Animal Death

This post will address some of the claims made in CAT regarding the Fall and its impact on animal death and human longevity.

RE: PAUL UNDERSTOOD
CAT cites Romans 8:19-21 to support the argument that the curse of Adam’s sin affected all nature. It is true that all of nature is impacted by Adam’s sin but that does not require that animal death be introduced at that point [1]. Most OEC submit that the fall has affected nature in the sense that humanity is no longer the “very good” caretaker. Obvious examples are pollution, unnecessary killing of animals, and the destruction of habitat, to name a few. The introduction of animal death is not the only way to read Romans 8:19-21. A good treatment of this can be found in reference [2].

But CAT goes on to make this most curious comment, “All creation will rejoice when paradise is returned to its Creator” [1]. This is very common YEC assertion that has little to no biblical basis. In fact, it is in direct contradiction to the promises of Scriptures because Eden will not be restored. This is most evident when one considers a literal interpretation of Revelation 21-22 where John writes that this creation will all be replaced by a new and truly perfect creation- the New Heavens and the New Earth- where there is no pain a suffering unlike Eden [3].

RE: VEGETARIAN “CARNIVORES,” ORIGINALLY AND IN THE END
Many OEC and RTB contend that before and after the fall, humans were indeed to eat plants and not meat. But this has nothing to do with any lack of animal death before the fall. But more to do with human life spans. The Bible is very clear that humans lived very long life spans before the time of Abraham. Best we can tell, God had humanity eat vegetables because with human longevity reaching 900 years. Consumption of meat of such lifespan would introduce large amounts of metals and other toxins. Such metals and toxins have little impact on people should their life expectancy be 120 years or less- in fact they can be beneficial, but much longer than this, these metals would hinder the lifespan of peoples. A much more technical treatment of this topic can be found in reference [4].

Concerning the YEC aversion to animals eating other animals, God seems to have little problem with this as seen in the Creation passage of Psalm 104:20-21- “You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.” Here we learn that meat-eaters get their meat meals from God.

RE: MAN ALSO HARMLESS TO ANIMALS
Regarding human consumption of meat, I have already addressed, but the prohibition of the human consumption of meat until Genesis 9 does not mean that humans did not or were incapable of eating meats physiologically before the Noahic Covenant (Genesis 9).

RE: LATER FEAR OF MAN
According to CAT “It was not until after the Flood that animals became wary and even terrified of humans.” [1] This claim is made on the basis of Genesis 9:2-3. CAT goes on to call this a “reasonable assumption” that animals were originally created friendly and trusting of man. That does not mean that all animals before the Flood were nice, nice and buddy, buddy with humans. It is more likely that the animals on the ark (the only animals in the area at the time post-Flood) were not afraid of Noah and his family as they were taken care of and feed by them for a long period of time. It is just (if not more) reasonable to assume that God removed the fear of humans from the individual animals that came to the ark. One reason for God to do such as thing would be to ease Noah’s burden in herding, loading, and caring for them. If this were the case, then once the ark animals were released to the wild, God again restored this “flight” instinct.

RE: GRAVEYARD CAME AFTER SIN AND THE FLOOD
CAT makes an interesting claim on page 21, that “it is clear that Adam and Eve were created in a paradise, not a graveyard of dead animals”. Actually, the clear reading of Scriptures show that Adam was created before there was even an Eden. God took the already created man and placed him in this newly created paradise (Genesis 2 with emphasis on verses 8 and 15). CAT goes on to say, again page 21, “There are volumes of excellent evidence [that all evidence of animal death in the form of fossils are a result of the Noahic flood]". Well, yes there is indeed volumes written on this thesis- but none of it is scientifically credible. Addressing the mountain of evidence against this notion is beyond the scope this is entry [5].

RE: THE JOYFUL HOPE OF CHRISTIANS
CAT makes the claim that “THE joyful hope of Christians… [will be that] one day Christ will restore the animals to being vegetarians again. Peace will once again reign” (Emphasis mine) [6]. No, -the- joyful hope of Christians is NOT that all animals will be at a “salad bar”, but that we will be with Him forever- first in reigning with Him in the Messianic Kingdom, then in the New Heavens, the New Earth, and New Jerusalem [7]. Peace will come not because animals will all be vegi-saurs, but because Satan and evil will be defeated and it will be HE that will do the reigning and not "peace" [8].

FOOTNOTES:
[1] CAT pg 20.
[2] http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/romans8.html accessed 6.30.2007
[3] Genesis 3:16- as part of the curse on humanity God tells Eve that her pain will be INCREASED in childbearing. Obviously, there was some pain before the Fall.
[4] http://www.reasons.org/resources/fff/2001issue05/index.shtml#long_life_spans (accessed 6.20.2007)
[5] A good one stop place to start would be: http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/yeclaims.html#FloodGeo (accessed 7.6.2007)
[6] CAT pg 21.
[7] Revelation 20:1-6, 21-22.
[8] Revelation 19-22.