Old Earth view of Adam

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

what's being presumed? God looked down and said, "it is good", when it was all done He said, "it is very good". how can animals dying be "good"?

Sometimes "good" is a relative term. When someone slaughtered a cow a few days ago it was pretty bad for the cow, but very good for my cottage pie.

When a cat gets taken out by a dog, it's pretty bad for the cat. The mouse probably offers a Mass in thanksgiving.

And sometimes animals die because it is the best thing for them. How many pets are put down rather than left to suffer terminal illness?

Some things are indeed inherently and always bad. Death isn't one of them.

 

[theotherguy]

I think the question is, what makes physical death needed before the fall, and what makes man so different as to not go though this?

I think the answer could lie around the idea of population density! This would control the size of the animal population, but comes a little unstuck with the Human factor. In fact I think that God would of allowed the human population the get so big and then take them directly to Heaven, with no intervening death, one old man for one new baby.

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

I think the question is, what makes physical death needed before the fall, and what makes man so different as to not go though this?

I think the answer could lie around the idea of population density! This would control the size of the animal population, but comes a little unstuck with the Human factor. In fact I think that God would of allowed the human population the get so big and then take them directly to Heaven, with no intervening death, one old man for one new baby.

Whilst God could HAVE (sorry, pet hate of mine) done that, I rather think it's simpler to just say that the image of earthly paradise in Gen 1 doesn't bear this sort of rigorous mathematical analysis.