Nature and the Fall

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On reflecting upon the nature of man, his Fall, and our relation to the created world, I have come to a disturbing train of thought.

•The world around us, while exhibiting great beauty, is nevertheless cruel: life must for the most part consume other life in a never-ending cycle of competition. Most offspring die, and the few that survive will in all probability die in some pain, the weak being often eliminated through predation.

•The harshness of nature is a consequence of man’s Fall – for it fell with us.

•If that is so, before our Fall nature herself was in a state of grace along with us.

•Man is a recent creation.

•If these things are so, then the whole of natural history as our science teaches us reveals a world that has been ceaselessly cruel and brutish. Nature was fallen before ever there was a disobedient man.

How then does a man of faith view this last fact? The suffering of the natural world for all the awe and wonder its complexity and beauty can inspire is a real obstacle in understanding God as Creator. Where am I in error?
 
I have wondered about this too. All I can think is that Satan was at work from before the time that mankind came into being. As to how that plays out in our linear earth time, I don’t know.
 
Animals always had bodies that die. They always were subject to the law of survival. Man had a body that was not subject to that law in the beginning. After the fall man too has a body that dies. So man is subject to the law of death. The law of survival.
 
Consider the fact that life evolved from the darkness of inconscient matter. We have come a long way and yet still have a long way to go.
 
It seems to me that nature is cruel, filled with suffering. I presume this is due to the fall. Otherwise this does not seem to be a world made by a benevolent creator.
 
For the Fall to be a consistent story (which need not be necessary I suppose) one would have to posit that the creation was not subject to decay and disharmony and that the lion did lie down with the lamb at peace.

It must then be posited that at the Fall the very fabric of the universe was wounded along with human nature. The old world was not at all the same as this world. And that difference involves something very radicle about how animals we know today used to live without eating each other for food. The notion that Eden is some lost place on earth like Atlantis is not feasible. It is something far greater than simply being a merely lost paradise on earth. it must have been a completely different world both physically and spiritually.

Then again maybe we are pressing Genesis too greatly. It is not about historical truths re the cosmos or nature or entropy, decay or the animal kingdom. It is merely about how we damaged our relationship with God and we shouldn’t get too hung up on the specifics.
 
This is close to another Theosophical matter, that of Parasitism.
Parasites are widespread among plants & animals, on land & in
the oceans. Does ANY religion have much of a theology about them ?
How to account for Rabies / TB / ear mites / bad worms / etc. ?
 
Romans 8
> 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
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Nothing is implied here that this corrupt state of creation is the result of the fall. In fact it states that it is the will of God that creation be subjected to futility. There is no implication that this is part of the fall.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
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According to St Paul, God subjected creation to futility in hope, that it will be freed from it’s bondage to decay and have the freedom of the Glory of God’s Sons… Creation groans in waiting for God to reveal His Sons. Namely The Saints in their resurrected Glory.

The theme here is creation was waiting for man to fulfill God’s purpose. God subjected it to futility and decay so that creation would share in the freedom of the Saints in Glory at the resurrection. Creation is destined from the beginning to be taken up when the Saints receive glorified bodies.

This was the plan from the beginning. Sin became an obstacle to it’s fruition. So Jesus saves us and through us creation is freed.

Adam and Eve severed the bond, disordered the proper order of, turned harmony into chaos, however you want to say it, the unity of body and soul, man and woman, human life and nature, were all disrupted when Adam and Eve broke their bond of friendship with God. The ontological change is in Man not creation.

What really changed was the human soul. It’s immortality was no longer extended to the body. Man really fell from Paradise. Paradise is a state of immortal life. Not eternal life.Jesus could say to the theif, today you will be with me in Paradise because that is a state of being in which He existed at that moment and the state of being His soul would be after His death. When Elijah and Enoch are taken up they are taken back to where their father Adam originated. A state of immortal life. A state that God never left. The mountain top of the Transfiguration.
 
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I would say they were necessary organisms. Their purpose is fulfilled in man. The primal single cell organisms, bacteria, parasites, all are necessary beings in light of their purpose in Man. Man being the pinnacle and summit of creation. Those kinds of life forms are necessary for the proper functioning of animal bodies. Mammals are a kind of life form we are. Creation has been waiting for us to fulfill our purpose so that it can receive it’s reward for fulfilling it’s own.
 
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Benadam said:
Nothing is implied here that this corrupt state of creation is the result of the fall. In fact it states that it is the will of God that creation be subjected to futility. There is no implication that this is part of the fall.
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Either interpretation is possible from a fair reading of the text.
God changed the earth when Adam and Eve fell. Nothing above contradicts that … in fact it seems more likely it is a paraphrase of what Genesis says.
 
Genesis 3:Verse 18 Commentary.

Thorns, &c. These were created at first, but they would have easily been kept under: now they grow with surprising luxuriancy, and the necessaries of life can be procured only with much labour.
 
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you
So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”
 
Nelka said:
Genesis 3:Verse 18 Commentary.

Thorns, &c. These were created at first, but they would have easily been kept under: now they grow with surprising luxuriancy, and the necessaries of life can be procured only with much labour.
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I see that as the consequences of having a body that dies. A body of death with a new law it obeys over the will. Man has to stoop down and get food from the ground when before he reached up for the fruit of trees. I like my interpretation better. That the earth changed like that is not evident and has no support scientifically or philosophically.
 
Genesis clearly states the ground is cursed because of Adam’s sin.
Every Catholic knows this as its almost mother’s milk.
Were you brought up Catholic?

Had Adam remained in God’s justice (ie Eden) he would have been immortal.
 
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