Why do animals die?

by ezekiel3 44 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  ezekiel3

  As an animal lover, I have some questions JWs have never dared to breach (according to a search of JW publications).

  If humans die because of inheriting Adam and Eve's sin, why do animals die? Were animals created imperfect?

  A secondary question is: If animals are indeed programmed to die, why are they often born with defects or succumb to premature death because of disease? Are not these same conditions listed as symptoms of imperfect humans?

  The only answers I have received from JWs is that animals are suffering from man's effects on the planet. This is totally bogus because the Mosaic Law mentions "lame" animal sacrifices (global warming during 1600 BC?). Of course this question applies to any Christian that believes that humas were originally perfect in Eden. Riddle me this...
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  blondie

  You may feel differently, zeke, but I don't think animals have the same intellectual capacity as humans. Most humans anyway....

  Only humans are said to be made in the image of God, have the same mental, emotional, and spiritual capabilities.

  All this is subjective based on whether you believe in a supreme being or not.

  Anmials are born with defects because of many things, environment, genetics, etc. The Bible does not say that animals died because of defects or disease before Adam and Eve sinned, but probably just from a programmed age running out. There are a lot of scientific details left out of the Genesis account.

  I no longer feel that that account should be taken too literally.

  Blondie
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  gumby

  I suppose the WTBTS answer would be to this is -..... man was the only creation created in gods image with the prospect of living forever by eating of the ' Tree of Life'. How the animals were kept from feeding on this same tree isn't explained.

  Gumby
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  jgnat

  An interesting side note, I found out that not all animals age. Land turtles don't. They can live well in to their hundreds, though they eventually die of accident or disease.
• 

  logansrun

  jgnat,

  You are saying that no land turtle has ever died of old age? Is that correct?

  B.
• 

  Narkissos

  I guess that most of the traditional Christian worldview is soluble in some knowledge of animal life (or death, sexuality, psychology, sociology and so on).
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  jgnat

  Correct, logansrun. Their organs do not age. They just grow very slowly. Until disease or accident gets 'em.
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  ezekiel3

  Good comments, but my "question behind the question" is: Doesn't this undermine the whole sin and death thing?

  (Romans 5:12) . . .That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned?. NWT

  Gumby: You are close to target, but according to Romans, death is from sin, not from abstaining from magic fruit.

  Blondie: I completely agree with you that Genesis is myth. But look at the other side of the coin. If animals were created to die, be born lame, get disease, even get "murdered" by other animals, what makes humans different?

  This is not about comparing intellengence, it is about our status as "creation". How can a human complain about disease and death as a product of Satan/sin and brush off animals exact same condition?

  Is it maybe possible that we are only just an advanced creation (evolution, or adaptation for that matter) and that "sin" and "Satan" are just constructs of our higher human logic?
• 

  ballistic

  what makes humans different?

  Well there you have it. We are animals. Ironically, what makes us "human" is our strive to be more than animals, and according to many sciences, we are different. But according to the important science of biology... we are animals.
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  jgnat

  Is turtle longevity linked to enhanced mechanisms for surviving brain anoxia and reoxygenation?

  - Lutz PL, Prentice HM, Milton SL

  Exp Gerontol 2003 Jul;38(7):797-800.

  We suggest that the processes that protect the turtle brain against anoxia and subsequent reoxygenation might also contribute to turtle longevity since many of them are linked to age related neurodegeneration. In the turtle the mechanisms for conserving ion channel function are particularly robust. The anoxic turtle brain avoids excitatory neurotransmitter toxicity by maintaining a balance between dopamine and glutamate-release and still active uptake mechanisms. In the anoxic turtle brain the inhibitory tone is strengthened through a sustained rise in extracellular GABA, and a corresponding increase in the density of GABA(A) receptors. The turtle has enhanced mechanisms that protect against the formation of ROS and mechanisms to protect from ROS damage. As many of these may be selectively activated during anoxia and recovery, the turtle could serve as a useful model to identify and investigate mechanisms for activating key protection and rescue mechanisms implicated in aging.

  http://www.arclab.org/medlineupdates/abstract_12855290.html