How would religious Christians react to …?
I’d hope for some actual answers from believers here…
How would you react in the event of the success of recent anti-aging drug research?
Would drugs or treatment resulting in, say, a 120-yr old man who lifts weights at the gym three times a week upset you or make you happy?
Would this be a happy accomplishment of the discipline of medicine, or a sinful intrusion into the affairs of God?
Would you respond negatively the way many of you respond to abortion clinics or genetics labs, as embodiments of evil, or would you think of it as just a sort of powered-up version of blood pressure medicine?
Is it sinful in your interpretation of "God’s will" to seek longer life?
.
ANYBODY give me a straight answer? Anyone?
Please? I’m not interested in trading insults with anyone.
For those who are interested, I am strongly in favor of such things but I have given a thumbs up to everyone who gave a straight answer regardless of whether I agree with them or not.
Related posts:
- Christians look forward to eternal youth and beauty in “Heaven.” But why do they care? After all, Christian "Heaven" is CELIBATE. Why do most people...
- What do you think of anti-aging research in relation to your religious (or not) beliefs? More specifically, what is your opinion on deliberate endeavors to...
- What to major in (for college) to learn about Life Extension, Regenerative Medicine, Anti-Aging etc!?!? In recent times there have been major advancements in what...
- Am I Bipolar? What should I do? I have had very high times and low times in...
- Granting custody to anti-homeschooling parents if we die? My daughter is only two, and this might seem irrational,...
There’s much good in scientists trying to prolong life. The tragedy is that only a minority of the earth’s population would ever benefit from success in that area. Poor people who are starving or dying from dirty water etc would completely miss out. Would it not be better for scientists to concert their efforts into alleviating the plight of poor people, and the dreadful illnesses that they are more prone to suffer? Even simple, cheap operations, like removing cataracts, are not available to millions of poor people. Why are people desirous of longer life not equally concerned to get earth’s billions reaching the three-score and ten they expect to have?
So it’s not a question of whether it’s wrong or not, but a question of why far more serious matters for the vast majority are not being concentrated on as they ought to be.
If you don’t like Christians, you should just come right out and say so.
There is nothing wrong with trying to extend life in my view….only with trying to prematurely end it.
Though we should also remember that it is written in Genesis, proceeding the time when men lived hundreds of years or more….Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." (Interestingly, the longest confirmed life since God said this is Jeanne Louise Calment at 122 years according to records).
Why would that be sinful? God gave us intelligence.
I am going to go with door number three. It would be part of gods plan and who am i to question that.
Only God should have the right to decide when somebody lives or dies.
Besides, if there was such money to research a drug like that, it would be better put to looking after children who need it, not extending the lives of adults.
I don’t believe that I would take this drug. I would rather die naturally to be with Jesus than extend my life here on earth.
Not a Christian butttt….I am gonna answer this anyway.
I am against anti-aging. Simply because it goes against the natural order of life. I mean living a long time is great….but who REALLY wants to live to be 150-200 years old? Not me, no thank you. At some point it is time to go and we shouldn’t interfere with that natural process. And synthetic medicines aren’t exactly great for the body. At what cost is there to living long…losing hearing? Maybe losing sanity? Or one of the many other possible side effects (listen to some medication commercial, they have like 50+ side effects that cause more damage to the body!)
My deities have no say on this issue, it is simply how I feel about the topic.
And I am a pro-choicer. I simply don’t beleive in pushing my beleifs on others. So even though I am against anti-aging, I wouldn’t expect others to feel the way I do. I would just simply not choose to take drugs to live longer.
I dont want it…
I think since it is an improvement to life, it would be o.k. God.makes the Doctors and scientists also.
Well women always,s want to look younger but no matter what
we do here on earth, when our time come to leave for
Heaven we will go no matter how young we look, God
is the one who call,s us home and we will live no matter
what to the day,s God want,s us to live.
I wouldn’t go that route myself, but it’s not up to me to stop others if they want to. To me, it’d be interfering with the will of God. However, not everyone believes in God the same way I do, so it’s not my job to force them to do the same things I do. There’s nothing morally wrong with wanting to live longer… I just wouldn’t do it. Treat diseases, yes, but aging isn’t a disease. It’s a natural part of life.
