Is It Sinful to Kill Animals Purely for Sport?

Yeah, no, I'm going to hunt it. And then as soon as I get it, I might like take its head as a trophy, but then I'm just going to, I'm, I'm not going to make any hamburgers. I'm not going to make any state.

Tim, the question for today's episode is killing animals purely for sport sinful.

I guess my inclination is to say it depends on the animal.

It depends on the animal. Like if it's an elephant. What? Okay. It's an elephant. Is that okay? Or is that not okay?

I don't, I don't want to name which, you don't want to know that I feel comfortable, uh, you know, answering, yeah, for, you know, animals in particular, but finally, we finally.

Found the question that you're not willing to answer, I think.

All right. So, so the idea here is that, you know, most people have a category for killing for, um, food, right? So most, you know, sane Christians, I mean, they're not a lot of them are saying anymore, but most, most sane Christians have a category for killing in order to eat.

Uh, so if you're going to kill it and like an elephant to eat an elephant that everyone say, well, maybe that wouldn't be very good, but that would make sense, uh, every, I think most people have a category for killing an animal for clothing, you know, now we have different forms of clothing, but, you know, assuming you're some primitive person or something like that, you shoot an animal and take its hide and use it for clothing or shelter or something like that, or make something useful out of it.

I think, you know, God's obviously given us dominion over the animals and most of most people have those sorts of categories, but then when you're talking about a sport, you're talking about killing for a game.

So as a sport, it's essentially an activity that requires skill and it's often engaged in a competitive way. So with the sport, you have this idea of a skill-based game that requires some sort of athleticism that's done, you know, competitively and, you know, mostly for fun.

So in that way, just randomly shooting animals for no reason other than you're just having fun, destroying God's creation, you know, on one level, that does feel a little bit odd. Okay. So like if God cares for the birds of the air in particular or something like that, and you know, that bird didn't do anything to you, there's no good reason why you're killing it other than the fact that you just want to use it for target practice.

Something seems a little bit strange about that. If you're talking about like a bird or something like that. Now, if you're talking about like a roach, right, then you kill many roaches for sport, I mean, if you, I think most people, like, if you were to think like, Hey, I'm going to get my gun out and you know, we're going to, we're going to set these roaches free and I'm going to, you know, let it run away in the middle of a, you know, environment and target practice.

I mean, you know, I think most people would think, well, I mean, that's a pest it's, you know, deserves to die. Right. So it's, it's there. So the Bible does have some sort of category for an animal that's made to be caught and destroyed.

So second Peter 2, 12 is describing false prophets, but then in the language of second Peter 2, 12, it says, but these like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters, which they are ignorant will also be destroyed in the destruction.

So there is a kind of animal that is made to be caught and destroyed. And I think like pests are maybe an example of animals that, um, maybe they, they serve some sort of function in the, you know, ecosystem or whatever else, but most people don't think twice about, you know, killing a spider on site or killing a roach on site.

And, you know, I imagine that like, if you wanted to make a sport out of like bear hunting or tiger hunting with predators and things like that, I mean, there are predators out there who are, um, I think if you were to think about the kind of animals that are put in this kind of category of, you know, irrational animals, creature of instincts, uh, born to be caught and destroyed, I think the dinosaurs were basically hunted like to extinction because they were put on the earth in a fallen world to be a trial for human beings to overcome.

Right. So I think there's a lot of, I think particularly with predators, like there's a sense in which like they're a dangerous trial for human beings to overcome. If I saw like, if I was allowed to, and, you know, you didn't have the animal rights activists, you know, coming after me, if I saw some kind of line or something like that, I would try to shoot it and kill it, you know, to keep my tribe awesome.

Yeah. Keep my tribe safe. Now, if you all wanted to make a sport out of it, right. And do it just for purely for fun. I don't think you're just ridding the world of a dangerous predator that's going to possibly kill a human being at some point, you know?

So like, I think there's, um, there's, um, like, you know, like the idea of doing it purely for, for sport, I think it may be, depends on the kind of class of animal and that kind of thing. And, you know, there's other classes of animals that are, you know, like you probably wouldn't want to do that with, but I don't like.

