Death enters the world due to sin. Regardless of whether there was spontaneous creation or development of species as through evolution, the Church teaches that death enters the world because of sin. Had Adam and Eve remained faithful, our first parents would either have never known death or it would have been as merely opening a door and walking from one room to another. Human rebellion would cost us preternatural gifts and usher forth suffering, sickness and dying. It is a crucial hallmark of Christian anthropology, that these dark mysteries are not the result of the divine active will, but rather of his passive will— God makes space for the misuse of human freedom. While he does not preserve us from the consequences of sin, he does not forget us and makes a promise of redemption.
After the fall, our first parents hide themselves in shame of their nakedness. They forfeit their profound union with God. An awareness that raised them ahead of all other creatures of material creation was accompanied by a duty or responsibility to honor the Almighty. However, their love and fidelity fall short. Eve falls to the serpent and Adam is emasculated in complying with the demand of Eve. They would remain stewards of creation but as deeply flawed sentinels in a now broken world. The sin of our first parents brings about a woundedness to all creation. The bridge collapses between heaven and earth. It would only be in Christ our “pontifex” that the bridge would be restored, albeit in the form of a cross. While hope remains, our pilgrimage would henceforth include struggle and suffering. The actions of Adam and Eve do not mean merely death to a few but death to many. As in any mortal sin, they are stripped of sanctifying grace. This is still how we enter the world and why faith and baptism are so essential. Another lesson learned is that just as the cost of original sin is passed down to every child of humanity save Mary; all sin, even the most personal and hidden, touches others because we then cannot witness as the saints we should be. Indeed, one of the imperatives for the sacrament of penance is that we might be healed as members of the mystical body, the Church. The sin of any one of us is a cause of diminishment for all. We are called not simply as individuals but as a new People of God or New Israel.
Compounding the gravity of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is that within their intense intimacy with God comes a heightened awareness of intellect, sometimes referred to as infused science. Not only have we lost this supernatural gift, but today many seem to possess only a vague appreciation of human nature and our true place in the world. Consciences are numbed to the truth about the sanctity of human life and the dignity of persons— divine light is displaced by a satanic darkness. Every school kid is aware of this loss because learning often does not come quickly and requires constant study and repetition to store information in memory. What should be easy becomes difficult or arduous.
Original sin also strips away our sense of integrity, making us capricious and prone to the urging of concupiscence. It is hard to do the good and easy to do the bad. The symphony of harmony in us and in creation is disrupted. The fruitful blessings of the garden would be traded for the struggle of the arid wastes— men would toil for their food and women would know the pains of childbirth.
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Blogger Priest 
1. The basic premise of Christian anthropology is that death enters the world through sin. This does not mean that there would have been no transition to a higher form of life, only that death as we know it would not exist. I shared the analogy that had mankind not fallen from grace then death would likely have been as easy as opening a door and moving from one room to the next. This appreciation comes from my theological formation under Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, O.P. This is somewhat speculative because Adam and Eve did commit Original Sin and we have no direct experience of preternatural gifts or how things might have been otherwise.
2. A distinction is made between the active divine will (only toward the good) and the passive will that makes room for human freedom and the possibility of moral evil.
3. While we speak of Adam’s sin, the crucial encounter and dialogue with the demonic is between “the woman” Eve and the serpent or Satan. Later God will confront them both. Genesis intentionally portrays Adam as one who has humiliated himself. “The man replied, ‘The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.’ The LORD God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, ‘The snake tricked me, so I ate it’” (Genesis 3:12-13). While Eve was no doubt intimidated by the monstrous serpent, i.e. dragon, Adam is portrayed as one led astray by his spouse. Yes, it might seem sexist, but the fault still arguably weighs heavier upon Adam— coming across as wimpish instead of being the MAN he is called to be.
4. Infused science literally means an innate knowledge that comes along with our nature and is not learned. Philosophers have sometimes argued about this with some claiming that we come into the world as a “tabula rasa” or clean slate. However, I would argue that we do possess certain instincts and natural drives. Indeed, I would say that we are hard-wired for God. An example of infused science in nature would be bees. They can communicate through dance to other bees and yet they never went to school. Mary would arguably have possessed some element of ancient, infused science, given that she was preserved from original sin.
5. While all minds suffer from the veil of sin and ignorance, some are more clouded than others. Pope Leo XIII Formation, prayer, and grace can open us more fully to the truth. I suspect that glorified men after the resurrection will see all things clearly and with perfect recall. What was lost in the beginning of human history will be granted humanity. A gift lost will be restored. We will have both experiential knowledge and whatever infused science that God wants to share with us.
As an aside, I am reminded of an incident in 1884 where Pope Leo XIII collapsed after celebrating Mass. Many thought him dead, but he awakened pale and shaken. He had a vision of Satan boasting that if he were given a century of liberty, he could bring down the Church. Affirming the survival of the Church just as he had praised the fidelity of Job, the Lord accepted the challenge. Knowing that the devil would cloud minds and numb hearts, both to the honor owed God and to the love of neighbor, the good Pope composed the prayer to St. Michael to be recited at the end of Masses.
6. The promise given after the fall is fulfilled in Christ, but the consequences are not yet undone— suffering, sickness, and death. When I ponder the primordial fall, I am shaken by how far the great have fallen— and that we make their rebellion our own in all our sins, great and small. All of creation is disrupted and the Creator must plant himself on a dead tree to save us. Incredible!
If you are such a good person, than why won’t you answer my question. I have asked you 6 times and you just ignore me. Maybe this attitude is the reason why the you are losing more people than getting new ones.