Tapeworms, ticks, fleas etc?
Where do they fit into the creationist picture?
Were they there in the garden of Eden? (In which case what purpose did they serve and what did they eat?)
Were they created by Satan? (do you believe that Satan can be a creative force?)
NB: Please don’t hijack this thread and turn it into a plain bland “that’s why there can’t be a God” discussion, that’s not quite the sort of thing I’m after.
Maybe they were actually benefical to the host in the beginning and then after being thrown out of the garden they evolved into… Oops, sorry!
hehe
I should think that the most natural argument that the creationist would have would be that they did not exist in the Garden of Eden, and were created as part of the “suffering package” introduced when God expelled Adam and Eve.
(Showing that God had a distinctly nasty, as well as petty, turn of mind - “Thou shallt itch day and night and suffer thy very bowels to become the habitation of a legion of disgusting vermin that ye be reminded of your betrayal. Thou shallt crap in anguish and unpleasantness unto the end of your days.” - I’ll bet he made it smell bad at the same time.)
The same argument would apply to germs, I suppose. Having introduced God, you can see anything unpleasant as a form of divine retribution.
God…“gave us fleas”.
[sub]hee-hee-hee![/sub] 
Shortest poem in the world:
“Fleas”
Adam
Had 'em
Seriously, I can’t imagine what the creationists have to say about parasites. But they can’t even explain why lions have sharp teeth. Since creationists are so few on the SDMB, you might want to go to a creationist website for the answer. There’s Answers in Genesis (http://www.answersingenesis.com), The Institute for Creation Research (http://www.icr.org), and of course Dr. Dino, aka Kent Hovind (http://www.drdino.com).
Ok, I’ll bite (pun intended, of course). Why is it hard for creationists to explain lions’ sharp teeth? I mean, if I pretend to be a creationist, I’d say that God created lions with sharp teeth because he meant for them to be hunters and eat meat. What am I missing?
What happened to The Pizza Parlour? I tried your link, and it seems that you need to be registered to view the boards. But, registration has been disabled by the administrator. I’ve occasionally lurked there in the past, and I never had any problems before, even though I wasn’t registered.
I’m a Christian, though not a strict Creationist. I believe the theory of evolution.
So, as a Christian, my response to the OP is that they evolved from other life forms. Does that help?
It proves that God is both wise and good, for he gave unto his beloved tapeworms a goodly land, of mild climate and flowing with food.
Roadfood:
According to the Genesis creation story, all animals were originally vegetarians. See Gen. 1, where God says that he has given “every green plant” as food, and Gen 10 (or 11), where after the flood God says that he now gives animals as food as well. Also, since there was no death in Eden, animals couldn’t have eaten other animals. (Yes, plants are living things too, but we’re talking creationist logic here.)
This is a common creationist belief: check out one of the websites I posted and you’ll see. I think the ICR recently did a story about a zoo lion that survived on a vegetarian diet (albeit with dairy products), thus “proving” that lions were originally vegetarians.
The problem of course is with the design of animals like lions who are obviously meant to be predators, based upon their sharp teeth, front-set eyes, digestive system, etc. We’re essentially left with two alternatives:
God created the lion similar to how it is today, apparently anticipating the fall of man. Totally unacceptable, as it implies that God knew that man would sin, and hence had no free will, and therefore can’t be blamed for all the problems we have.
The original lion looked completely different. God changed it (and all the rest of the animals) after the fall to turn it into a carnivore. He did this by rearranging its eye location, dental structure, etc. Again, pretty kooky. Why doesn’t the Bible mention this change? Why did God do this anyway?
So, like I said, creationists don’t have a good explanation for lion’s teeth, or any other animal structure clearly designed to eat other animals. Mark Twain pointed this out in “Letters from the Earth,” where he has Eve in the garden comment that the lion’s teeth don’t appear too well suited to munching on plants.
Try it now. The link worked for me just a few moments ago. I think they had a problem with a banned poster coming back as a sock puppet. The only way to stop sock puppetry is to disable registration.
Opus1:
Thanks, I (obviously) hadn’t known that. I mean, I knew that creationists were wacky, but I had no idea that they believed lions were originally vegetarians. If I were them, I think I’d tend towards the explanation that God has a sense of humor; he made vegetarian lions with sharp teeth just to mess with our heads.
Well, as a creationist (albeit not a Christian one) I’d say they served the same purpose in the ecological balance, and ate the same stuff that they do now. Why not?