Contact
for more information:
Banstead Christadelphians
FREEPOST
SEA 10703
Epsom
Surrey
KT17 2BR

The Guardian newspaper recently ( 18/11/05) reported that “a genetic experiment to unlock the secrets of the ageing process has created organisms that live six times their usual lifespan, raising hopes that it might be possible to slow ageing in humans.”

According to the report, the geneticists behind the study say that the increase in lifespan is so striking, they may have tapped into one of the most fundamental mechanisms that controls the rate at which living creatures age.

The tests were carried out in single-celled organisms. By manipulating their diet, they were forced into what the researchers refer to as an “extreme survival mode”. Instead of growing quickly and showing signs of ageing, the organisms became resilient to damage and were better able to repair the genetic defects that build up with age, often leading to cancer in later life.

According to one of the scientists conducting the tests, Dr Valter Longo at the University of South California:

“We’re not too far from being able to exploit this understanding to at least start to think about drugs that can put humans in an anti-ageing mode. That doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily live six times longer, but it means we could slow down the DNA damage we accumulate as we age, and that could protect us from cancer.”

The researchers concentrated their attention on two genes. One gene governs the cells’ ability to convert nutrients into energy, while the other plays a role in restricting an organism’s lifespan, allowing energy from the food it eats to be directed into growth and reproduction. As Dr Longo put it:

“When you start increasing lifespan by five or six times, it means you’re really playing with the life and death programmes of the organisms.”

As The Guardian reporter observes, the research is a big step in a small field that has been progressing at pace since the advent of the new tool of genetics. But despite the success of their research, Dr Longo and others are quick to acknowledge that it will be a considerable time before any attempt is made to experiment with the ageing process in humans.

According to the Bible, the ageing process has indeed been ‘programmed’ into our bodies, exactly as the scientists now acknowledge.

The account of Adam and Eve’s temptation in the early chapters of Genesis includes the ‘death sentence’ – “dying thou shalt die” (Genesis 2v17: margin) – for their failure to keep God’s commands. That same sentence has been inherited by all their descendants.

From the moment we are born, our bodies start to die, as individual cells die and are replaced. But as the years go by, the replacement process gets slower and less efficient, until the signs of ageing become obvious and sooner or later we die. In that respect, according to the book of Ecclesiastes, we are no different from all living things:

“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast; for all is vanity; all go unto one place; all are of the dust; and all turn to dust again.” (Ecclesiastes 3v19-20)

But there is one way that we are different from the rest of creation. At the same time as ageing and death became part of human experience, God made a plan to prolong human life for ever. As the apostle Paul explained in one of his letters:

“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15v20-21)

Anyone who believes this ‘good news’ (the ‘gospel’ found in the Bible), and is baptized into Christ, has the hope of being raised from the dead and given everlasting life when Jesus returns.

That’s God’s promise and it won’t need any new scientific discoveries to make it happen!