Hi Coder,
Notice that Genesis 1 says:
28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth…
15 And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. "
I think the word ‘subdue’ indicate that Adam was called to rule and impose something of the rest of creation. Why would he need to ‘subdue’ something if everything si perfect already? I think he reign is about making things perfect or maintaining them perfect. Because it seem that both man and beasts at least seem to have been created at about the same ‘day’.
In the next quote, ’ keep it’ seem to indicate that Eden was a sort of ‘headcarters’…an area that was safe already and from where he was supposed to reign. This seem to make sens to me because soon, the ennemi attacked him there, and got him to be kicked out of there and himself be dominated by the sin.
I am basing myself to the fact that Adam and Eve were ‘immaculate’ when they were created and there around them, a serpent which was defiant already against God had obviously fallen from ‘grace’ if we may say so.
When Scripture say that death entered the world through Adam, you are right, I think things gets complicated here.
This is what I think:
Adam and Eve when they were created where not as ‘material’ as we are today. Remember that our nature today is a fallen nature. So even before Dinosaur’s came and died out, may be the ‘man’ of Genesis 1&2 was there.
Also the rest of creation visible creation nature is a ‘fallen’ nature which is way it is corruptible and is going to destruction.
His Sin causing the corruption of the world could be explained as a guard failing to protect a particular domain he is charged to protect and a virus entering the domain and start the destructive process.
Notice how corruptions seem to have propagated, trees, animals, woman, man → FALL. The Fall had not been in effect until the man sinned. Again this is a picture a battle, it starts around the border and progresses to the capital city, and we say that battle is won when the city has fallen.
This means that if man had not fallen, there were a chance to make things perfect again by man by following the command and thus obtain eternal life.
One mystic suggests that in the Glory Be prayer, the ‘kingdom’ refers to the visible universe and it was given to man. The other two (glory and power) are for the ‘Seven Spirits’ and the angels respectively. So Adam was made King and was charged to protect this kingdom from the fallen angels.
Here is a quote from the CCC. I think man is related to the rest of the material universe in a particular way in a such a way that he infuences them. After all so far all creatures animals, trees, minerals, etc seem to bow before man, we still have to check with the rest of the universe…
And we know that great saints and prophets were able to make even wild beasts behave like lambs. So I don’t think it should be hard to imagine a perfect (or perfectable -by man) ‘VISIBLE’ universe before the fall of Man.
364 The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:232
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. 233.
God bless
