Another day, another, uh....

Technically it'd be more along the lines of another dollar lost...

Not much to report on the old me front, which is a weird sentence, except that I finally finished by book yesterday afternoon. I must say, this series just keeps getting longer, though that just means more goodness for me to read. Except it does serve to remind me why I don't and shouldn't read much during school. I have no willpower when it comes to the cravings of reading, and my school work suffers if I get into a good book. And now, on to school. Whee?

Aging and Ethics

I've been reading an article on a guy named de Grey on the subject of aging. This guy has come to the conclusion that aging consists of a handful of specific things that in perhaps 25 years will all have cures for them. Anyway, as I think on the whole subject of such thoughts as living forever, and science and medicine in general, I am once more beset with thoughts on the subject of the ethics of such things.

Being a christian, I am rather of two minds on the idea of trying to mess with genes and dna and whatever else may be thought of in order for us all to live as we think to be perfect. Believing as I do, that the ages of Adam and his progeny were in truth, well, truth, I do believe that the body can live a rather long time, and did in the beginning, before sin screwed with everything. And I'm not against medicine that can help us through illness, but where is the line? At what point does it stop being okay to "help" people, or fix some birth or genetic defect and becomes screwing with things we really shouldn't be?

I mean, okay, so people used to live for hundreds of years, but at one or two times in the Old Testament, God said that we would be limited to like 120 or some such. We are trying to reclaim what we have lost, except that we are trying to do it ourselves, and without making any concessions along the way. God plans for our lives and gives us all gifts unique to ourselves. When we start monkeying with ourselves, it's not like he can't still give us things and use us, but it seems somehow wrong to try and test him so.

More importantly though, was something C.S. Lewis once said about people and living forever. The truth is, it's probably a really good thing that we don't live very long. There are bad things within people that tend to get worse with time, as do good things, but it's easier to give into the flaws than the good. And think about old people, such as grandparents. Most old people tend to get quite stuck, both in mind and habits. Can you imagine that going on for centuries? Reminds me of the T'lan Imass...

But anyway, it just seems to me along the lines of what Malcolm from Jurassic Park said. We get so caught up in whether we can, we forget to ask whether we should.

*goes off to ponder*