h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I stumbled onto the discussion that started about the christian fish, and quickly became a theological discussion, and you struck me as a fairly well read christian. I was wondering, does it state anywhere in the bible that man's physical body was originally intended to live forever? When God says do not eat of the Tree or you will surely die, He is talking about spiritual death and the possibilty of eternal separation from Him. Does the Bible state that the mortality of man arose from original sin? I have heard that if Adam and Eve ate of the tree of life, after they had eaten from the tree of knowledge, that they would have lived forever and been eternally separated from God. Could it be that man was never intended to have a physical body that lived forever?

I'll let ddombrow know you've posted this... he's been busy so hasn't been checking in on h2g2 much.

~Amy + (a good friend of Dan's)

Well since you have an omnipotent god who knows whats going to happen, what if scenarios are kinda hard since he knew what would happen anyway, but...

It is possible and even likely that Adam and Eve could die. I don't think from old age, but who knows??? Anyway, some Christian thinkers believe that God intended that people eat from both trees when they were ready, but they jumped the gun. So perhaps they would have lived forever regardless.

So yeah, I'm kind of avoiding the question . My answer is maybe.

Hello ddombrow! I didn't think I'd hear from you.=)
I've heard the idea that maybe they'd have been allowed to eat from the trees in time before. CS Lewis suggests it in his "Perelandra". It seems to me that if they were kicked out of the garden to keep them from eating from the tree of life, which I think the Bible says, then this would suggest that they were, at the time of eating, mortal. Mortal in the sense that they would die from old age.
I assume there are people who have given this some serious thought; I just have not sought out these books, or whatever, and occasionally play with different senarios.