Re: Metaphysics... part two.
George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Sat, 17 Jul 1999 14:53:58 -0400
mortonREMOVETHISgr@flash.net wrote:
>
> At 11:46 AM 7/16/99 -0400, David Campbell wrote:
> >First, it should be noted that the idea of animal death coming before the
> >fall of humans is not a product of modern scientific discoveries, but
> >rather had been proposed based on Genesis 1-2 by Augustine, if not earlier.
>
> I would point out that death before the fall was part of ancient Jewish
> belief. Nahmanides, a rabbi stated:
>
> "The meaning of the word me'od (very) is 'mostly.' On this sixth day He
> added this word because
> he is speaking of creation in general which contains evil in some part of
> it. Thus He said that
> it was very good, meaning its me'od is good [thus conveying the thought
> that even the small part
> of it which is evil is basically also good, as is explained further on]. It
> is this thought which is the basis of the saying of the Rabbis in Bereshith
> Rabbah: And, behold, it was very good. And,
> behold it was good--this refers to death.'
>
> Ramban (Nachmanides) Commentary on the Torah, Trans. by Dr. Charles B.
> Chavel, (New York: Shilo
> Publishing House, 1971), p. 58
A helpful reference, but it should be pointed out that this is one issue on
which there is considerable difference between Judaism & Christianity, since Judaism
does not have an idea of original sin of the same scope & intensity as Christianity.
Where we run into problems is not with Genesis 2-3 but Romans 5, which Jews don't
have to worry about.
Having said that - certainly there was animal death (including the deaths
of our pre-human ancestors) before human sin & there are resources within the Christian
tradition (e.g., Athanasius, though the language is somewhat veiled) for dealing with
this.
& on David's original post: I don't think the deaths of _stars_ comes into
this question. Speaking of stars "dying" is a common & useful metaphor, but stars
aren't alive to begin with.
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/