Do Animals Sin?

“Do animals sin? Because I see a lot of animals eating each other, and then dogs disobeying their owners, or when a dog is being aggressive and bites a human.”

Great question!

First, we have to ask—what is sin? It’s when someone disobeys a clear command from God that they could be expected to understand or obey. That could be doing something God said not to do, or failing to do something God told us to do.

Certain types of people, like very young people and very mentally disabled people, lack the capacity to understand that they are disobeying, so they’re not sinning. People are made in the image of God, though, so the “default state” of a human is in a state that’s capable of sin because we can understand God’s commands but don’t fully obey them.

So most humans can sin, but there are some situations where people don’t sin because they don’t have understanding. Animals aren’t created in the image of God like us, so they don’t have the same morality and understanding as we do. A dog who bites his owner isn’t sinning.

However, humans are responsible for the actions of animals under our care, making sure they don’t hurt other people. If I had a dog that liked to bite people, it would be my responsibility to make sure that he was never in a situation where he could. This applies to the property of others too. If I had a dog that “stole” my neighbor’s steaks off the grill, it would be my responsibility to pay for them.

This shows us how special human beings are, that we’re the only type of creature on earth who know God’s commands and can have a relationship with him when we believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

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