Growing old

[Warrior1979]

Primitive does not equal pristine.

The reason primitive cultures continue to exist anywhere is because the environment is so hostile that no one else wants to live there.

Either that, or the culture itself is extremely hostile.

Actually, data points to nothing. It just exists. A hypothesis is set out, and the data is analyzed to see if it can be interpreted consistently with the hypothesis.

That’s one way of doing it. When done in that fashion, obviously there is tendency to be wrong since the conclusion precedes the analysis. With large data sets, it is best to observe and analyze the data first and note the tendencies.

In the case of growing old, since it is impossible at present to go back in time, certain assumptions are made regarding the environment, the process of aging and the like. The assumptions are more or less based on the present conditions, since that is where the billions and billions of examples are drawn from. I would note, the studies are probably not based on billions of examples, since integrating that much information would be difficult.

The basic issue is that the ages mentioned vastly exceed the the maximum age set in our DNA. Environment, healthy eating, fresh air, might mean you live to 90 years old, but it’s not going to make you live to 800, or even 130.

However, if any of the underlying assumptions is wrong, then the possibility exists that another explanation may be correct.

We’re note dealing with assumptions when it comes to lifespan.

This is speculation. And as we discussed, since you do not have any DNA from the people mentioned in the Bible, you are forced to speculate on what their DNA was like.

Actually, we may, but we simply will never be able to verify it. However, we do have DNA from all periods of man’s history, and we have yet to have any support for these reputed Biblical ages.

 

[GaryTaylor]

You’d be surprized how closely mankind is connected.

What did the Bible ultimately say, you would live 70-80 years? What is mankind actually living on the world-wide average? Not in your upper-class neighborhood, where your kept alive on morphine to 100. But worldwide where life has very little meaning?

Peace

 

[Warrenton]

The basic issue is that the ages mentioned vastly exceed the the maximum age set in our DNA. Environment, healthy eating, fresh air, might mean you live to 90 years old, but it’s not going to make you live to 800, or even 130.

The idea that there is a set DNA death point does not seem to be established. In some organisms, environmental factors have been found to increase lifespan many fold. One set of experiments indicated that mice spans could be doubled. If applicable to humans (still not proved of course- but not disproved either) that would get us pretty close to 130.

Actually, we may, but we simply will never be able to verify it. However, we do have DNA from all periods of man’s history, and we have yet to have any support for these reputed Biblical ages.

True, Adam may be in a box in the British museum, along with the ark of the covenant! I was reading that at the extreme limits of the time scale, the amount of DNA is very small and usually degraded.

It can be difficult to get reliable DNA from the world war 2 era remains. The literature indicates DNA recovery is quite difficult when dealing with a bone that has been laying the ground or under a river for a few thousand years.

However, I still wonder whether DNA “tells” the age of the person when that person died. It seems skeletal aging usually relies on things like bone density, tooth decay, pitting in certain areas of the skeleton. These data, are of course correlated based on assumptions drawn from skeletons whose ages can be conclusively verified, i.e., modern skeletons.

I could not find an article answering the question, and I would appreciate any link you could provide.

(I’m not challenging you on the the absence of a link - that’s just for my own enlightenment!