In Eden, did we have an immune system?

[alcuin18]

This is something I’ve been thinking about lately and would like your thoughts on. In Eden, before sin entered the world, would Adam and Eve’s bodies have had the built-in mechanics our bodies have to combat disease, injury, and other causes of death? If not, how did we get them after humanity was expelled from Eden? The most logical answer seems to me that our bodies strive to live, and so after sin they continued striving to live but with more difficulty due to the effects of original sin in themselves and the world. This ‘striving to live’ includes our immune system, natural healing, etc. Do you think this works or is something else better?

God bless

 

[goout]

There is no reason to believe that nascent humanity did not have immune systems.
This is really a question for science not religion.

 

[Richca]

Yes, I would say the bodies of Adam and Eve were like our bodies which have an immune system for this system seems to be a natural part of human nature and we are descended from them. But it was through a gift of supernatural grace called the gift of original holiness and justice that God bestowed on Adam and Eve which made them immortal and impassable. And so this gift of grace would have perfected and strengthened the immune system so that it would not fail.

 

[Dan_Defender]

There is evidence in the fossil record of Paleozoic-period creatures having died of disease caused by bacteria/viruses therefore those predate us. So yes, I would think the first humans had an immune system, probably one more efficient than ours at fighting off foreign agents so it follows that their lifespan would have been longer too.

 

[Joe_5859]

Why wouldn’t they have had an immune system? If anything, they would have had a better immune system.

 

[alcuin18]

Thank you all for your replies. That and reading St. Thomas has helped me on this issue. God bless.

 

[c1949]

The Bible seems to assume that Adam and Eve had everything you would expect up to and including intelligence, memory, language, and free will.

There are philosophical games to play, like imagining that the entire cosmos was created 10 seconds ago and we possess a knowledge and memory that is just an illusion, having actually just been created.