Why do people die, what kind of benevolent God would allow it to happen, especially when the justification is that some bloke four thousand years back ate an apple, apparently, after being created by a God who gave him the kind of character which meant he was always going to eat the d*mn apple.

God gave him that choice and it was for all of us eve disobeyed and ate it...
If she hadn't we would not be living in the wold we do today, everything would be different have you thought about that?It would be a sinless world.
But instead of asking why maybe you should just live with the fact that its never going to change and give it all to the Lord.

We do not really die.

I agree with Jesushelper on this one,although our physical selves die our souls go on into another life.
I believe Adam and Eve(peace be upon them both) were forgiven for their mistakes by the Almighty when they repented.

And I don't believe people being born with sin,all of us are born pure and as we grow older we sin on our own and each of us will be judged according to each one's actions.

That's right. We just leave this planet ;)

Everything living dies... that is the cycle of life... the cycle of aging. This is an immutable truth of Creation.

Many people cannot face the reality of death and prefer to believe in religions that forecast a life after death.

Actually we become part of the planet. :p

If people's bodies didn't die then we'd have a whole lot of problems. You think it's crowded now.

Can you imagine living forever, I can't. We are put on this earth for a relatively short time, everyone has an impact, some positive, some negative. What we do with our lives is up to us, and hopefully when we die we will have left a mark. Death is part of life, you can't have one without the other, the rewards are great if you live a good life. I can't wait to see my parents again, and I believe I will.

Haha yes indeed. Worm food!

The vehicle has a short life-span but the driver lives forever :)

So true, the issue is that you are trying to judge God, which can not happen since you are viewing it though sinful thoughts and minds.
Is it fair, well God made and created us, we are his and he deserves full worship and devotion, so is it fair that we don't? But the main thing is that man ages, our bodies die because sin entered the world. So you need to blame the real problem, which is sin.

It is God's kindness to us. Eternal life would be unbearable without the grace of God. Therefore since man chose to sin, God removed the Tree of Life so that man would have a temporary time of suffering in that sin, instead of an eternity of suffering:

“Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life, because of sin ... began to experience the burden of wretchedness in unremitting labour and unbearable sorrow. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing”[6]. A little earlier, Ambrose had said: “Death is, then, no cause for mourning, for it is the cause of mankind's salvation”[7].
"Spe Salvi" - Encyclical Letter of His Holiness Benedict XVI on Christian Hope

Sincerely,

De Maria

That was a post De Maria.

I was thinking about God giving us free will. The choice to be obedient or not.
It gives more glory to God to be able to freely choose to love and serve Him, rather then to just uncontrollably obey.

I we were controlled, love for God would be impossible. Only with knowledge of good and evil can we have freedom to choose good. The responsibility to respond to God's offer of everlasting life is ours. The ball is in our court.

The body we are born into is the vehicle we use whilst we are living on earth ( our earthly body) it will have various differing life spans, depending sometimes on the life we use it for, e.g. smoking, achohol abuse, drugs and so on, it is said that the effects of the aforementioned will shorten the body's life.

There are of course illness and decease which will have the same effect, also accidents, be it traffic or some other tragedy which again will shorten the bodies life.

However it is said that the human body life span is 3 score years and 10, which means the body should live a minimum of 70 years... we all know most go on for much longer all being well...

When it has served us for many years ( hopefully) it is then discarded as it has no further use, our life then becomes a spiritual one which is set free when we leave our earthly vehicle behind.

As for the tragedies in the world,well... that's a whole new discussion, many are mans fault, whilst others are simply changes within the elements of this earth, you could say it's the earth groaning for the way we abuse it!

I would be interested in seeing some *proof* for all the outrageous fantasies posted here since my last post in this thread!!

Creative writing at its worst. :)

Actually Choux it was your post that had the one error in it, death was not part of creation, there was no death at creation or after it, until sin entered the world. It was only after sin became part of earth that death then became part of it also.

And then one has to divide up the physcial and spiritual death,

Chuck, Where is your *proof* for anything you say?. it is all wishful thinking.

All living creatures die, that is the cycle of life... birth, life, death.
Ashes to ashes dust to dust.
There is no proof of a supernatural. :)

The truth does not depend on your believing it in order to be true.

Life is itself, supernatural. Spirit means life. It is precisely "super" natural, that is greater than the natural, because it animates and gives meaning to the natural. And no man has yet been able to create life. The best they can do is admit its existence in their own bodies and in the bodies of other living creatures by secondary observance of its effects on the material flesh which it animates.

So, unless you can prove that "life" is not "supernatural", that is, unless you can prove that life is not a "spiritual", "ethereal" principle which is greater than the material flesh which it animates, you are looking at the proof of the supernatural when you look at yourself in the mirror.

Sincerely,

De Maria

I agree to many answers above... death is there because this life is not eternal... the real life begind after death (the hereafter).. which depends upon ones good deeds. Something like a test periode.. or labour periode.. one works hard to be compensated at the end of the day/test. Also.. death is there so as not to forget (and not be fooled with life)... that this is not a real life because it is not permanent, every one is here for a short life span.