Keith Miller wrote:
>
>I agree that human sin has been the source of great ecological destruction,
>and has greatly increases the "hazard" of natural hazards. List members
>might be interested in my recent Perspectives article "Natural hazards:
>Challenges to the creation mandate of dominion?" (PSCF, vol.53, no.3,
>p.184-187).
Keith's article is on the web at
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2001/PSCF9-01Miller2.html
>
>However, the death and suffering which is an integral part of God's
>creation is a reality that must be dealt with on its own terms. This
>aspect of "natural evil" is not easily accomodated by appeals to human sin.
>
In my mind, a traditional theology of the fall and curse due to human
sin goes a long way to explain the current (post-fall) problem of
evil. Also, I believe that we must distinguish between human death
and suffering and non-human death and "suffering". I would want to
say that death and "suffering" of non-humans is not "evil". It is
part of the goodness of God's creation. (Otherwise we get into all
sorts of problem with death before the fall.) This issue was, I
think, at the heart of Darwin's own struggles with God's role in
evolution.
Additionally, I think it's helpful, although I haven't labored to
draw this out completely in my own thinking, to distinguish between
different kinds of "death" perhaps even with respect to humans. I
have heard it argued by some that even physical human aging and death
was a normal part of creation and that after death there is some sort
of eschatological glorification unto eternal life. Sin turned that
process into the ugly and suffering-filled process that we know it to
be now. The Heidelberg Catechism, in a slightly different but similar
context, asks the question, as believers, why must we die. The answer
is that death is our entrance into glory. Perhaps the same idea
existed in the pre-fall state. Anyway, I'm not ready to put my
imprimatur on this idea but it is an interesting thought.
TG
>Keith
>
>
>Keith B. Miller
>Department of Geology
>Kansas State University
>Manhattan, KS 66506
>kbmill@ksu.edu
>http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
-- _________________ Terry M. Gray, Ph.D., Computer Support Scientist Chemistry Department, Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523 grayt@lamar.colostate.edu http://www.chm.colostate.edu/~grayt/ phone: 970-491-7003 fax: 970-491-1801
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