> Actually, since you bring it up, they do. It's
> just not the physical type of death we are
> accustomed to associating with the word. The
> Bible continually refers to the moment Adam & Eve eat the
> forbidden fruit as "death." Death here is a spiritual death,
> a separation from God. There's two meanings to
> the word "birth," too -- a physical birth that
> we generally associate with the word, and a
> spiritual birth (or being "born again") that comes
> with returning to God by a decision of faith.
>
> I'm branching out on a tangent again, but since
> you brought it up, I figured I'd say something.


I agree, Sam; this is definitely the way that the passage has to be interpreted.

The Scriptural portrait of human beings is fascinating: here is a creature that is neither merely physical nor wholly spiritual. And the Bible likewise seems to reject the popular notion of bodies as only shells of a sort which house the "real" person. That ghostly "real" self is what most people seem to regard as surviving after death, whereas by contrast Scripture insists that bodily resurrection, not disembodied existence, is the post-mortem state of the human being.

Returning to ethics, this interpretation of the Bible has a serious impact on the way the faithful view their responsibility as stewards of the created world. We don't fully "transcend" the physical earth as pure spirits; we are firmly embodied and are meant to remain so, anchored in physical creation. There's no getting out of that kinship with the world and its non-human population. This lends a particularly evil hue to our short-sided exploitative practices: we aren't stewards in that case but ravagers of our home and our fellow creatures.

Again, I support technological discovery and advancement, and of course it does come at a cost. I've never thought of myself as a tree hugger, yet I do factor in a Scriptural kinship with the rest of creation when assessing what is and is not an "acceptable" cost. This is part of being a human, both physical and spiritual at once, and charged with stewardship over God's world. Fascinating, as I said. :-)

Iss