Cain and Abel Syndrome

Fratricide is not limited to the human race. Apparently this result of the Fall is also seen with regularity in the lives of eagles. Golden eagles will typically lay two eggs each season. Two eggs are an insurance policy to make sure at least one of them hatches. If both hatch, the parents feed both of the fuzzy little chicks until they are strong enough to duke it out to the death. It doesn't take long, and they are still downy chicks when they attempt to kill off their nest-mate.

While this form of behavior is a natural one that occurs with great regularity, it is also one that causes a sense of revulsion. There is something exceedingly unnatural about members of the same species doing one another to death, whether it is siblings killing one another, or fathers eating their young, as is the case with some fish. We may accept that this is the way things are, but at the same time, there seems to be a universal feeling of "something is wrong with this picture."This sort of points back to what the Apostle Paul said when he declared that "creation was groaning and travailing."

It will be an exceedingly glad day for all of creation when all the sons of God are revealed and it is released from the futility to which it is now subjected.