Secrets of Longevity

Miracles have been occurring for millennia. Evolution is one of the greatest miracles and mysteries of all. Since a second is as a thousand years to God might not an hour be as a million years. What if a million years hence by the grace of God humans with their God-given intelligence figure out how to progressively boost their longevity and one day turn off the aging of cells entirely?

If a tortoise can live to be 255 could not scientists find how to produce that longevity in humans? [*]

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* 255 year-old tortoises

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What Is the Meaning of It All?

If Intelligent Design is not responsible for the beauty and complexity of the world then it somehow came to be by pure, random chance. If that is the case then there is no essential reason for us to find ourselves existing in an improbable and inconsequential reality.



All of religion, philosophy and culture then is an honest or desperate attempt to make sense of why we are here and what it all means or might mean. Humanity might outlast the dinosaurs but if we don't, then what did it all mean and why did we bother with any of it in the first place?

Since we are here though why not get as much benefit, pleasure and mutual support from life and each other as possible?

Perhaps it's not so bad after all if you look at it that way. The challenge then becomes: how to interact with those who don't want to contribute and share the hard work that is essential to further each other's goals. Those are the evil ones. They're the ones who want to throw a wrench into the machinery.

How do we ethically deal with these flat notes in each others songs?

We accidentally were and then just as enigmatically, we could very well cease to be. Funny thing, Life?

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The Value of Cooperation in the Survival of the Fittest

"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." -- I Cor. 15:17-19

This text can mean different things to different people. It's usually glossed over. What was Paul thinking to have thrown this into the mix!

It's not the safest approach in any situation to "throw all your eggs into one basket." This text may convince some people of the essential truth of the Christianity. Others, though, may find this line of thinking too extreme.

If one loves ones brother or sister because ultimately one is hoping to enjoy the whole package--eternal life, included--then one really is to be pitied above all men.

There is value enough--and very practical value at that--in treating others with the respect that we ourselves would like to be treated. Proper ethical behavior is not copyrighted by Christians. Hindus, Buddhists and, yes, secular humanists, can and do live ethical lives.

As is sometime said, there is some advantage in altruism even in humanity's evolutionary development. Only those primates who banded together, saught out the options that would benefit the social group and put petty squabbles aside if an opposing species or tribe of primates was trying to take over their source of water or food, that were able to pass on their genes to the next generation.

As difficult as it is to swallow, there is enough value and beauty in Christianity even if this life is all that any one of us will ever know. That makes it even more crucial for us to treat each other as best as possible. We all are responsible for the most important of all human endeavors, to make this Earth as Heavenly as possible. We owe it to each other. We owe it to ourselves.

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Future Human Evolution

Future evolution human race. These words yielded an unexpected site. Space exploration astounds and delights simultaneously.

However, my interest was primarily regarding natural human evolution. For instance, if one were to study natural developments of the fossil record with special focus on primate evolution, what would be probable results for homo sapiens 1 million years hence. Of course any number of variables could impact such projections, nevertheless, with hindsight as our foundation projections would be more realistic than if we only had a million years of fossils on which to base our projections.

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Living With Theistic Evolution as a Paradigm

Special Creation: wonderful, but it is a quick and easy way out. There are seldom easy ways out in life. The ramifications of special creation are very complicated themselves. Cf: the book of Romans in the New Testament. Lovely realities described in Paul's epistle to the Romans but very heavy going and not as simple as you would think. Paul, the author of the epistle had what would amount to a Ph.D. in philosophy today.

Non-theistic Evolution: mostly for agnostics, atheists and theists who like a good intellectual challenge or are dissatisfied with the other two approaches. Some, though not all, adherents suffer from a delusion of intellectual superiority, smugness, or self-righteous condescension to anyone not buying into the belief that only evolution is necessary. "Let's not waste any more time and lets proceed with other issues or intellectual challenges" is the practical approach they prefer when considering the Evolution vs. Special Creation debate.

Intelligent Design: very tempting, at least to those who see the complexity and the aesthetic excellence of flora and fauna which seems a tall order to leave to chance alone. Simple organisms and mostly ugly ones being the result of non-theistic evolution makes a lot of sense, but physiological complexity, sentience, intelligence and symmetry that is capable of visiting other worlds and potentially continue intelligent life on yet-to-be-colonized worlds beyond our Earth, almost demands that, if not God, then some other Intelligent Designer is responsible for the marvels we encounter daily on planet Earth.

Theistic Evolution: the main difficulty is that there was sin in the world before Adam and Eve were created if you prefer this paradigm. If sin already existed before Adam and Eve also succumbed as well*, then why would Christ Jesus have to die to appease God's wrath against sin or to vindicate God's Law and its permanence. It also presents a problem for observing the seventh-day Sabbath since living organisms are no longer created in seven days, but rather, during millions of years. Presents quite a problem for orthodox Jews, as well.

