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Why do people die?
by Monkey Feet » Sun Jan 26, 2020 1:41 pm
Why do people die? If god loves people, why does he take our loved ones away from us?
- Monkey Feet
Re: Why do people die?
by jimwalton » Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:24 am
People have always been mortal. God isn't "taking your loved ones away from you"; instead, life has limitations. Everything dies. Even our sun is dying. We are told that one day life will no longer be possible on the Earth because our planet is dying (hopefully not in the next 12 years though...)
When you look in Genesis 2, you see that we've always been mortal. Humans have never been immortal. Genesis 2.7: man is made from dust. This verse is not about our material manufacture, but rather about our mortality. Dust is a symbol of death (Gn. 3.19; Ps. 103.14; Eccl. 3.20; 1 Cor. 15.47). Only God is eternal; everything else is created and therefore is not eternal. Humans, too; we all die. It has nothing to do with God's love or Him being cruel.
In a book by Richard Swinburne, he explains that God has reason to make a world of mortality rather than immortality.
1. If all humans are immortal, there is a certain harm (of a qualitatively different kind to other harms) that agents cannot do either to themselves or to others—they cannot deprive of existence. However much I may hate you or myself, I am stuck with you and me. And in this vital respect humanly free agents would not share the creative power of God. In refusing them this power, a God would refuse to trust His creatures in a crucial respect. To let a man have a gun, for instance, is always a mark of profound trust.
2. A world without death is a world without the possibility of supreme self-sacrifice and courage in the face of absolute disaster. The ultimate sacrifice is a sacrifice of oneself, and that would not be possible in a world without death. Supreme generosity would be impossible. So, too, would cheerfulness and patience in the face of absolute disaster. For in a world without death, the alternatives would always involve continuance of life and presumably too the possibility that others would rescue one from one’s misfortunes. There would be no possibility of absolute disaster to be faced with cheerfulness and patience.
3. A world without natural death would be a world in which an agent’s own contribution would have a seriousness about it because it would irreversible by the agent. If I spent all my 70 years doing harm, there is no time left for me to undo it. But if I live forever, then whatever harm I do, I can always undo it. But I have motivation to procrastinate such a turn, and ultimately it would seem actions wouldn’t matter without a limited time to do things right. Actions matter more where there is limited time to be budgeted.
4. A world with birth but no death would be a world in which the young would never have a free hand. They would always be inhibited by the experience and influence of the aged.
5. There must be a limit to the amount of suffering one human can inflict on another. Immortality would grant a kind of limitless power of one person over another, which would be immoral.
When you look in Genesis 2, you see that we've always been mortal. Humans have never been immortal. Genesis 2.7: man is made from dust. This verse is not about our material manufacture, but rather about our mortality. Dust is a symbol of death (Gn. 3.19; Ps. 103.14; Eccl. 3.20; 1 Cor. 15.47). Only God is eternal; everything else is created and therefore is not eternal. Humans, too; we all die. It has nothing to do with God's love or Him being cruel.
In a book by Richard Swinburne, he explains that God has reason to make a world of mortality rather than immortality.
1. If all humans are immortal, there is a certain harm (of a qualitatively different kind to other harms) that agents cannot do either to themselves or to others—they cannot deprive of existence. However much I may hate you or myself, I am stuck with you and me. And in this vital respect humanly free agents would not share the creative power of God. In refusing them this power, a God would refuse to trust His creatures in a crucial respect. To let a man have a gun, for instance, is always a mark of profound trust.
2. A world without death is a world without the possibility of supreme self-sacrifice and courage in the face of absolute disaster. The ultimate sacrifice is a sacrifice of oneself, and that would not be possible in a world without death. Supreme generosity would be impossible. So, too, would cheerfulness and patience in the face of absolute disaster. For in a world without death, the alternatives would always involve continuance of life and presumably too the possibility that others would rescue one from one’s misfortunes. There would be no possibility of absolute disaster to be faced with cheerfulness and patience.
3. A world without natural death would be a world in which an agent’s own contribution would have a seriousness about it because it would irreversible by the agent. If I spent all my 70 years doing harm, there is no time left for me to undo it. But if I live forever, then whatever harm I do, I can always undo it. But I have motivation to procrastinate such a turn, and ultimately it would seem actions wouldn’t matter without a limited time to do things right. Actions matter more where there is limited time to be budgeted.
4. A world with birth but no death would be a world in which the young would never have a free hand. They would always be inhibited by the experience and influence of the aged.
5. There must be a limit to the amount of suffering one human can inflict on another. Immortality would grant a kind of limitless power of one person over another, which would be immoral.
Last bumped by Anonymous on Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:24 am.
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