When did death enter into the world?

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As Catholics we are free to believe that the world was created in 7 (24 hour) days literally interpreting Genesis or we can accept the Theory of Evolution provided that we ultimately believe that it is God who created the universe. My question is that if one approaches creation from a more evolutionary perspective how does one reconcile the countless deaths and survivals of organisms resulting in the Evolution of life through Natural Selection if we believe that Death did not enter the world until after the fall of Adam and Eve?

I mean to cause no person a voluntary doubt that would lead to the weakening of their faith. I believe that if we seek truth through science with humility and faith we will ultimately be lead to God.
 
We must first seek God and heaven, and all the things that are in it, with humility and faith. Science is done by men and men can be corrupted - God cannot.

Science cannot comment on the work of God. It cannot put Him in a laboratory for questioning. Science can look only for tangible things and the effects of things no longer in existence. The supernatural cannot be considered.

However, the Church has knowledge given directly by God, and this knowledge should be considered first. No one should have any anxiety over this or that scientific finding. Missing matter in the universe? Scientists created Dark Matter. Has Dark Matter been detected? Has it been measured? Why do scientists think it’s there?

There are still legitimate mysteries about the past. At any given point in history, science can only give out what it knows at the time. Atomic Bombs before 1945? No one knew if it was possible. At one time, powered manned flight was called impossible.

Peace,
Ed
 
Lead_Me_Home said:
As Catholics we are free to believe that the world was created in 7 (24 hour) days literally interpreting Genesis or we can accept the Theory of Evolution provided that we ultimately believe that it is God who created the universe. My question is that if one approaches creation from a more evolutionary perspective how does one reconcile the countless deaths and survivals of organisms resulting in the Evolution of life through Natural Selection if we believe that Death did not enter the world until after the fall of Adam and Eve?

I mean to cause no person a voluntary doubt that would lead to the weakening of their faith. I believe that if we seek truth through science with humility and faith we will ultimately be lead to God.
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Define death… depending on how you define death, that either answers your question or leaves a big gaping hole to be filled…
 
The most simple way to answer is to point out that the narrative of the first chapters of Genesis is not concerned with animals or plants–or even any pre-Adam and Eve humanoids. It is concerned with Adam and Eve --man fully in the image and likeness of God-- and all their progeny, and not any other creature or forbears.
 
Lead_Me_Home said:
My question is that if one approaches creation from a more evolutionary perspective how does one reconcile the countless deaths and survivals of organisms resulting in the Evolution of life through Natural Selection if we believe that Death did not enter the world until after the fall of Adam and Eve?
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Ignorance is bliss. If you don’t understand the contradiction, you don’t have to reconcile it and there is a contradiction. If you believe in evolution don’t think about it, that is the solution of most and it is a workable solution. In some cases the 3 monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) are a wise position. This may be one of those cases.

If you really want to think about it then follow the advice of St. Augustine and Pope Leo the XIII in his Encyclical on the study of Sacred Scripture. That advice is that unless it is proven otherwise believe what the Bible says. Evolution is far from proven so don’t believe it. There is no need to question the Bible when there is a lot more that can be questioned with evolution.
 
Fidelis said:
The most simple way to answer is to point out that the narrative of the first chapters of Genesis is not concerned with animals or plants–or even any pre-Adam and Eve humanoids. It is concerned with Adam and Eve --man fully in the image and likeness of God-- and all their progeny, and not any other creature or forbears.
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That’s too simple because the animals and the plants are talked about in the first chapters of Genesis. It doesn’t mention any pre-Adam and Eve humanoids. I wonder why.
 
[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 1:26[/BIBLEDRB]

I always wondered who US referred to in this verse. Was US the Blessed Trinity, which was not revealed until much later? Was US God talking amongst the creatures he already created? Or Both?

If the answer is both, then this could be interpreted as a description of the evolutionary hominids and precursors to ourselves. God is truly outside of time, so what’s the rush? If it is His will then God may have created countless species before man.
 
Here is the thing, Adam and Eve were free to eat of any tree in the garden well what happens when you eat fruit, you kill it. I think therefore that predation may not have preceded the Fall although I would not take this as article of faith however I think clearly that death was in the world.

However the death to God’s judgment resulting form moral culpability was not in the world because before the Fall all creation was innocent. Conservation of matter/ energy tells us that creation loses nothing when something dies but that material is reused by everything else in a repurposed fashion. It is we who think of all death as a moral defect but I don’t think God sees it that way since in His perfect Creation there was death.

God Bless
 
Lead_Me_Home said:
[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 1:26[/BIBLEDRB]

I always wondered who US referred to in this verse. Was US the Blessed Trinity, which was not revealed until much later? Was US God talking amongst the creatures he already created? Or Both?

If the answer is both, then this could be interpreted as a description of the evolutionary hominids and precursors to ourselves. God is truly outside of time, so what’s the rush? If it is His will then God may have created countless species before man.
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It is only the use of the third person as used by a sovereign.

As in this encyclical: papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12CAELI.HTM
  1. Following upon the frightful calamities which before Our very eyes have reduced flourishing cities, towns, and villages to ruins, We see to Our sorrow that many great moral evils are being spread abroad in what may be described as a violent flood.
 
Lead_Me_Home said:
[BIBLEDRB]Genesis 1:26[/BIBLEDRB]

I always wondered who US referred to in this verse. Was US the Blessed Trinity, which was not revealed until much later? Was US God talking amongst the creatures he already created? Or Both?

If the answer is both, then this could be interpreted as a description of the evolutionary hominids and precursors to ourselves. God is truly outside of time, so what’s the rush? If it is His will then God may have created countless species before man.
Click to expand...
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Gen 1:26)
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The Hebrew word used for “God” is “Elohiym” which is a 3 or more plural form of the word “God”. That is why you see “Us” and “Our” instead of “Me” and “My”. It is the first reference to the Trinity. 👍
 
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