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New Study Suggests There's a Limit To How Long People Can Live (go.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the age-is-just-a-number dept.

Life expectancies have risen in many countries around the world thanks to breakthroughs in medical treatment and sanitation in the last century. The maximum age of death has also increased. But as these numbers continue to rise, it raises the question as to how long can people live? ABC News reports: The record for the world's oldest person is 122 years and the odds of shattering that record are slim, according to an analysis published Wednesday in the journal Nature. In the new study, researchers [at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York] analyzed mortality data from a global database. They found that while there have been strides in reducing deaths among certain groups -- children, women during childbirth and the elderly -- the rate of improvement was slower for the very old, those over 100 years old. Next they examined how old centenarians were when they died. The record holder is Jeanne Calment, of France, who lived until 122 years old. Since her death in 1997, no one has broken her record. The researchers calculated the odds of someone reaching 125 years in a given year are less than 1 in 10,000. They think the human life span more likely maxes out at 115 years. Some aging specialists said the study doesn't take into account advances that have been made in extending the life span -- and health -- of certain laboratory animals including mice, worms and flies through genetic manipulation and other techniques. The goal is to eventually find treatments that might slow the aging process in humans and keep them healthier longer.

5 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Genesis 6:3 NIV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Genesis 6:3 NIV
    Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

    1. Re:Genesis 6:3 NIV by TemporalBeing · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah but Genesis 9:29 also says:

      And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

      Noah was born pre-Flood. And if you follow the geneologies, they lifespans increasingly shorten with each successive generation; thus not an immediate effect but something that took a few generations to take in.

      So I guess the LORD forgot, eh? And don't forget about Adad, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor and of course Abraham.

      Most of those you quote were Pre-Flood; however, that doesn't change the lifespan curve that occurred post flood. Abram (who could have known Noah as their lifetimes slightly overlapped) made it to 175 (Genesis 25:7). Joseph (3 generations later) only made it to 110. Genesis 50:22-26.

      As with Death in Genesis 3, the shorted lifespan did not happen immediately. Could it have? Probably, but that would have had several major consequences:

      • Slower re-population of the earth post-flood
      • Inability to communicate the past to future generations using eye-witnesses that were able to fully establish what actually happened through numerous generations across the vast majority of the populace.
      --
      Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
    2. Re:Genesis 6:3 NIV by aethelrick · · Score: 5, Informative

      Noah was born pre-Flood. And if you follow the geneologies, they lifespans increasingly shorten with each successive generation; thus not an immediate effect but something that took a few generations to take in.

      Also... the bible is not a trusted reference source. It was written by people who weren't there, repeatedly re-written by people with poor translation skills (not to mention political agendas to achieve). Each new interpretation of "The word of God" heralded as an unchanging, perfect holy text. Codswallop!

    3. Re:Genesis 6:3 NIV by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Informative

      I prefer Ezekiel 23:20

      There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  2. Re:Bible is Correct Again by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Informative

    If I write down a metric ton of bullshit, I will be right a handful of times, too. That's by no means different than various conspiracy nuts throwing about the most harebrained ideas, and should once in a blue moon one of those insane ramblings actually have something to do with reality, they act as if they knew everything all along, ignoring those thousands of times they simply spouted bullshit.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.