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God said, "If you eat that fruit, you can be sure you will die." It doesn't get much more clear than that. Adam ate the fruit, so he brought it on himself. Doesn't mean that God is heartless, it was 'our' choice.



This is hardly a convincing argument. At first, we want to keep this discussion on a scientific level, which excludes using bible quotes as arguments.

Second, we have besides our intellect also a basic concept of justice and fairness. According to this concept it is reprehensible to let someone else suffer for what some Adam did (of course you could say that God does not care about human concepts like justice and fairness - but this would mean that we are morally superior and not made in his image).

Third, this argument applies to humans and does not explain the ageing of almost all multi-cell species with the only exception of some very old marine species (echinoderms). If God wanted to see animals suffer also for Adam's sin, for what reason was sea cucumber spared?