I have written a new article responding to Rich Deem’s rebuttal of the young earth creationist argument that there was no death before the Fall on godandscience.org. If you’re interested, the article is here.

Here’s a short excerpt:
For many years now I have enjoyed the articles on godandscience.org. At the time of this essay they are celebrating 10 years on the Internet. Although I do not agree with their position on the issue of origins, I find much of their website very helpful, and I believe there is much common ground. I’m sure I’ve read through their section on young earth creationism before, but I just happened to look at it in more detail today. I would like to respond to Rich Deem’s rebuttal of the young earth creationist argument that there was no death before the Fall.

First of all, he claims that plant death is the same as animal death. It’s hard to imagine someone actually arguing this, but I suppose there is precedent for it in religions like Buddhism (some Buddhists have actually starved themselves to death to avoid “killing” vegetables). Plants do not have consciousness, and furthermore, they do not have the “breath of life” in them. The same goes for microorganisms, so there is really no problem with the “death” of these biological forms.