I really don’t take scripture as a science book. It’s pretty clear that lions ate antelopes long before men appeared. That makes the meaning of the scripture passage something other than all animals were vegetarians. (Church doctrine is that truth doesn’t contradict truth) What is the actual literal sense what meaning was the sacred writer wishing to convey?
This may be a passage whose meaning we don’t have at present. One meaning we do have is that death doesn’t stop good from being good. Creation is good in it’s being.
“It’s pretty clear that lions ate antelopes long before men appeared.”
And the documentation of that is ... ?
What is the essential difference between the argument you offer here and that which any atheist could offer?
I would submit that when it comes to Christian doctrine, whether Catholic or Protestant (a term I don’t particularly favor), you are not particularly conversant.
I really am at a loss to understand this way of thinking. It seems you're just unable to read the words and take them for what they mean. Why? Because they upset a secular theory that atheists rejoice over? Because you think God isn't capable? It's a mystery to me.
As I posted earlier, the Bible contains many different literary styles. Genesis is written as a straightforward historical account. Jesus confirms this twice. Did He lie? Was He confused that day? Trying to trick us? What?
Throw out the creation account, and you can throw out the rest of the Bible, because it's all meaningless. The sin that man brought into the world in the garden never happened, so there's no need for Jesus's redemptive act on the Cross. Evolutionary teaching eliminates all of that.
Ever since Darwin came up with that mess, atheists have exulted over its negation (or so they think) of the foundations of Christianity. Doesn't that kind of hint to you that it's the wrong side for Christians to be on?
The beauty of it is, you don't have to try and wring torturous meanings out of Genesis. God gave it to us to bear witness to His majesty and His creative genius. His intention was not to trick us.
I'm not sure of the location---I'd have to do a search---but somewhere in the Bible is instruction to believe God's wisdom over that of man. I'm aware that refusal to accept evolutionary theory makes me a toothless hick snakehandler in the eyes of some "intellectuals." I couldn't care less.
Here is the scripture that supports the idea that the animals were vegetarian prior to the fall and will be again after the final judgement.
Isaiah 65:25
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD. (NASB)