I Blog Poetry and Prose

Extending Human Life on the Material Plane

Istiqlál (Independence), 1 ‘Aẓamat (Grandeur) 176 B.E. - Friday, May 17, 2019

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30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS  (13+) WDC's Longest Running Blog Competition - Hiatus #1786069 by Fivesixer

PROMPT: A lot of medical research today focuses on developing cures to ageing. Presumably, with the right breakthrough, humans could live forever. How do you feel about this? Write an entry describing the advantages and disadvantages of extremely long life using facts and opinions to support your answer.

I don't think the humans were created to live forever on the material plane. Humans are dual natured creatures with physical bodies, which are part of the material creation, and souls, that are part of the spiritual world. The body and soul become partners at sometime after conception and before birth. While much of medical research appears to be the developing a cure for aging, I don't see this as the goal; true it may be the goal for many researcher, but not for all of them.

Old age, in and of itself, is not a disease, but a results of the living on the physical body being born and living material plane. Thee are certain disease and bad habits that result in problems in the human body as it ages. These can be alleviated or eliminated by the discoveries of medical science. However, that does not mean that the human body will continue to live eternally, because eventually the body and soul will separate. At that time the body will begin decomposing and the soul will ascend into the spiritual realm.

"The rational soul—the human spirit—did not descend into this body or subsist through it to begin with, that it should require some substance to depend upon after the constituent parts of the body have decomposed. On the contrary, the rational soul is the substance upon which the body depends. The rational soul is endowed from the beginning with individuality; it does not acquire it through the intermediary of the body. At most, what can be said is that the individuality and identity of the rational soul may be strengthened in this world, and that the soul may either progress and attain to the degrees of perfection or remain in the lowest abyss of ignorance and be veiled from and deprived of beholding the signs of God."

'Abdu'l-Baha1

Medical research helps people live longer and more rewarding lives on the material plane. These longer lives help our souls develop the spiritual attributes they need to thrive in the spiritual realm. Medical researchers are discovering the bad habit human beings have developed that interfere with us thriving on the material plane. Over the past century, medical science has made some progress in extending human life2. We will make more progress in the coming decades; however, on question remains: Can medical science reverse or stop the aging of our cells?3 Is there a limit to how long we can extend the life of our cells? Yes, I think there is a limit. I don't think we have encountered that limit yet.

Footnotes
1  Some Answered Questions,Part 4: On the Origin, Powers, and Conditions of Man: 66: The Subsistence of the Rational Soul after the Death of the Body.
2  https://www.livescience.com/10468-extending-human-life-progress-promises.html
3  ibid.