Living Forever

Many people now think that it may soon be possible for human beings to live forever. I believe that they are misguided. People are always saying that in ancient times the life span was 35 years. Now the average life span is 75-80, depending on whether one is male or female and depending on the country in which one lives. "Since that age is double the ancient life span, we will soon to able to double our life span again to 150 or 200." What people do not understand is that these are statistics. It means that this is the average life span. Statistics always deal with averages. When the average life span was 35 it did not mean that no one lived to the age of 80. It actually means that many children died very young. People who survived childhood and various ailments often lived to be 80.

The Psalms of the Bible were written at least 2500 to 3000 years ago. One of the Psalms says that our life span is "70 years, 80 years if we are strong".

Psalm 90: "Lord, you have been our refuge throughout all generations;
Before the mountains were brought forth
or the earth and the world were born,
from age to age you are God...

...Our years die away like a murmur.
Seventy years is the span of our life,
eighty if our strength holds;
at their best they are but toil and sorrow,
for they pass quickly and we vanish."

That is virtually the same life span that we have today. However, the Psalmists were not writing statistically. They were saying that many people lived to be 70 or 80. They were not concerned about whether this was the average length of life. They were not familiar with statistics.

A thousand years ago, among the Christians, there were the ancient "desert fathers". These men were monks who went out into the desert, fasted, and meditated for many years. Many of them lived to be in their 90's. Two thousand years ago, James, the brother of Jesus (JAMES, THE BROTHER OF JESUS, by Robert Eisenman)is said to have lived to the age of 96. He constantly fasted and prayed. That lifestyle does not appeal to most of us. However, if we want to live a long life we could try fasting and meditating in the desert.

My great-grandmother was born in 1846 and died in 1946. She was never in a hospital. However two of her children died in infancy. If her age and that of her two children who died were averaged, they would each have had an average age of 33. This does not really mean anything though, because two of them died in infancy and one of them lived a very long life. However, this is the statistical method. Our life span has increased because there is less infant mortality. Medical care has expanded the lives of many people. However, it only lets more people live out the more normal lifespan of 70 or 80. Many people do live to be 100-120. But this is a small percentage of the population. They do seem to have some special genetic strength. If we are someday able to understand the genetics of aging, perhaps more people can live to be 100-120. At the present time, I think it is only one or two percent of the population who live to reach that age. I do not believe that anyone is ever going to live to be 200.