Old Earth vs Young Earth in the Bible
Does the Bible allow a free exploration of the natural evidence?

1. Old Earth astrophysicist, Hugh Ross explains that all of creation is on a pilgrimage towards perfection which will be at the second coming. At the beginning, God's design includes the death of plants and animals. This may be consistent with Biblical hermeneutics which shows this pilgrimage in weird things like how "God hardened Pharaoh's heart", even though it caused the death of all of Egypt's first born, and the death of many plants and animals via the plagues. By the time we get to the end of the Bible there will be no death.
2. Human death entered as a result of sin. Perhaps animal death seems unavoidable since carnivores are designed to only eat meat, evidenced by their incisors.
3. Or, natural death (even human death) isn't a punishment at all, but only spiritual death. Death could have existed before Adam was alive due to the tree of life in the garden.
4. There may be other explanations.

Proverbs 8

The Lord created me at the beginning[b] of his work,[c]
    the first of his acts of long ago.
23 Ages ago I was set up,
    at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
    when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,
    before the hills, I was brought forth—
26 when he had not yet made earth and fields,[d]
    or the world’s first bits of soil.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there,
    when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
    when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
    so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30     then I was beside him, like a master worker;[e]
and I was daily his[f] delight,
    rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
    and delighting in the human race.

32 ‘And now, my children, listen to me:
    happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise,
    and do not neglect it.
34 Happy is the one who listens to me,
    watching daily at my gates,
    waiting beside my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life
    and obtains favour from the Lord;
36 but those who miss me injure themselves;
    all who hate me love death.’

 

Job 38-39

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

2 ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up your loins like a man,
    I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

4 ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
    Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
    Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
    or who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
    and all the heavenly beings[a] shouted for joy?

8 ‘Or who shut in the sea with doors
    when it burst out from the womb?—
9 when I made the clouds its garment,
    and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed bounds for it,
    and set bars and doors,
11 and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
    and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

12 ‘Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
    and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
    and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal,
    and it is dyed[b] like a garment.
15 Light is withheld from the wicked,
    and their uplifted arm is broken.

16 ‘Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
    or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
    or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
    Declare, if you know all this.

19 ‘Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
    and where is the place of darkness,
20 that you may take it to its territory
    and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21 Surely you know, for you were born then,
    and the number of your days is great!

22 ‘Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
    or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble,
    for the day of battle and war?
24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
    or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

25 ‘Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain,
    and a way for the thunderbolt,
26 to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
    on the desert, which is empty of human life,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land,
    and to make the ground put forth grass?

28 ‘Has the rain a father,
    or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb did the ice come forth,
    and who has given birth to the hoar-frost of heaven?
30 The waters become hard like stone,
    and the face of the deep is frozen.

31 ‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
    or loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season,
    or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
    Can you establish their rule on the earth?

34 ‘Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
    so that a flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
    and say to you, “Here we are”?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,[c]
    or given understanding to the mind?[d]
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
    Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38 when the dust runs into a mass
    and the clods cling together?

39 ‘Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
    or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
    or lie in wait in their covert?
41 Who provides for the raven its prey,
    when its young ones cry to God,
    and wander about for lack of food?

39 ‘Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?
    Do you observe the calving of the deer?
2 Can you number the months that they fulfil,
    and do you know the time when they give birth,
3 when they crouch to give birth to their offspring,
    and are delivered of their young?
4 Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open;
    they go forth, and do not return to them.

5 ‘Who has let the wild ass go free?
    Who has loosed the bonds of the swift ass,
6 to which I have given the steppe for its home,
    the salt land for its dwelling-place?
7 It scorns the tumult of the city;
    it does not hear the shouts of the driver.
8 It ranges the mountains as its pasture,
    and it searches after every green thing.

9 ‘Is the wild ox willing to serve you?
    Will it spend the night at your crib?
10 Can you tie it in the furrow with ropes,
    or will it harrow the valleys after you?
11 Will you depend on it because its strength is great,
    and will you hand over your labour to it?
12 Do you have faith in it that it will return,
    and bring your grain to your threshing-floor?[a]

13 ‘The ostrich’s wings flap wildly,
    though its pinions lack plumage.[b]
14 For it leaves its eggs to the earth,
    and lets them be warmed on the ground,
15 forgetting that a foot may crush them,
    and that a wild animal may trample them.
16 It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own;
    though its labour should be in vain, yet it has no fear;
17 because God has made it forget wisdom,
    and given it no share in understanding.
18 When it spreads its plumes aloft,[c]
    it laughs at the horse and its rider.

19 ‘Do you give the horse its might?
    Do you clothe its neck with mane?
20 Do you make it leap like the locust?
    Its majestic snorting is terrible.
21 It paws[d] violently, exults mightily;
    it goes out to meet the weapons.
22 It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;
    it does not turn back from the sword.
23 Upon it rattle the quiver,
    the flashing spear, and the javelin.
24 With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground;
    it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
25 When the trumpet sounds, it says “Aha!”
    From a distance it smells the battle,
    the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

26 ‘Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,
    and spreads its wings towards the south?
27 Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up
    and makes its nest on high?
28 It lives on the rock and makes its home
    in the fastness of the rocky crag.
29 From there it spies the prey;
    its eyes see it from far away.
30 Its young ones suck up blood;
    and where the slain are, there it is.’

 

Psalm 104

God the Creator and Provider

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul.
    O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honour and majesty,
2     wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
3     you set the beams of your[a] chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your[b] chariot,
    you ride on the wings of the wind,
4 you make the winds your[c] messengers,
    fire and flame your[d] ministers.

5 You set the earth on its foundations,
    so that it shall never be shaken.
6 You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they flee;
    at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
8 They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys
    to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass,
    so that they might not again cover the earth.

10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
    they flow between the hills,
11 giving drink to every wild animal;
    the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By the streams[e] the birds of the air have their habitation;
    they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
    the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

14 You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to use,[f]
to bring forth food from the earth,
15     and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
    and bread to strengthen the human heart.
16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 In them the birds build their nests;
    the stork has its home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
    the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
19 You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
    the sun knows its time for setting.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
    when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
21 The young lions roar for their prey,
    seeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they withdraw
    and lie down in their dens.
23 People go out to their work
    and to their labour until the evening.

24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom you have made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
    creeping things innumerable are there,
    living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
    and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

27 These all look to you
    to give them their food in due season;
28 when you give to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
    when you take away their breath, they die
    and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your spirit,[g] they are created;
    and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
    and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!