Christianity, Paganism, & Nature

"The pagan religions had tended to sacralize nature,and so in its rivalry with them Christianity tended to view nature, including animals, as the domain of the devil. Christianity was also distinctly hostile to man's "animal" nature, to the sexual and other bodily functions that man shares with animals. Then too, any considerate regard for animals would raise acute issues of theodicy-of how a just and merciful God could have condemned the vast animal kingdom to a brutal, violent, predator-prey existence. The pagan gods had not been considered just and merciful; they reflected rather than surpassed nature, so the issue of theodicy did not arise in the worship of them."

Richard A. Posner