WAS THERE ANIMAL DEATH FROM THE BEGINNING AS NATURAL SELECTION CLAIMS?

My Letter to a Theistic Evolutionist who claims that animal death and the survival of the fittest (natural selection) had been part of God’s original creation:

“There are many indications that God had intended that there would be no animal death. For one thing, animals had been created as herbivores:

·       Genesis 1:29-31 (ESV) And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

It was never intended that God’s “very good” plan would require man or animals to eat other animals. Such death was inimical to God’s ultimate plan which would restore creation to its original deathless state (Acts 3:21):

·       Isaiah 11:9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 65:25)

Had the species been evolved through a Darwinian process of the survival of the fittest, the idea of the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21) to natural selection would have been a gross and unsatisfying promise. Instead, natural selection was never part of God’s original plan. Instead, animal death was introduced at the Fall:

·       Genesis 3:14  The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.”

As a result of the Fall, “all beasts of the field” would be under the curse for “all the days of [their] lives.” This suggests that the curse would also terminate their lives. This is something that Romans had also affirmed:

·       Romans 8:19-22 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected [by God] to futility, not willingly, but because of him [God] who subjected it, in hope [of something greater] that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption [including death] and obtain the freedom [from death and decay] of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

I understand that you don’t see things this way. Perhaps you need to reconsider how your evolutionary paradigm might have blinded you to what Scripture has been plainly communicating.”