam's Fall, which would have been unhelpful.

[RickD]

Google it!

The reason I didn't use Google is because I'm sure it would have led me to a YEC blaming bedbugs on Adam's Fall, which would have been unhelpful.

Actually no. I googled it. There's enough links that are scientific, that you can get your answer. When looking for science answers, I ignore pseudoscientific sites like AIG.

[Philip]

Conditions were very different before the fall. For one thing, there was no death and all animals were vegetarians.

Yep, dem lions were eating large amounts of GRASS! And you can tell, because instead of giant canines, they used to have only molars.

[Philip]

Hugh Ross / Reasons to Believe on the importance of and reasons for the existence of parasites:

http://www.reasons.org/articles/why-wou ... -parasites

http://www.reasons.org/articles/misunde ... d-podcasts
(scroll down to "Viruses, Bacteria and Parasites")

[RickD]

What's ironic, is that YECs who believe the earth is only 6-10 thousand years old, and that all animals were vegetarians before Adam sinned, think animals somehow evolved to start eating meat. And their evolution happened much, much faster than the billions of years that most evolutionists believe in.

[abelcainsbrother]

I saw in the article they are for keeping other parasites from filling a niche, but why would God have parasites in the first place? Why this niche?

Conditions were very different before the fall. For one thing, there was no death and all animals were vegetarians.

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
(Genesis 1:29-30 ESV)

Obviously there could have been no parasites either, so bedbugs must have had another function. We can speculate about what it was but there is no way we can ever know for certain.

Have you ever saw a T-Rex dinosaur? Are you claiming they were vegetarian?