Why did God create the Guinea Worm?

[beso]

Perhaps goodlife could enlighten us on why God created such a dreadful parasite that has no possibility of life beyond the invasion of mammalian bodies.

[ludwig]

You may have to wait a while before he finds an appropriate bible passage to cover this one.

[Duncer]

Because he could??

[douglas9401]

Because it sounded so much more posh than the pound worm it replaced.

[jomifl]

To test goodlife's faith of course.

[pdq1]

Thats not the only one. Think of all the viruses and diseases caused by infection. The devil is in the detail.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Well, you atheists know nothing.

All creatures were peace-loving vegetarians before Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, which let sin enter the world. Only after this did creature such as the guinea worm develop (oops - nearly wrote 'evolve' there).

So, all the bad animals and viruses etc, can be traced back to this obviously true and definitely not utterly fictional event.

[ludwig]

^ That makes sense Waldo, but why did that silly b*stard Noah then go and let two guinea worms on board the ark?

[boxtops]

for those, like me, who had never heard of this parasite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis

[LazyGun]

Waldos answer has convinced me to renounce my atheism.

I do still have a problem with the whole ark and 2 of a kind though, since the bible contradicts itself.

From Genesis 6
"You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive."

But, from Genesis 7
"Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth."

Why is washing an animal so important?

[boxtops]

I understand that "clean animal" means the ones that they were allowed to eat, e.g. sheep, and "unclean" means the banned crowd - rock badgers, et al.

[Myriad2112]

I can't see there being any kangeroos in the ark being as Australia hadn't yet been discovered. They obviously shouldn't exist at all.

[joggerjayne]

Oh, crap ...

Note to self: you don't HAVE to Google a picture of everything you're not sure what it is.

Especially if you're having a snack at the time!

[LazyGun]

@Boxtops

I hope I haven't given you the impression that I really believed that the word "clean" in the context of the genesis quotes simply meant dirty ;)

[jomifl]

You are all forgetting that guinea worms did not qualify for the biblical bestiary, so were left to their own devices and having an aquatic stage in their life history coped quite well so didn't need any help from Noah

[jomifl]

^or not?

[DTCwordfan]

I'll pre-empt him - goodlife could copy from this, without acknowledgement naturally:

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2002407

[jomifl]

So he went to heaven then DT?

[DTCwordfan]

oh I suspect that Noah took them aboard in his scalp, (if you see some of those videos on You-Tube).......

Otherwise if goodlife is thinking of popping his clogs for upstairs/downstairs, there was that thread last night on the 2nd hand coffin on e-bay.........wonder if it sold?

[DTCwordfan]

No offers - not even from dotty!

[jomifl]

Perhaps goodlife should hedge his bets (again) and purchase an asbestos coffin. None on ebay at present so we will have to put up with him for a bit longer.