It therefore follows that had man never sinned he never would have died [my italics].
In our own post-Christian society, we have come to believe in a similar doctrine. But the sins are not those I learned about in my catechism as a child; the sins that cause death are not old-fashioned ones, such as avarice, sloth, gluttony, anger, lust and so on, but newer ones, such as smoking (now also an official Catholic sin), low fibre intake, lack of regular exercise, failure to take advantage of preventive measures against ill-health and ‘internalizing’ anger. Healthiness has become the new godliness.