Fourth Paradigm: awaits discovery. Any valid approaches need to be included as they become available or discovered.

Practical Paradigm:

Don't hurt anyone or anything. After all, you yourself don't want to be hurt either.

Improve the chances of the survival of the human race whether on this Earth of ours and eventually on other worlds.

Enjoy your life to the fullest and assist others in the enjoyment of theirs. Your well-being is intricately connected to the well-being of others.

If you haven't become aware of this interconnectedness of humanity there is still time to catch on.

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* If sin existed on another world, as well, then it becomes less of a problem if there was already sin in the world before Adam and Eve existed. Of course, the Bible says that everything that God created was good so there's no accounting for how there were fossils already buried in the Earth of another cycle of life that had experienced death already. After all, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death.

Some solve this problem by referring to the rebellion against God by Lucifer and cohorts in heaven itself as being responsible for the death and sin that would then have existed on Earth prior to Adam and Eve's Special Creation in the isolated perfection of the Garden of Eden were another pair of perfect beings (morally and physiologically perfect) were given another chance. Sadly, they also did not pass the test.

This footnote has the potential of never ending as another angle quickly suggests itself.

[Needs stylistic refinements, grammatical processing, etc.]

Supernatural Selection and Theistic Evolution

There is nothing completely natural about natural selection. The natural state of a truly wild and undisciplined environment or system is to develop into ordered chaos, if you will. It is marvelous to speak about how natural selection selected this trait or that trait to bring about the fittest specimen who then would have the greatest chance of surviving. Sometimes a sentience and incorporeal intellgence is attributed to natural selection as it chooses this trait or this species to survive and procreate. Too much perfection and unbiased godlike power is attributed to natural selection. There is actually a supernatural selection going on that is guiding evolution along. God is the agent of supernatural selection.

[Transtion needed]

A child is naturally sinful. Ethical behavior has to be learned. Ultimately God is the source of all ethical behavior.

It is arrogant for man to think he or she can save himself or herself from the condition of death and sin.

The proverbial Fall of Man comes to each person upon realization of his or her capability for evil as well as good.

Christ is our example of what we can become through his transforming power and loving kindness.

God conferred super intelligence and a knowledge of his existence on the primitive homo sapient couple who lved in a veritable garden of Eden.

Where it not for super intelligence the Bible could never have been written as well as all the intellectual achievements of man throughout history.


God will one day allow man to join him in his sphere when he feels humanknd is ready.

How Well Do You Tolerate Evolution and Creationism?

Non-theistic evolution though intellectually stimulating has too many variables to consider here. It ignores a need for a prime mover by stating that the Big Bang took place and requires no further justification. This is similar to theists saying God needs no creator for he had no beginning. No more questions need be asked. End of story.

Special Creation solves many mysteries except the origin of God. Furthermore, Special Creation presents a demonic being as the origin of Evil though Special Creation and its associated theologies do not excuse Evil or the demon in question due to the mystery of Evil itself. Evil is simply because it is. Special Creationists can't or won't explain Evil since by explaining it they would then justify or understand why it exists at all. Special Creation does not solve all of the enigmas. It creates extra ones and leaves them as is.

Theistic evolution solves some problems but ultimately presents God as a cosmic mad scientist. How, pray tell, do you pray to and love an omnipotent being who needed eons of trial and error--just look at all of the fossil record--to finally produce one of the generally impressive results of evolution:  Man the Thinker? What is the other impressive end-product of theistic evolution? Gaia (Mother Earth) itself [see footnote]. Our self-actualizing world is almost sentient in its perfection and self-regulating complexity. Some see this perfection and near-sentience as an indication of an omniscient God who is responsible for the almost flawless miracle that we call Earth.

What then is the answer of answers :  how did we get here? If we were to find this perfect solution we'd cease to evolve as a species. It is better to leave some questions unanswered.

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Gaia philosophy (named after Gaia, Greek goddess of the Earth) is a broadly inclusive term for related concepts that living organisms on a planet will affect the nature of their environment in order to make the environment more suitable for life. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(philosophy)

Where Is God?

Only the mystery we call God can change the hell that can sometimes exist both in our mind or in the world that surrounds us. No other mystical power or force of science can change that permanently with  lasting effects in mind. Thank God for God. How truly alone we'd feel if He didn't exist. Without God the wonder that we call the universe would be a charade or a cruel joke. All this dazzling immensity and beauty created for no reason and easily destroyed--eventually after billions of years--meaninglessly, as well.

God must exist, you see. He just has to. Otherwise the quality and beauty of life is cheapened.

