1) Did Adam, before sin, have the possibility of death? If he had
fallen off a tall cliff wouldn't he have experienced death as he
violated the laws of nature? If not, then would he simply have
dusted himself off and said, "That was fun!" I suspect he was
born with a life span, life expectancy right from the start.
2) The predator/prey relationship. Wasn't it part of God's original
design? We marvel at the eco-system's inter-relatedness and
this includes a marvelous selection and adaptation mechanism.
This seems unlikely to begin only after the fall? Wouldn't that make
the devil the author of the predator/prey relationship we now see?
3) Adam's death when he disobeyed was immediate, Genesis 2:7
NRSV "for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Yet his death,
physical, was not immediate. Which leads me to believe that he
suffered a spiritual death immediately and his natural death came
in its time.
Being new to this list I am not wanting to go over issues that may
have been given in-depth treatment before I came on board, but when
Mark raised this issue, it is one that I had raised on another Christian
list receiving zero responses. I think this list more likely to deal with
this topic. Any help is appreciated.
David Sanderson
Concord, MA
PS: Hi to Glenn Morton!
On Tue, 05 Jan 1999 17:26:05 +1030 Mark Phillips
<mark@ist.flinders.edu.au> writes:
>If one accepts the Evolutionary Creationist position that life as we
>know it was created by God through evolution, one must also accept the
>mechanisms involved as being good. In Genesis 1 we see that God was
>very pleased with his creation process, observing how good it was all
>the way through.
>
>It doesn't take very much zoological study to realize that the life we
>see is very much reliant on death and suffering. The entire food
>chain is based on the death of animals lower down on the chain to
>provide nourishment for animals higher up the chain. In order for the
>lion to live, she must devour the deer - a painful and horrific
>experience for the deer.
>
>Not only is this death and suffering a necessary part of the status
>quo of life today, it was also necessary in the very development of
>life. The reason the deer is so quick on its feet today is that less
>quick ancient relatives were devoured.
<snip>
>It is one thing to say that all this pain and suffering we observe is
>the result of the fall. It is quite another thing to say that this
>"life", and the creation of it, is precisely what God refered to as
>"good".
>
>Would anyone with a Evolutionary Creationist perspective care to
>answer the above objection?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mark.
>
>
>
>_/~~~~~~~~\___/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________
>____/~~\_____/~~\__/~~\__________________________Mark_Phillips____________
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>____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________
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>__________________________________________________________________________
> "They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
>
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