Your logic escapes me. Just becuase the bible says "the wages of sin is death" does not mean that death does not occur any other way.
How does sin enter into the fact that a tree gets struck by lightning, falls and dies. Did the tree "sin"?
The fact that life forms died before the evolution of mankind does NOT mean that "Christ died for nothing". I fail to see the link in your logic.
If I tell a small child "You will burn your finger if you stick it into a lighted match" does not mean that is the ONLY way he can burn his finger.
Likewise - death can occur from OTHER reasons than sin. So your whole arguement falls apart.
I have no problem in believing in God and believing in evolution. They are NOT mutually exclusive. In fact - I think that people who refuse to believe in evolution are doing God a diservice. He can do anything - including planning and creating the system of evolution. Give Him some credit!
>.How does sin enter into the fact that a tree gets struck by lightning, falls and dies. Did the tree "sin"? <<
Atually you are missing the whole foundation of this sin thing. All of creation is suffering for the sin of man.
On a side note, the climatic conditions before the fall of man were such that lightning was probably very unlikely. You also have to be careful about taking some phrases too literally. I don't mean like bible thumpers do, I mean like where the bible calls insects "four footed" proves it is a bunch of hooey. It is attemting to pick at irrelevant nits. When the bible speaks of death, I can only assume it means what a reasonable man would think of - it would preclude clumps of grass, etc.
Notice my posts were in 3rd person. I do not identify these beliefs as mine. I merely answered the question as to why some get so exercised over evolution. They believe it negates Christ's redemptive death.
In that belief system, prior to the fall, there was no death at all from anything. Viruses and bacteria would have been happy little symbiots, not lethal organisms.
Sin broke something and allowed death to enter perfect creation. From the moment of original sin, creation started to age and malfunction and death began to occurr.
to analyze Valpall's argument further: if we accepted his argument, we would also have to say that if ANYONE died before Christ was born would mean that Christ died for nothing (which clearly makes no sense); this in turn would lead to the conclusion that none of the people who died in the old testament had really died!
if his argument disproves evolution, it also disproves the old testament!