It would depend on how the anti-aging drug was processed. If everything was synthetic and not taken from stem cells, or fetus’ or an adult that had to lose their life to find it, then I would be ok with it, and so would God. If it was done in a way that did not take life from someone else, then I would say that God had His hand in extending the life of someone He created. About your comparison to the way that we respond to abortion clinics, I have a problem with those. Abortion takes a life, before it even has a chance to be born. I SAID LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!! If someone is for anti-aging that would mean that you are for life to last a long time, so how could you say that abortion clinics are fine? 4,000 a day are aborted in America alone, and you say you are for people living longer. Yeah right!!
There are many many centenarians who are life long vegetarians as where their parents,etc. that do such and similar activities. Not everyone enjoys going to the gym so there are other type activities that they do.
Why would anyone waste money and research time on anti aging drug research? The information and research of the past 125 years of health studies done at Loma Linda University and Medical center has all the information in that regard.
A vegetarian diet, clean living equals 100 to 125 years.
"is it sinful in you interpretation of God’s will to seek longer life?"
Did you forget or have never bothered to look at the dietary and health laws in the Old Testament? Leviticus? clean and unclean? God told us what to eat and what not to eat for a reason.
Adventist have been living this healthy God instructed life style for 125 years or so; many people are vegetarian, kosher, etc.
The $$ for the research and development, etc. is simply a a money pit to get more funding $$ to do nothing.
It has nothing to do with anything other than the wasting/ignoring of the all ready given knowledge of good health and long life in exchange for and over priced worthless pill that "only" the wealthy and the elite can afford because they donated XX million $$ for the research.
(The movie "I am Legend") do you REALLY want to let them try to play God with a pill???
Isn’t it safer and logical and cheaper to just eat your vegetables and those out the processed fast foods???
There are other areas that need that money for help. If there is so much $$ available then send food and medicine to Africa now.
You may not be interested in trading insults sweetie…but apparently a lot of them are.
You hit a raw nerve, methinks!!! I have never yet got a straight answer from a Christian Fundie on this issue of medical science being against God’s will unless it was a JW or a Christian scientist…at least they live by what the preach!!!
lol
Interesting question…I had a response in mind when I read your first question but it changed, several times, as I read your details and then read the question again.
I’d have to say that I’d respond to it the same way I respond to things like advances in cosmetic surgery and other drugs/treatments designed to prolong "youth" (e.g., "fountain of youth")…I’m not interested.
I’d also say that I wouldn’t equate such a development with abortion clinics or genetics research. Abortion clinics allow people to avoid the natural consequences of a previous choice by ending another life before it even begins…this is the opposite of prolonging life. Genetics research, while it can be used for something like genetic engineering of a fetus, also allows for the identification of genetic causes of future diseases/conditions that might shorten a person’s life though no choice of their own.
I wouldn’t exactly say it is "sinful" to seek a longer life…the sin is in placing more value on this life than on the life that God has waiting for you. Now, for a person that doesn’t believe that God has another life waiting for them, that’s the only relevant "sin"…everything else is merely an extension of the choice not to believe in God or seek his will. I suppose if I didn’t believe that my death represents my ultimate freedom from the trials of this life, it would be completely rational and understandable for me to take advantage of any opportunity to make my current life longer or better or happier…but because I do, it just seems like a waste of my resources to seek out ways to make this life better instead of using those resources to seek out ways to make my next life better…after all, even if those drugs/treatments could buy me another 20 or 30 years here, those years are nothing compared to eternity. In a way, it is like blowing $20,000 on your birthday party instead of using that $20,000 to invest in a stock that allows you to retire (and have dozens of $20K birthday parties) in 30 years. I know people do it…we waste our money on all sorts of junk that promises to make us thinner, happier, more energetic, younger-looking, and more…it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me given the inevitable outcome…we still die…and, in the vast majority of cases, we never found something to make us thinner, happier, more energetic, or younger-looking.
I will paraphrase my right wing father as best I can:
He says that God gave us a mind which is a tool for us to rule the world. He says God wanted us to cure disease.
But he fails to see the problem with his reasoning.
If this tool was a divine gift for us to use to think, why is it wrong for us to use it to think logically about things like religion.