Animals in the Garden of Eden: A Lawyer Looks at the Animal Theodicy Question

By Barbara Gislason
Date: Sunday, June 14, 2009 11:25 AM
Duration: 20 minutes
Target audience: Any

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When one considers law, questions arise as to what law one is talking about: natural laws, laws emerging from religious traditions, statutes, common laws, and even international laws. Barbara J. Gislason, the founding chair of Animal Law Committees for both the Minnesota and American Bar Associations found, through a pilot study, that some judges utilize their Judeo/Christian beliefs in decision making.
 
This result fascinated Gislason, and she began analyzing what the application of Judeo/Christian principles in Animal Law might mean, and began to think, in particular, about the classical Theodicy problem, which is basically, if God is an omnipotent and benevolent God, why do bad things happen to good people? What Gislason has done is expand this idea as follows: If there is an omnipotent and benevolent God, why do bad things happen to good animals? She will also examine the topic of innocent animal suffering.

Attended by:

• Florence Brammer
• Trish Sutton
• Kaye Beiswanger