Could Adam and Eve Smell Death?

Humans have the ability to smell a variety of toxic substances. Our noses are especially good at detecting the unpleasant odors and sometime toxic gasses released from decaying flesh. These include but are not limited to: ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methyl mercaptan, and putrescine. Practically speaking, and more to the point: This seems odd if we are to believe that we were created for a world where death did not exist. Into this perfect world, where there was no death, God introduced genetically perfect people: The goodness didn't last long, And, we are told, our genetics have been going downhill ever since: This view does not seem to allow for biological improvements, such as those which might be needed to detect, identify, and give warning of the heretofore unknown odor of death.The olfactory system is biologically sophisticated; and the ability to smell death has considerable survival value. If our present olfactory system is a deterioration of what went before, then what went before would be even more marvelous. Biology Pages; and OlfactionIf we assume that the couple in the Garden were 'genetically perfect' and that the 'fall' led ONLY to death and decay, then it seems safe to assume that Adam and Eve had the ability to smell death and decay.If the couple in the Garden could smell death; and if human powers have only deteriorated ever since,then, And what does that imply about God's plan for humanity?db Edited for spelling, format and some content.This message has been edited by doctrbill, 05-01-2005 01:48 PM

I don't know if A&E could, but Lynerd Skynerd wrote a song about it.I like the topic, Doc. But I'll be surprised if you get any good answers.

Hi Coragyps.I don't know which Skynerd song you are talking about. Was it a hit?My first choice for the topic title was "A Whiff of Death" because I wanted to discuss our ability to detect lethal gasses, but then it began to look like I had bitten off more than I could chew. Besides, there are lethal gasses we cannot smell; sniffing lethal gasses isn't exactly an everday experience for most people, AND; Isaac Asimov has written a murder mystery with the same title ("A Whiff of Death").Then it hit me: Many of the gasses which we think of as poisonous are byproducts of organic decay. And organic decay, whether simple compost or messy road-kill, is a consequence of death.And ... I believe everyone knows that smell.db

"That Smell" -a pretty big hit.It's interesting, too, which poisons we can't smell. Carbon monoxide comes to mind first, but it may be that mammals and humans don't sense it because it's normally accompanied by the smell of burning out in nature. Clean combustion like that of natural gas is a mighty recent innovation.It's equally odd that we can smell things like arsine (arsenic trihydride) or phosgene that are very rare/absent in "natural" surroundings. Hmmmm.

The olfactory sense is truly marvelous. Have you looked at the links I provided in the opening post? I found "olfactory theory" especially fascinating.I agree that our ability to smell, or not smell, deadly things seems to make little sense. As you point out: we can smell arsine (manmade) but not carbon monoxide (natural). Odder still is the fact that some of deadliest smell good: like almonds (cyanide), or garlic (arsine).

What an interesting post!One thing you might not know is that, in human beings, genes involved in the olfactory system are amongst the most rapidly evolving. This was worked out by comparing orthologous gene trios between mice, humans and chimps, and identifying the genes that changed most along the human lineage in comparison to the other two lineages. The idea was to identify genes that have been under positive natural selection since the origin of human beings.Many of the genes were unsurprising - i.e. related to brain function and vocalization, and the immune system. But many olfactory genes showed high levels of adaptive evolution since humans' divergence from chimpanzees. I don't know of any explanation for this pattern.Mick

Well, as to AIG, they tend to try to put THEIR words in GOD's mouth. LOLThe Bible says he looked on things and they were Good. Not perfect, that is never claimed or even hinted at.The connection with smelling and death is also not very well supported Biblically, after all, the fruit of the TOK must have smellled pretty good or Evie would have turned her vute little button nose up at the thought of trying it."Euwee", Eve said to the serpent,"that smells to High Heaven" simply does not appear in Genesis.And in nature, the smell of death depends on the critter smelling. Humans may avoid the smell of death now, but it's highly likely that in an earlier phase of our lineage the reaction might have been far more like the Komodo Dragon.Lunch!

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Thanks. Can you think of any reason why that might be? In what ways are these differences manifest? Is there anything that we can smell better than the chimps do? (aside from our own peculiars set of body odors)?db

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Theology is the science of Dominion.
- - - My God is your god's Boss - - -

TOK can`t have been a durian, then.An alternative theory could be that the story of Genesis is on the nose.

You noticed that? Very good, even. I believe that is correct. "Perfect" is in the eye of the beholder. Yes? The perfect mate for Shrek would not be the one for me. Oh pardon. It was 'Adam,' wasn't it. I sometime get my fables confused. Right on. To a Serengeti scavenger the scent of bleaching bones would spell: "Leftovers for Dinner."So did God tweak our genes as we left the garden? Did he speed up evolution so we could recognize the scent of a fallen world and cash in on our share of rancid marrow?

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Theology is the science of Dominion.
- - - My God is your god's Boss - - -

Thou askest moi? ROTFLMAOHey, as I read Genesis I find NO indication that there was not death in the Garden and some pretty positive indicators that there WAS death in the Garden. So I think the whole discussion is simply silly.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

I imagine you sitting at a computer in the nose of a bullet train on autopilot, flying across the outback in the pitch dark, with nothing better to do than think up funnies. Hmmmm.Hope there aren't any passengers back there counting on you to watch where they are going.Getting a bit rummy myself. Going on the fifteenth hour of my day.db

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Theology is the science of Dominion.
- - - My God is your god's Boss - - -

Nah, DB, this world is such a screwed-up place with so many claiming "I, and only I, am right', that I have to keep a sense of humour or succumb.

It may have to do with the greatly increased role of visual cues - the binocular, full-color vision that we great apes enjoy. Using sight more maybe meant less need for smell. The vomeronasal organ or VNO, which is somewhere between a taste and a smell sensor in monkeys, is apparently non-functional in great apes/humans, and has a bunch of pseudogenes associated with it, just like the purely "smell" sense does. Maybe seeing that a female is ready to mate has just displaced having to "smell" that she is with your VNO.

Of course it's silly. This is "light entertainment" as one of the local gods has put it. Now we are getting some air under our wings. Go on, Go on, Do tell ...

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Theology is the science of Dominion.
- - - My God is your god's Boss - - -