>1) Genesis is very specific about the fact that man was not originally
>designed by God for death. Therefore, if man was to have escaped death,
>then certainly there was no reason the same miraculous existence could not
>have existed for all the animal kingdom as well. All the
>over-multiplication problems and such you discuss would also have applied
>to an immortal humankind.
>
>In other words, it is no more difficult to believe in an immortal animal
>kingdom than it is to believe in an immortal humankind.
Genesis makes no such statements about man's physical body. Man WAS
originally designed for death, and I think that I can prove it. All one has
to do is wonder why the tree of life was in the garden. Adam was driven
from the garden, "lest he should eat of the tree and live forever." But I
have to ask you, why have a tree in a garden of which you can eat and that
will cause you to live forever if you are able to live forever without it.
In other words, what practical use was the tree if Adam's body was such that
it would have lived forever without it? I would therefore argue that Adam
would have lived forever, if and only if, he had continued access to the
tree. Since he was driven from the garden he died (physically) because he
could no longer eat of the tree. It seems to me that this shows that Adam's
body was dying constantly but was "fixed" or somehow kept from dying by the
tree. Nowhere do we read that the animals ate from the tree. I believe
that they died also. This makes sense in light of God's statement "In that
day you shall surely die..." If Adam had no knowledge of death this
statement from God would have made no sense. I therefore believe that
Adam's body was subject to the same decay as us all, that he knew of death
because he had seen death, and that he died physically because he was kept
from the tree.
Steve