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Human longevity: Difference between revisions
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It should be noted that there is nothing known about the human body which would fundamentally prevent humans from having lived that long in the past, or to one day live that long again.[http://www.personalmd.com/news/a1998071403.shtml] Scientists do not know why humans age and ultimately die, although some have speculated that it might be due to the shortening of [[telomere]]s, which could theoretically have been much longer prior to the flood. | It should be noted that there is nothing known about the human body which would fundamentally prevent humans from having lived that long in the past, or to one day live that long again.[http://www.personalmd.com/news/a1998071403.shtml] Scientists do not know why humans age and ultimately die, although some have speculated that it might be due to the shortening of [[telomere]]s, which could theoretically have been much longer prior to the flood. | ||
=== Josephus on early human longevity === | |||
Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, wrote: | |||
{{cquote|Let no one, upon comparing the lives of the ancients with our lives, and with the few years which we now live, think that what we have said of them is false; or make the shortness of our lives at present an argument that neither did they attain to so long a duration of life; for those ancients were beloved of God and [lately] made by God himself; and because their food was then fitter for the prolongation of life, might well live so great a number of years; and besides, God afforded them a longer time of life on account of their virtue and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded the time of foretelling [the periods of the stars] unless they had lived six hundred years; for the Great Year is completed in that interval. Now I have for witnesses to what I have said, all those that have written Antiquities, both among the Greeks and barbarians; for even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian History, and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean Monuments, and Mochus and Hestiaeus, and besides these, Hieronymus the Egyptian, and those who composed the Poenician History, agree to what I here say: Hesiod also, and Hecataeus, Hellanicus and Acusilaus; and besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate that the ancients lived a thousand years; but as to these matters let everyone look upon them as he thinks fit. (''Antiquities'', I:5:104-108) }} | |||
== Post-flood decline == | == Post-flood decline == | ||
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=== Chaotic events === | === Chaotic events === | ||
The chart at right shows that all of the post-diluvian patriarchs died within a 200 year period, from 1997 A.M. to 2187 A.M. Interestingly, [[Noah]] died only two years before [[Abraham]] was born. It is possible that their deaths were caused by events occurring during this period, such as perhaps the dispersion of humanity from the [[Tower of Babel]], war, environmental changes, or some other events during that period that caused the death rate to increase greatly. | The chart at right shows that all of the post-diluvian patriarchs died within a 200 year period, from 1997 A.M. to 2187 A.M. Interestingly, [[Noah]] died only two years before [[Abraham]] was born. It is possible that their deaths were caused by events occurring during this period, such as perhaps the dispersion of humanity from the [[Tower of Babel]], war, environmental changes, or some other events during that period that caused the death rate to increase greatly. | ||
== Modern increase == | == Modern increase == | ||
