These are some of the questions we come across, most often not from evolutionists, but from Christians trying to answer basic questions about the pre-Fall world. Now, as Dr. Sharp would teach, we can never fully understand perfection this side of the Fall. However, there are good, science-based answers for such questions.

It has been well established that all animals can or could at one time survive on a plant-based diet. Today we see dogs eat grass when they are sick. Fossils reveal that some ancient crocodiles were herbivores.¹  And then there is Little Tyke: a female African lion that 75 years ago refused all meat, including milk containing blood droplets. Living on a vegetarian diet, she grew up to be, according to one zoo curator, the best of her species he had ever viewed.²  So, yes, it is an observable reality that all animals could have survived on plant-based diets before the Fall when there was no pain, suffering, bloodshed, or death.

When we address the subject of mosquitoes in the Garden of Eden, most do not realize that today there are nearly 3,600 species. They ALL feed on nectar, honeydew, and other plant juices. None of the males in any species suck blood. It is only females in some species that ever feed on blood, and the only reason for their bloodsucking is the acquisition of protein and iron for egg production.³  Yet, even that is not always necessary. Some females can produce eggs through autogenous reproduction, which is without any bloodsucking.⁴  Therefore, based on observational data, it is a reasonable assumption that in perfection, mosquitoes survived on nectar, as they do today, and females produced eggs through autogenous reproduction. There was no need for bloodsucking before the Fall.

A parasite is one organism living on or in anther organism. They can range anywhere from animals (lice, etc.) to fungi (ringworm, etc.) to plants (mistletoe, etc.) or single-celled protozoans (malaria, etc.). Let’s take nematodes (roundworms) as an example. Estimates as to the number of species within the phylum of Nematoda range anywhere from 25,000 to 1 million. Of those, only about 35 occur as parasites in humans.⁵  They feed on the insides of algae and bacteria while decomposing organic matter, which allows for soil fertilization. Hence, they can be found underground, in oceans, and even on mountains. One cubic meter of dirt can contain over 1 million of them, laying an estimated 200,000 eggs at one time. They are a vibrant, essential part of life on Earth.⁶  

 

This, sadly, does not keep some from using parasites as a “reason” for rejecting our Creator God. Sir David Attenborough of the BBC responded in an interview, “There are creation legends everywhere; every society has one, all over the world. But they can’t all be true. If you want to decide what the truth is, how are you going to do it? As far as I’m concerned, you look for the evidence in the rocks and in the creatures around you… The evidence is for evolution.”⁸

What concrete evidence did he find? “…I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, that’s going to make him blind… Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child’s eyeball? Because that doesn’t seem to coincide with a God who’s full of mercy.”⁹ 

As is evident in his response, it was not a matter of scientific observation that led to his rejection of God, but rather a matter of his heart. This is a clear example, as the Apostle Paul said, of “professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). 

“¹⁷ So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart… ²¹ …truth is in Jesus, ²² that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self… ²⁴ and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:17-24)