about. Certainly it is an area where a Christian biologist can feel a bit more
comfortable coming to the theological table.
Death, Where is Thy Sting?
All of them look to You
to give them their food when it is due.
Give it to them, they gather it up;
open Your hand, they are well satisfi ed;
hide Your face, they are terrifi ed;
take away their breath, they perish
and turn again to dust;
send back Your breath, they are created,
and You renew the face of the earth.
Ps 104:27–30 Tanakh , JPS 1985When we marvel at the abundant life that has emerged on this planet,
we also see that life and death are inextricably linked—life is not possible
without death in a world of limited resources. The dynamic nature of
life/death is palpable in the above Psalm, as it is to anyone who studies
the cycle of biological life. This is very well illustrated in Life Everlasting,
Bernd Heinrich’s masterful study of the way of death as viewed by a natu-
ral historian. 7
Terrestrial and aerial life exist largely on or very near to the surface of
the earth, and aquatic life exists in the relatively thin layer of water that
covers well over half of the planet. All this life has basic requirements
that are in short supply, so, over time, populations of anything come and
go—sometimes moving on, sometimes dying out. Even in the short term,
many of the essential resources for future generations are currently in use
to form essential parts of the current generation. If the current genera-
tions could live forever, there would be no future generations because
resources to even make their basic form, let alone sustain them, would not
be available. Life leads to death which leads to life.
We can ask more specifi cally why organisms cannot live forever.
Biologically speaking, the answer is quite simple. If reproduction (and
change over time) are to be part of the story, then any species with unnat-
urally long-lived populations would simply overwhelm all other species.
If reproduction is part of the equation, death is too. In addition, cells
of eukaryotic organisms have mitochondria (derived from bacteria) that
do the dangerous work of managing high energy electrons that allow all
300 B. K. (BEV) MITCHELL