What if I want to hunt a cow for sport?

So I think, I think where, where this overlaps is that like with an idea of a cow or something like that, you know, part of the nature of the question is we're asking purely for sport. Right.

So if you're asking. No, I'm going to hunt it. And then as soon as I get it, I might like take its head as a trophy, but then I'm just going to, I'm not going to make any hamburgers. I'm not going to make any steak.

I'm not going to make any cowboy boots.

Yeah. I think there's a kind of waste, like, so there is a, like a very destructive kind of impulse to say that, Hey, I'm just gonna, like, God's given, made this creature, has created it, has given it the breath of life.

And like, he's, he describes himself as having care for like the birds of the air in particular. You know, he, he feeds the birds of the air and just to kind of. For no reason other than personal amusement, you're just going to destroy his creation.

I think there's something a little bit odd about that. Um, now, I mean, I think if you can attach some sort of useful reason why you're doing it.

Then you're in a better place. Does that make sense? Even if it's like, Hey, I'm just asserting my dominion over creation.

I'm starting my right to destroy guys. I think, you know, what you want to do is you want to, you know, think, think about entertainment for my personal entertainment. Yeah.

I think this is my downtime. This is how I kick back and relax.

I think if it were roaches, maybe that makes sense, but not the cow. I mean, I think a cow could be useful. You know, it has a, you know, a use that you might want to make use of now. I mean, I think like the idea of trophy hunting or something like that.

Like you, you would say. Like it is for sport, but then like, I think that's where it gets a little complicated because then you may get a decoration out of it too. Right. So, and so I can, particularly when you're trophy hunting for like dangerous, exotic animals or something like that, you're not just, so I mean, if you're not just going out and randomly exterminating them all.

And then leaving and then leaving. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think part of it is like the nature of what you're doing. That, you know, I think you can make an easier case for saying, yeah, I'm going to go and get a decoration for my home out of this, you know, this lion.

And it also happens to be a predator, a dangerous predator kind of thing. I think, so I think a lot of it kind of depends on the class of animal, but I think, yeah, Christians should be repelled by just wanton destruction of animals for no reason whatsoever, whatsoever other than personal amusement.

But I can conceive of some scenarios where it could be all right. What if the animal's endangered? Oh man. I knew I'd make you laugh. Yeah. I mean, I think this is where some of these things are like absolutely crazy.

So, I mean, you have government laws where, you know you can literally have some of these endangered species destroying your home and destroying your property and, and everything else, because they care more about the animals and people and preservation.

And, you know, I just think that this is, you know, part of life in a fallen world. I think obviously like the idea of trying not to drive an animal into extinction is largely a good thing. I mean, I, I'm glad that we did that with the, with the dinosaurs though, you know?

So, I mean, I think that they're in this category of irrational animals, creatures of instincts born to be caught and destroyed. So, you know, a government can overstep its bounds in that way. Um, you know, but then I think if you're going to, you know, go against the government, plus all you might want to count the cost, you know, along those lines.

Maybe it's not worth killing the lion over.

Yeah. I mean, it's not worth killing the lion over unless like the lion's in your backyard and about to kill you or your kids. In which case you just say, well, I'm sorry.

You know, as Harambe's got to go. Harambe's got to go. Well, I'll just let him go.

Do you remember that story? Yeah. I think that's where these things can get somewhat nuts, you know, at that point too. So yeah, my, my instinct is just to say, Hey, maybe it's a little bit complicated, but generally probably you shouldn't just randomly kill an animal for no reason, just because you enjoy it, but maybe there's some scenarios where it makes sense.

Okay. Fair enough.

This has been another episode of Bible bashed. We hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion. We thank you for all your support and ask you to continue to like and subscribe to Bible bashed and share our podcast with your friends and on social media, please reach out to us with your questions, pushback, and potential topics for us to discuss and future episodes at Bible bashed podcast at gmail .com and consider supporting us through Patrion.

If you would like to be Bible bashed personally, then please know that we also offer free biblical counseling, which you can take advantage of by emailing us. Now go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.