Longevity

[McCulloch]

Lets go back to the time when life expectancy 8 or 000years.

Methuselah is said to have lived 969 years. While he is the oldest living fellow recorded in the Bible, there are other quite long lived patriarchs: Jared, 962 years; Noah, 950 years; Adam, 930 years; Seth, 912 years; Kenan, 910 years; Enosh, 905 years; Mahalalel, 895 years; Lamech, 777 years; Shem, 600 year.

Is there any biological evidence that humans have ever routinely lived beyond 120 years? Is there any biological evidence that any human has ever lived beyond 200 years?

[Goat]

Lets go back to the time when life expectancy 8 or 000years.

Methuselah is said to have lived 969 years. While he is the oldest living fellow recorded in the Bible, there are other quite long lived patriarchs: Jared, 962 years; Noah, 950 years; Adam, 930 years; Seth, 912 years; Kenan, 910 years; Enosh, 905 years; Mahalalel, 895 years; Lamech, 777 years; Shem, 600 year.

Is there any biological evidence that humans have ever routinely lived beyond 120 years? Is there any biological evidence that any human has ever lived beyond 200 years?

No there is not. It's a story.

[Paleophyte]

Having humans live to the ages reported in the OT would require radical changes to our biochemistry and physiology including arresting telomerase, near-faultless DNA replication and repair, vastly improved elimination of free-radicals and a suite of toxins, immensely improved ribosome function, the removal of a host of deleterious genes that become active with aging and hugely improved tissue repair and regeneration. And that's the short list.

It's entirely implausible.

The Babylonian and Sumerian dynasties claim similar longevities. I suspect that much of it is simple boasting but wonder if there might be a mistranslation from months to years. Annual cycles are less evident in the climate of the Fertile Crescent than in many First World Nations but lunar cycles make for easy timepieces. If this were the case then Methuselah would have lived to the ripe old age of 80. Exceptional back then but hardly noteworthy today.

[Joab]

Lets go back to the time when life expectancy 8 or 000years.

Methuselah is said to have lived 969 years. While he is the oldest living fellow recorded in the Bible, there are other quite long lived patriarchs: Jared, 962 years; Noah, 950 years; Adam, 930 years; Seth, 912 years; Kenan, 910 years; Enosh, 905 years; Mahalalel, 895 years; Lamech, 777 years; Shem, 600 year.

Is there any biological evidence that humans have ever routinely lived beyond 120 years? Is there any biological evidence that any human has ever lived beyond 200 years?

In the book "Time Enough For Love" Lazarus Long lives much longer than that, I think that proves the bible right.
Robert Heinlein was a saint, after all, and as such couldn't LIE.

Not only that but L.Long exists in the distance future, not the past.

Oh wait. Maybe modern or advanced medicine explains his longevity?

[Ooberman]

[Replying to post 4 by Joab]

This is clearly the next step for the apologist.

Once Science finds a way to extend life, apologists will say "well, it's entirely plausible that the ancient societies knew about extending life because of herbology developed in the garden of Eden. God routinely intervenes and while it's not in the record, it's completely plausible that God gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of plants, but the Sin of Man made us forget over the generations.... That is a completely rational and acceptable explanation."


"OR! God made aliens to create a time machine to teach the earlier generations Future Science - after all, God has provided us with everything we need! That, too, is an equally rational and acceptable explanation. In fact, this one is true because it has the most Biblical support based on my extensive interpretation and insights gained through prayer..."

[JohnPaul]

[Replying to post 4 by Joab]

This is clearly the next step for the apologist.

Once Science finds a way to extend life, apologists will say "well, it's entirely plausible that the ancient societies knew about extending life because of herbology developed in the garden of Eden. God routinely intervenes and while it's not in the record, it's completely plausible that God gave Adam and Eve the knowledge of plants, but the Sin of Man made us forget over the generations.... That is a completely rational and acceptable explanation."


"OR! God made aliens to create a time machine to teach the earlier generations Future Science - after all, God has provided us with everything we need! That, too, is an equally rational and acceptable explanation. In fact, this one is true because it has the most Biblical support based on my extensive interpretation and insights gained through prayer..."

An equally rational and more plausible explanation is being bitten by a vampire.

An example of a person much more longer-lived than Methuselah is given by the Legend of the Wandering Jew. According to the legend, a skeptical Jew once demanded that Jesus give him proof that he was really the son of God. Jesus replied: "Wait here until I return." That Jew is still wandering among us, waiting for the return of Jesus.

[Volbrigade]

There have been three distinct environments during the history of the Earth.

The first was pre-Fall (and pre-Curse). It was dimensionally different than the two that followed it. We have no way of knowing what it was like, other than the clues given us in the first pages of Scripture; for instance, we know that the first man (Adam) had a direct experiential relationship with God; we know that carnivory and predation were non-existent.

The second was post-Fall, and pre-Flood. Most of what we know about it is speculative. But the conditions were of such a nature as to preserve much of the genetic integrity that the entropy produced by the Fall had only begun undoing approximately 1,500 years earlier.

And we can reasonably speculate that the single pre-Flood landmass (sometimes referred to as "Pangea") was categorically (and likely uniformly) more verdant than our present continental landscapes. As the esteemed Marine Biologist, Dr. Robert Carter, puts it: "compared with the pre-Flood environment, our mid-latitude coniferous and deciduous forests are a desert."

The catastrophism associated with the global Flood event changed our environment -- from geology and topography to climate. It also produced the fossil record, and a single Ice Age that lasted approximately 500 years.

One of the results of that climatic change has been a drastic increase in exposure to cosmic and solar radiation; producing an exponential increase in harmful genetic mutation, and rapidly decreasing the human life span as a result.

[DanieltheDragon]

[Replying to post 7 by Volbrigade]

can you please list your references for this scientific discovery!! and we are talking about 3 periods over a 4.54 billion year span right?

[JohnPaul]

[Replying to post 7 by Volbrigade]

can you please list your references for this scientific discovery!! and we are talking about 3 periods over a 4.54 billion year span right?

Give him a break! Pot is legal now.

[dianaiad]

[Replying to post 7 by Volbrigade]

can you please list your references for this scientific discovery!! and we are talking about 3 periods over a 4.54 billion year span right?

Give him a break! Pot is legal now.

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