What do various religions think about it?
That term, used primarily by bioethicists and medical researchers, is still surfacing in mainstream conversation—most people report that they haven’t heard it before—but that’s changing quickly. Radical life extension doesn’t usually conjure Itskovian avatars, but rather a body of slightly more intuitive (but still abstract) “treatments aimed at prolonging life.” The Pew project was undertaken because leading bioethicists foresee schismatic discussion around anti-aging research and treatments to become increasingly pointed in the not-distant future. Here we have the first large-scale breakdown of public perceptions.
I found this kind of interesting:
…people who do believe in an afterlife are actually more likely to favor radical life-extending therapies.
Which is a little counter-intuitive. Then there’s this:
Radically extending life “probably wouldn’t be a problem for most” Muslims, according to Aisha Musa, a professor of religion at Colgate University. According to Musa and others, Muslims believe Allah knows the exact life span of each person from birth to death, or what the Quran calls one’s “term appointed.”
“Since you can’t really violate God’s plan for you, life extension is alright because it’s part of God’s will,” Musa said.
According to Mohsen Kadivar, a Shia theologian currently teaching at Duke, many Shia ayatollahs would likely sanction life-extension therapies as long as their object was not to extend life indefinitely. “There is a difference between life extension and immortality,” Kadivar says, adding, “The first is acceptable and the second is not acceptable, according to Islam and the Quran.”
Yes, that is a crucial distinction. As I’ve noted before, I don’t know many (or perhaps even any) people who seek immortality in the community. We just want to live as long as we want to live.
One concern — natural resources depletion, and running out of room — would be eliminated by expansion off planet, of course, something not considered by those putting together the survey. It would be interesting to see if responses change if that’s pointed out.
I have never heard of any Christian religion with any moratoriums on life. Having said that I am not sure what would happen if the Pope decided to live to say three hundred.
Life extension poses a plethora of problems. In itself, it does not promise or even suggest extended life w/o pain and disabilities, which are distinct and separate problems.
That aside, if one desires it and if he/she can pay for it, I could care less. Paramount is that I do not have to pay for some life extension process on a particular human.
If it is a reality, of course, religion and associated ethics come on to play. Essentially, we are already into life extension in this regard. When do we end the artificial existence of a human body? Religion often dictates, never.
Things change when health care is viewed as a right and the responsibility of the government to provide the best possible care.
JJS, that sounds like it could be the plot of a Dan Brown novel!
But it is worth emphasising that true immortality is impossible because something is going to get you eventually. It might be an accident, a natural disaster, a new strain of disease for which there’s no treatment, or plain old-fashioned murder. Improvements in technology can reduce the number of hazards but it can never eliminate them all. Even someone with a life-expectancy at birth of 10,000 years would still need to come to terms with his or her mortality because that sudden bolt from the blue might come at any moment. Act now, for it’s always later than you think.
A few month ago I looked up mortality figures, and estimated that if “old age” were removed as a factor the average expectancy for adults would be around 1000 years from the current age. A lucky or cautious few would live many times that long.
If you lived to 1000 you’d still end up on the death bed, only with 999 years of memories in your head instead of 60 odd – (assuming your mind didn’t age) and wishing desperately you could live to 10,000. Mortality is mortality. Adding a another zero only looks like a big deal when you’re within visual range of the reaper.
Even the most radical life extension is for a mere aleph-null years, and larger cardinalities are possible.
people who do believe in an afterlife are actually more likely to favor radical life-extending therapies.
Most people who believe in religious afterlife also believe they could morally fail to live up to a joyous afterlife offered by a deity. I think you’ll find most seek more time to right what ever moral wrongs they perceive in their own life. Conversely, offer those people a method to wash any immoral wrong doings before entering the afterlife, and often you will notice a sudden change in their fear of death.
At least that is my observation.
I just keep thinking of a quote from the John Carter movie. “Immortal, but not bullet proof.”
Another story is one of the saddest conversations I’ve ever had.
One day about 10 years ago my 92 year old grandmother was visiting my parents, sitting out on the patio. My grandma was the eternal optimist, ex school teacher, always with a smile and a “let’s do it” attitude. I come up and say “Hi Grandma, How’s it going?” She looks at me with sad eyes and says, “Getting old sucks. I have so many things I still need to do, but… my body just wouldn’t let me.” she then shook off the mood, smiled and said “Well, Martin can wait a bit longer, can’t he. I love your warm winters here in Arizona.” (My grandfather Martin died 20 years earlier)
My feel is that, Christians will split by sect. Lutherans, Presbyterians and Catholics will be alright with it but some backwards Baptist/Evangelicals will not. I don’t know off hand but I seem to remember somewhere in the old testament were god limits life spans to 120 years. But he then goes and violates his rule whenever it serves his “plan”. My guess is that they will parse that so that they can live longer. My fear is that it may stagnate our culture even more than it already is.