According to various Biblical passages, human death did not occur before human sin. Genesis 2:15-17 describes God's promise that death would follow if the first humans disobeyed him, and Romans 5:12 says human death became a part of the nature of life only after Adam and Eve sinned. It does not logically follow that if humans did not die before that point, non-human animals and other living things did not die as well; in fact, plants must have died if any herbivore ate them, meaning that for anything to eat before or after human sin, death of some creature would still be a part of the intended nature of reality, and this, like everything else about creation in its original form, was "very good" (Genesis 1:31).
A careful reader of Genesis 3 might notice something relevant to the issue in a loose sense: pain, experienced by humans, also existed before human sin according to the text itself. The only verse I have found that addresses this issue at all is part of God's pronouncement of curses upon various aspects of creation after the Fall. After the serpent is cursed to eat dust and be crushed by Eve's offspring, and before Adam is cursed with working a ground that produces unwanted growths, Eve is cursed in part by receiving greater pains in childbirth. The way her curse is phrased (Genesis 3:16) does not merely imply on a vague level that she could feel pain while giving birth already, but it contrasts a preexisting potential for pain in this context with a heightened kind of pain.
In other words, when God curses Eve after she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, he specifically says that her pain in childbirth will increase--not that she would only then experience pain while giving birth, but that pain that would have already been experienced will be increased. This passing reference to human pain before the Fall is all that is necessary to establish that the first humans had the capacity to feel physical pain, if they were not already familiar with it at that time. The ability to be physically harmed and to feel physically hurt, on what the Bible actually says, did not suddenly develop after the Fall transformed human existence. Within the framework of the first chapters of Genesis, it would have been intentional on God's part.
One ramification of this is that pain and death before the Fall are analogous to some extent. While the death of bacteria, plants, or non-human animals is not the same as human death, humans already could experience pain, which means it is likely that non-human creatures could as well, especially since at least some of the latter could already die. This might not be what some people subjectively wish was what a "very good" state of existence amounts to on the Christian worldview, and this might not at all be what many people would expect to be the Biblical stance on the matter after years of hearing evangelical Christians talk as if the Fall is the source of all misery that affects humans. Even so, it is a further affirmation of human metaphysical superiority over non-human creatures, since only they are said to bear God's image (Genesis 1:26-28).
In other words, when God curses Eve after she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, he specifically says that her pain in childbirth will increase--not that she would only then experience pain while giving birth, but that pain that would have already been experienced will be increased. This passing reference to human pain before the Fall is all that is necessary to establish that the first humans had the capacity to feel physical pain, if they were not already familiar with it at that time. The ability to be physically harmed and to feel physically hurt, on what the Bible actually says, did not suddenly develop after the Fall transformed human existence. Within the framework of the first chapters of Genesis, it would have been intentional on God's part.
One ramification of this is that pain and death before the Fall are analogous to some extent. While the death of bacteria, plants, or non-human animals is not the same as human death, humans already could experience pain, which means it is likely that non-human creatures could as well, especially since at least some of the latter could already die. This might not be what some people subjectively wish was what a "very good" state of existence amounts to on the Christian worldview, and this might not at all be what many people would expect to be the Biblical stance on the matter after years of hearing evangelical Christians talk as if the Fall is the source of all misery that affects humans. Even so, it is a further affirmation of human metaphysical superiority over non-human creatures, since only they are said to bear God's image (Genesis 1:26-28).
Not all pain is a result of sin--in the sense that not all physical or mental pain is a consequence of unjust treatment or inner moral conflict. Likewise, not all pain is a result of sin in the sense that the capacity for pain preceded sin (for humans, at least). Pains encountered through the body, even the pain of giving birth, were not outside the scope of experience despite evil having not yet become a part of human motivations and behaviors. It is actually a total misunderstanding of the Genesis account to think that it says there was nothing subjectively unpleasant about human life before the first humans sinned. There might only be one verse stating the opposite, but one is all that is needed.
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