Get your religious beliefs in while you can...

2012 will be a pivotal year for private spaceflight

Space flight is upon us!!!!! Space tourism is here.

BUT, the real trick would be to go see all these new planets we have been discovering. Realistically, it would be a one-way flight as the distance wouldn't allow for us to come back. Of course we would have to be sure that the destination planet is habitable.

Speaking of these distances, a human life span wouldn't cover the distance and time required would it? What would be the solution? Extend he human life span of course. Science fiction you say? Hardly:

Can the Human Lifespan Reach 1,000 Years -Some Experts Say "Yes"

Well well well....Just in time for long distance space flight!

What does this have to do with religion? Easy. I've heard many people say that if humans can expand the life spans for hundreds or thousands of years, then there is no god. Get your faith in while you can. The Human Race is on the verge of greatness, and all w/o some silly 'god'.

 

It could be possible to make people live forever, but that would require a complete overhaul of the human genome, something that is not possible at this point. Even if it were, I don't have much confidence in our ability to do this without any adverse affects.

 

Care to explain why we woould have to do a complete overhaul of the human genome?

 

Well, I don't see any other way, really. If we all lived long enough, eventually our bodies would break down, that's just how we've evolved. We can cure one deadly illness but the longer we live the more likely that we'd just contract another one. We'll live longer, for sure, but I doubt living forever is very realistic at all.

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/humor-satire/

under here.

 

Yeast Life Extended Ten Times; Offers Hope for Humans

There will be some genetic tinkering, but not a 'complete' overhaul of the human genome.

 

You lost me.

 

Well, according to the Bible, Adam was 930 years old when he died. Don't see how people living for thousands of years at all says there's no God.

 

And according to the bible, man was made form dirt and 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds', but Evolution disproves either of these.

So if you want to bring up a book, make sure the book is factual.

 

I would imagine the lack of immortality (by that I mean no death from old age) is due to parasites. Sex and gene mingling are the main weapon against parasites. A non-aging population would have huge internal competition for reproduction (imagine fighting your father for your share of twenty year olds). A strangling of genetic diversity would increase parasite load. However the primary cause is most likely due to replication errors in cells and these errors remain high enough for aging to occur as there has been no selective pressure for infinite longevity. Feel free to correct my numerous errors.

 

My point is that the Bible agrees that people can live hundreds of years. How in the world does your article disprove God? It doesn't.


Also, man is made of dirt, or to read it more allegorically, mad is made of the same things the earth is made of. This is true scientifically.

The land (my translation says the earth) does produce living creatures. Isn't that what evolutionary theory teaches?

Evolution only disproves a literal reading of the Bible. It doesn't disprove the Bible.

 

I don't buy your parasite theory, but I do agree with the replication error idea. IMHO, that is why people don't live much beyond 100 yrs. I don't believe we can extrapolate life extension from yeast to humans.

 

Immortality (as in lack of ageing) raises huge social questions with regard to birth rates.

If immortality was introduced tomorrow then it would only the wealthy (or wealthier nations) who could afford it. This would create the most permanent underclass imagineable. Two groups of people, one which lives for generations accumalating wealth, power and skills the other which lives brutally short and impoverished lives.

If all people received it then birth rates would have to drop dramatically (as death rates would fall due to lack of death from old age and other age-related or dependent diseases). This would be massively difficult for two reasons
1) Social reasons. Poorer populations have higher birth rates. Indeed the best contraception is accumulation of material goods. If however immortality is introduced into say, Africa we would see and explosion in population and resultant wars, starvation etc. Therefore massive economic development would be the necassary prelude.
2)Evolutionary reasons. It would be massively evolutionarily successful to breed faster than others in this environment and so this would cause birth-rates to drift higher than sustainability but I think this can be countered by effective alleviation of social problems but remains a long-term issue.

It really is a pandora's box of issues.

 

I never said the article does.

This is what I said:

Please do not put words in my mouth.

 

I believe sex only evolved as a defense against parasites due to genetic mingling. It is disastrously costly otherwise as an asexual human would have twice as many kids but all those kids could be wiped out by a single disease. Consider GM crops which can be annihalated by one disease due to genetic similarity. Now how much of a role does this play in ageing? I don't know but I would have thought it may have hindered genetic mingling if it was always the same alpha male (or whatever) due to them not ageing. It would also put pressure on resources.

 

Agreed about replication errors, and that is what I had in mind before. I thought of the words of an oncologist who said, "If we lived long enough, we'd all get cancer," or something to that affect.

 

If we can travel to other planets and populat those, then the birth rates become irrelevant.

 

Not wholly irrelevant but certainly much more manageable. Might be a logistical nightmare though. What are the implications? Forced emigration? We have already seen how Africa suffers from overpopulation but can't emigrate away its problems as the issue is lack of economic development. Also the issue of over and underclasses remains pertinent unless these new planets have laws regarding the wealth you may bring with you or some other measure.

 

Hopefully one far away from the sun, in preparation for when it engulfs the earth in 4 billion years. Earth will become uninhabitable before that though, once it fully evaporates the oceans and inevitably our fresh water supplies as well. We'll all likely be gone by then though.

 

Of course don't get me wrong. The crowning acheivement of man in the next few centuries will be massive longevity growth and the colonisation of other planets and perhaps meeting another intelligent species. I am just advocating caution. In the same way that you wouldn't send a crew on a one-way mission to a planet without being (*)(*)(*)(*) sure of its habitability one shouldn't leap into immortality technology without considering the consequences. Foremost in my mind are the consequences regarding an underclass and the other question of population growth.

 

I think the idea is that once mankind stretches across the galaxy, once people live long enough to think about such matters and once we encounter other species that are intelligent, the idea that the supreme master of the universe revealed himself to a tribe of desert nomads and then incarnated himself as a carpenter will increasingly become to be seen as the insanity it is. Unfortunately, this will just be one strain of the disease that is religion. In the same manner as the parasites I mentioned it will evolve and attack again and again.

 

Forced emigration? Did you stop and think masses of people would want to go on these trips?

 

Yes they would. That's why I gave the Africa example. Millions of Africans would love to go to Europe or the U.S. but they don't. Why? Partially poverty, partially barriers such as immigration controls. Now it is also true that many immigrants are middle-class in thier original countries. (This isn't as true for Mexican immigrants into the U.S. due to proximity). This raises the question of who are left behind on Earth. Will we see the underclass issue? (One remembers how mass emigration left Ireland). My point is that there are many issues to be considered. We can either solve this issues before they become issues or just hope they don't happen and be left cleaning up a mess.

 

Well, then who said this "I've heard many people say that if humans can expand the life spans for hundreds or thousands of years, then there is no god. "

I've never heard it before you posted it. Please post where many people say this.

 

People I have taled too in southern california.