mangled world

Young Earth Creationists hold humanity responsible for the existence of death. Most Christians now find this untenable, given modern science. But there's another reading consistent with both Christian tradition, and with modern science: Humanity isn't responsible for death existing. But humanity 𝘪𝘴 responsible for death continuing to exist—because we were given the tools to eradicate it, and we chose not to do so. In this reading, that's what is narrated to us in Genesis 1-3. Humanity was given the capacity and the calling to grow into scientific and technological knowledge. Our earliest ancestors began to do so—and had this process continued, we would live in a world where humans had complete control over the ecosystem and the biological processes of death and decay. Instead, our earliest ancestors pursued a different kind of knowledge—the knowledge of how to use violence to exert control—and embarked upon millennia of needless suffering. In Christ, Christians believe that this process has begun to be reversed. The other path has been reopened, and just as at the beginning, we are called to take it.