Applejack
03-26-2013, 08:11 PM
To me, there are three exquisite mysteries in life: birth, love, and death. All great art revolves around these themes. Many of us will experience all three in this lifetime, but only the last is universal.* Lately, for no particular reason, I've been pondering the purpose of death.
I'm not aware of a scientific explanation for death's universality. I assume, but do not know, that there is some chemical fragility underlying the basic structures of life - a ticking clock reminding us that all must pass away. Alternatively, I suppose that evolution could prefer species that die, thus allowing younger, more adapted lifeforms to thrive without competition from the old, less-adapted ones.
Religion (or rather, Christianity) is largely based around answers to death's meaning, but seems (to me at least) to lack an explanation of death's purpose. I know that Adam's sin brought death into the world, but why was that so? What purpose does death serve in God's plan? Mormonism, with its knowledge of high-level details of God's plan doesn't seem to account for this. Why couldn't God just have placed all of the souls on earth at once and tested them?
Do any theologians/scientists on this board have an answer?
* By birth, I mean the birth of offspring.
I'm not aware of a scientific explanation for death's universality. I assume, but do not know, that there is some chemical fragility underlying the basic structures of life - a ticking clock reminding us that all must pass away. Alternatively, I suppose that evolution could prefer species that die, thus allowing younger, more adapted lifeforms to thrive without competition from the old, less-adapted ones.
Religion (or rather, Christianity) is largely based around answers to death's meaning, but seems (to me at least) to lack an explanation of death's purpose. I know that Adam's sin brought death into the world, but why was that so? What purpose does death serve in God's plan? Mormonism, with its knowledge of high-level details of God's plan doesn't seem to account for this. Why couldn't God just have placed all of the souls on earth at once and tested them?
Do any theologians/scientists on this board have an answer?
* By birth, I mean the birth of offspring.