How do we define “natural” in your “natural end to a person?” Redemption, restoration, and resurrection are all about a return to some previous state. Therefore, which is natural? Is it what fallen men can expect or is it the result of Paul’s description of a resurrection to an imperishable spiritual body?
To be sure, there are many alternatives – practically endless. But ad-hoc fixes are not only unsatisfying but they leave other problems requiring endless series more ad-hoc fixes. So your suggestion is that God witholds immortality because sinful man will make a hellish world if so? I don’t get it. Seems to me, immortality will ruin the earth whether we have sin or not. And we still make the Earth a pretty hellish place without immortality.
As for the Garden of Eden, I do not believe in golems of dust and bone, magical fruit, or talking snakes. Sorry. I do think what is being told here is the story of historical people and events but with considerable symbolism. I think the names of those two trees in the garden shout symbolism louder than anything else in the Bible. And the tree of life represents a relationship with God, who is indeed the source of all life and without which an eternal existence would lack everything that would make an eternal existence worthwhile. But a relationship with God takes time to develop and is not just a matter of reaching up to pick a fruit. Thus it is explained why A&E did not eat the fruit which should have been a great deal more desirable. So what was all that at the end about a flaming sword blocking their way to the tree of life? Something to stop them from getting their hands on a fruit which will give them eternal physical life? I don’t think so! It means that the relationship with God as their parent is broken. Because God cannot associate with sin? Not hardly! Jesus demonstrated that this was not so.
There is only ONE thing that can break a parent child relationship and that is when the parent’s presence in the child’s life does more harm than good. The self-destructive habits of sin demonstrated by the behavior of A&E changed God from their best teacher into their most convenient scapegoat and excuse. The only way forward was separation. For man to live by the consequences of his own actions, they would have to accept that blaming others will get you nowhere. But ultimately, it is a no win scenario, because not only is God the source of life, but we were never meant to navigate the moral landscape of life without the guidance of God. Our creation was always about a very intimate relationship with God.
So without the resurrected spiritual body connected to the source of life what can we expect? Not only an existence without that which makes existence worthwhile, but there are also our sins which are a degenerative spiritual disease and without their removal we can only expect a downward spiral into evil and the destruction of everything of value within us. Thus my alternative to ECT is ECTPDA or eternal conscious torment with possibly diminishing awareness as we are devoured by our sins.