If--and this we cannot prove--God does not exist then we have to become our own all-loving, all-forgiving and all-comforting "God." [1]  Let us not even consider the quagmire of dealing with lower-case gods or beneficent forces of nature. We need God or the ideal implied by the word God, not just for each other's sake, or for our own sake. We also need God or the ideal of God ("God") for the benefit of the culmination of eons of evolution--pre-primate and primate--as well. Ultimately we need God if only to insure that our own health and survival as a species is assured for whatever fate or providence or some nameless and undefined Factor or Ideal has in store for us down the road. Without something larger than ourselves millions of years of human evolution lose whatever meaning artists and poets have attributed to the wonder of being human and being alive to enjoy that splendor and glory. [2]

Humanity really, then, is created in the image of God. We are carbon copies of our perfect and wonderful God. We need God, however, to let that wonder and perfection shine and grow. Not from within ourselves only but from a mysterious reality or force beyond ourselves. That mystery can only be called God. It truly can be said of us, His children, that "we are the light of the world."

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References:

1. It may not be necessary for some, but in the event that there is some confusion as to what I'm referring to when I speak of God (the deity of the Old and New Testament Bible) and "God" (the ideal of God or a conceptual God, if he were not to exist) this note may prove helpful. Again, it is not my intention nor concern at this time to address any interaction or use of a lower-case god. There are already too many lower-case gods in our  postmodern world.
2. Though probably used in a different context and possessing different meaning than what I've presented here, I am partially indebted to Jack Provonsha's "God is With Us" which I read at the age of 19. It still lingers in my mind though only vaguely. It was there that I first came upon the sometimes confusing uses of God and "God."

Coming to terms with Science and Faith

Why did God permit man to appear 200,000 years ago in Sub-Saharan Africa? Creating humankind on day six of Creation week is simpler, perfect and requires less faith than crediting impersonal natural selection for the personable being that is man (generic term intended.)

Evolution's Eons or God's Creative Power and Their Challenges

Science provides a fossil record that most educated individuals accept easily as the logical explanation of how we all got here. It does not, nor can it, purport to explain why we are here.

Religion (Judeo-Christian-Muslim) presents God or Allah as the all-powerful Being who spoke worlds into existence in a flash. It does not attempt to explain the how, but it pretty much delves into why we are here. We are here to treat each other the way we ourselves would like others to treat us. The Bible also tell us that a supernatural being, God, created humanity and all we see out of love for us and out of His desire to interact with his special creation.

A few years ago a renowned cosmologist complained that the more he understood the apparent nature of the cosmos the more he was baffled by the pointlessness of all this immensity. What is the point of all of cosmic reality coming into being eons ago and slipping into final entropy or death eons from now? If no intelligent being, other than pure chance, caused such variety of life--animate and inanimate--to exist, why all the bother? Now some would tell you, and some optimistic scientists will also point out, that regardless of why we are here, it's a good thing that we are to marvel and study this phenomenon called life. Better to have lived and then died, but before doing so, you have 70 plus years to enjoy other living things and the wonders of the universe, than never to have known such pleasant experiences. Of course, life is not always good for everyone so there's an element of heredity or hard work or luck that sometimes maximizes ones chances of living the proverbial good life.

Some try to solve this enigmatic disharmony between the What For of humanistic evolution and the How of God's creative acts by positing that God works through theistic evolution to bring about his crowning creation, humankind, to enjoy their lives for His as well as their benefit. Some find unacceptable problems with this idea since it would mean that God was the author of death in that he permitted millions of living things, and pre-Homo Sapiens ancestors, to live all for the purpose of bringing about his special creation: Homo Sapiens (Man the Thinker.)

Also difficult to justify into theistic evolution is if there was no Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, then there was no Original Ain, and Christ Jesus did not have to die for fallen humanity. Now some would say that each man and woman decides early in life whether to live an altruistic life or to live a life of selfishness. In that case humans need a supernatural Being to grant them favor (grace) to chose the former and not the latter. Since each person has an innate choice in early childhood to chose to do the right thing or to do the bad thing the proverbial Fall comes to each person at some point in their early existence. With that possibility, then all of us needs a supernatural Savior to make it possible to reach the very best ethical goals that we can. No one, not even a small child, is ever morally developed, or sinless, in  biblical terminology. All fall away from desirable ethical or behavioristic perfection as soon as intelligence is sufficient to produce either positive or negative choices.

In the final analysis, we are either here as the result of cold, calculating evolution and natural selection and we need to make the best of it and enjoy our universe and each other while the human race is still around to do so.

Or we chose to believe that a wonderful Being, light years beyond our powers of imagination, created us, wants to interact with us, and will return for us to rescue us from a dying planet.