Death before the Fall?

[shernren]

God condemns cruelty to animals. Do you disagree?

God commanded animal sacrifices. And, cruelty to animals is a human action God is condemning, whereas animals have no moral conscience and therefore cannot be condemned. Will a man-eating lion burn in hell?

Why would they die of over population? God commanded the animals to fill the earth not over-fill the earth. Again it seems hard for you to believe the world was once very different.

I'm sorry if my imagination is limited. But please show me how a population with a constant, non-zero reproduction rate and a zero death rate will not grow to infinity given enough time. Especially considering that populational growth is purely exponential without death. What modifications do you propose - how was the pre-Flood world different?

 

[TheBear]

Yes. Physical death.

Gen 2:16-17

"16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

But, Adam did not physically die that day. Did he?

 

[shernren]

To your second question Cal, I was looking at the verses, and my personal idea is that God told man specifically that he was given the fruits and vegetables for food. It may be that the recorded long ages of the patriarchs was due to a vegetarian lifestyle.

Just because people didn't eat animals may not mean that animals didn't eat animals. Right?

Question for you all: why is animal death evil? When and how did God decide or describe the morality of animal death?

 

[TheBear]

Question for you all: why is animal death evil? When and how did God decide or describe the morality of animal death?

I see physical death of all living things, part of the natural process of life. The way I see it, there is absolutely nothing evil about physical death. Animals don't sin. Plant life doesn't sin. Fish don't sin. Sin and evil relate to things spiritual. Sin and evil are the spiritual separation from God. Sin and evil are something only man can encounter.