Young Earth Creationism Destroys the Faith of Young People - Don't Let it

[AllenWitmerMiller (Semi-Expired Professor & Minister.)]

@TGLarkin

With regard to death not existing prior to the sin of Adam, Paul makes it very clear in Romans and 1Corinthians that the Bible is talking about spiritual life and spiritual death. Paul clearly states that where Adam brought death, Jesus brings life.

Indeed.

Important Greek language distinctions between biological life (BIOS) and spiritual life (ZAO) tend to be lost in English language Bible translations because the word LIFE in English has a very wide semantic domain and encompasses these and other kinds of life (e.g., that of the Greek word PSUCHE, referring to the “soul-life” of every human: the emotions, the mind, the will.)

I explored these linguistic/exegetical factors in my post last November at:

Are Plants Alive?

This Creationist 419 Scam article also refers to a Sensuous Curmudgeon article which skewers Institute for Creation Research for a Henry Morris article about how “plants are not alive” and so, he reasons, there was no death (via plant death) before the fall when Adam and Eve ate plants because plants aren’t alive: I enjoy a lot of the SC articles but this is another one where SC (and DreadTomatoAddiction) doesn’t really grasp what underlies Morris’ argument—in part because Morris does such a poor job of articulating it. Here’s the linguistic situation in a nutshell: It is TRUE that the ancient Hebrews didn’t consider plants alive in the sense that we do, and didn’t think they were subject to death like humans and animals. SC makes fun of the idea that plants aren’t just as alive as animals but he is applying English language (and Indo-European languages in general, for the most part) and cultural perspectives as if they are the final standard of categorization. When translati…