Hello Dr Craig.

recently I read a transcript of your 09 debate with Dr Francisco Ayala on the viability of

intelligent design and the conversation turned to animal suffering.

You cited work from Dr. Michael Murray saying,

one, some animals experience pain, but do not suffer as a human being because they lack a certain self-awareness.

And two, other animals like spiders and insects may exhibit injury-avoidant behaviors, yet not experience pain. Both of these caused me some consternation

when I first read them. However, after reading RFQ&A numbers 113 and 243, I came to see my reflexive repulsion to one was unfounded.

In particular, the thought experiment of the zebra was of great help to me. Many of us get confused and imagine that the duty we

intuitively experienced to not hurt or kill the zebra lies in a right

intrinsic to the zebra rather than flowing down from God to us as stewards of the

earth. However, as the thought experiment points out, such a location for this right would imply it is also wrong for lions to kill

zebras but clearly lions have no such duty to abstain from

zebra. Upon introspection I also realized in the human realm I would not consider a person with

functioning pain receptors to have greater worth than one without. So if animals do not

experience suffering the same way humans do, that does nothing to change

our moral duties towards them, nor does it imply their Creator values them any less.

However, I still find their creator values them any less.

However, I still find myself troubled by the statements you made in regards to, too.

In particular, you say,

it's plausible they, spiders, and insects aren't sentient beings at all, having some

sort of subjective inner experience.

Why is that plausible? Given that consciousness does not arise from the brain, non-conscious matter.

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