Population Control

[lazarus]

If Adam and Eve had not sinned and they multiplied and replenished the earth, how would the population have been controlled? Since there would have not been any death the earth would have eventually become overcrowded, right? What am I missing?

[Gordon1]

If Adam & Eve had remained subject (obedient) to God, He could have kept all things in balance - hormones, desire, fertility, reproduction - by a still small voice: 'this is the way, walk ye in it.'

It's even questionable if the earth is presently overcrowded. But it's a fact that populations are very poorly distributed, jammed into pockets (cities) while enormous tracts of productive, habitable land haven't a soul. But even Iceland can sustain a population.

Industrialization in its present state would not have arrived, because it's self destructive to humankind, requiring selfishness, inequality, slavery, exploitation, pollution, war, greed, etc.

[CoAspen]

SDA's have this belief that other inhabitable worlds exist. As we continue to learn from Hubble and other types of Tele's, space/universe contains an unknown number of galaxies which contain unknown numbers of star systems, so perhaps travel to and mixing with the rest of the universe of life would have been a way of expansion. I do not believe they would have been limited to this speck of rock!

[Tom Wetmore]

I think that creative process was never intended to end and an important aspect of being created in God's image is the ability to create/recreate. I also think more new worlds would be created in which the population overflow could go and inhabit.

[teresaq]

Question. What if God had decided that the earth had been populated enough and that sex had to come to an end?

[Bravus]

I guess, though, that with zero death, over an infinite amount of time you end up having an infinite amount of humans... Even if the rate of increase is only 2-4 every thousand years, as it was in the beginning, even so given infinite time you end up with an exponential increase.

A related question is that this universe is likely to be quite inhospitable for life in another 10-15 billion years as it burns out... what happens to those living eternally then? Even if they were unfallen...

[Planey]

If they were unfallen...??

Will they end up undead?

Graeme

[lazarus]

Bravus, did you mean to say universe or earth? Could it be that our "fallen world" perspective distorts the reality of the universe we see? Could it be, for example, that the speed of light is slower is our fallen part of the galaxy?

[lazarus]

[Re: the end of sex...]

That would have been the other Great Disappointment.

[phkrause]

Interesting question Lazarus. I have thought about that on a number of occasions and have always come up with the same answer! I have no idea! LOL

[Bravus]

Earth about 10 billion years, I believe, but universe not a whole lot longer. I mean, even if it was 100 billion, or a trillion, it's *still* nothing in relation to eternity.

[Bravus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe