-
May
-
Giulio Andreotti
-
Samsung Galaxy S4
-
Lawfare
-
Inferno (Dan Brown novel)
-
Florence Nightingale
-
Morse code
-
UK Independence Party
-
Beppe Grillo
-
Italian neorealism
-
Street performance
-
Oxford English Dictionary
-
Financial Times
-
Margaret Thatcher
-
Old English
-
Ottavio Missoni
-
Survivalism
-
Franco Battiato
-
Alternative for Germany
-
Party
-
Tattoo removal
-
United States Constitution
-
Unmanned aerial vehicle (Drone)
-
Pilates
-
Immortality
-
3D printing
-
Conflict of interest
-
Hanna-Barbera
-
Enrico Letta
-
French cuisine
-
Justin Bieber
|
WIKIMAG n. 6 - Maggio 2013
Immortality
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional
terms may apply. See
Terms of
Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.
Traduzione
interattiva on/off
- Togli il segno di spunta per disattivarla
Immortality
is the ability to
live
forever, or eternal life.[2]
Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be
able to be overcome through
medical interventions or engineering.
Natural selection has developed potential
biological immortality in at least one species, the jellyfish
Turritopsis nutricula.[3]
Certain scientists,
futurists, and philosophers, have theorized about the immortality of
the human body, and advocate that human immortality is achievable in the
first few decades of the 21st century, while other advocates believe
that
life extension is a more achievable goal in the short term, with
immortality awaiting further research breakthroughs into an indefinite
future.
Aubrey de Grey, a researcher who has developed a series of
biomedical
rejuvenation strategies to reverse human aging (called
SENS), believes that his proposed plan for ending aging may be
implementable in two or three decades.[4]
The absence of aging would provide humans with biological immortality,
but not invulnerability to death by
physical trauma. What form an unending human life would take, or
whether an immaterial
soul exists and possesses immortality, has been a major point of
focus of
religion, as well as the subject of speculation, fantasy, and
debate.
In
religious contexts, immortality is often stated to be among the
promises by God
(or other deities) to human beings who show goodness or else follow
divine law (cf.
resurrection).
The
Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the first literary works, dating back
at least to the 22nd century BC, is primarily a quest of a hero seeking
to become immortal.[5]
Wittgenstein, in a notably non-theological interpretation of eternal
life, writes in the
Tractatus that, "If we take eternity to mean not infinite
temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those
who live in the present."[6]
Definitions
Scientific
Life extension technologies promise a path to complete
rejuvenation.
Cryonics holds out the hope that the dead can be revived in the
future, following sufficient medical advancements. While, as shown with
creatures such as
hydra and
planarian worms, it is indeed possible for a creature to be
biologically immortal, it is not yet known if it is possible for
humans.
Mind uploading is the concept of transference of consciousness from
a human brain to an alternative medium providing the same functionality.
Assuming the process to be possible and repeatable, this would provide
immortality to the consciousness, as predicted by
futurists such as
Ray Kurzweil.[7]
Religious
The belief in an
afterlife is a fundamental tenet of religions, including
Hinduism,
Sikhism,
Christianity,
Zoroastrianism,
Islam,
Judaism,
and the
Bahá'í Faith; however, the concept of an immortal
soul is not. The "soul" itself has different meanings and is not
used in the same way in different religions and different denominations
of a religion. For example, various branches of Christianity have
disagreeing views on the soul's immortality and its relation to the body
(cf.
Soul (spirit)).
Physical
immortality
Physical immortality is a state of life that allows a person to avoid
death and maintain conscious thought. It can mean the unending existence
of a person from a physical source other than organic life, such as a
computer. In the early 21st century, physical immortality remains a goal
rather than a current reality. Active pursuit of physical immortality
can either be based on scientific trends, such as
cryonics,
digital immortality, breakthroughs in
rejuvenation or predictions of an impending
technological singularity, or because of a spiritual belief, such as
those held by
Rastafarians or
Rebirthers.
Causes of death
There are three main causes of death:
aging,
disease
and
trauma.[8]
Aging
Aubrey de Grey, a leading researcher in the field,[5]
defines
aging as follows: "a collection of cumulative changes to the
molecular and
cellular structure of an adult
organism, which result in essential
metabolic processes, but which also, once they progress far enough,
increasingly disrupt metabolism, resulting in
pathology and death." The current causes of aging in humans are cell
loss (without replacement),
DNA damage,
oncogenic
nuclear
mutations and
epimutations, cell
senescence,
mitochondrial mutations,
lysosomal aggregates, extracellular aggregates, random extracellular
cross-linking,
immune system decline, and
endocrine changes. Eliminating aging would require finding a
solution to each of these causes, a program de Grey calls
engineered negligible senescence. It has also been researched that
aging is not driven by genes, and that it is driven by random events.
Everything in the world changes or ages without being driven by a
purpose. There is also no direct evidence that proves that age changes
are governed by a genetic program. There is also a huge body of
knowledge indicating that change is characterized by the loss of
molecular fidelity.[9]
This leads to the fact that there is no longer a chance for repair and
turnover, increasing the vulnerability to pathology or age-associated
diseases.
Disease
Disease is theoretically surmountable via
technology. In short, it is an abnormal condition affecting the body
of an organism, something the body shouldn't typically have to deal with
its natural make up.[10]
Human understanding of
genetics is leading to cures and treatments for myriad previously
incurable diseases. The mechanisms by which other diseases do their
damage are becoming better understood. Sophisticated methods of
detecting diseases early are being developed.
Preventative medicine is becoming better understood.
Neurodegenerative diseases like
Parkinson's and
Alzheimer's may soon be curable with the use of
stem cells. Breakthroughs in
cell biology and
telomere research are leading to treatments for
cancer.
Vaccines
are being researched for
AIDS and
tuberculosis. Genes associated with
type 1 diabetes and certain types of cancer have been discovered
allowing for new therapies to be developed. Artificial devices attached
directly to the
nervous system may restore sight to the blind. Drugs are being
developed to treat myriad other diseases and ailments.
Trauma
Physical trauma would remain as a threat to perpetual physical life,
even if the problems of aging and disease were overcome, as an otherwise
immortal person would still be subject to unforeseen accidents or
catastrophes. Trauma is an experience which is related to both the
subjective and objective components of a situation. "It is not merely a
situational phenomenon, but a socio-psychological process which develops
in time and follows a course."[11]
Longevity researchers would prefer to
mitigate the risk of encountering trauma. Taking preventative
measures by engineering inherent resistance to injury is thus relevant,
in addition to entirely reactive measures more closely associated with
the paradigm of medical treatment.[citation
needed]
The speed and quality of
paramedic
response remains a determining factor in surviving severe trauma.[12]
A body that could automatically treat itself from severe trauma, such as
speculated uses for
nanotechnology, would mitigate this factor. Without improvements to
such things, very few people would remain alive after several tens of
thousands of years purely based on accident rate statistics, much less
millions or billions or more.[citation
needed]
Being the seat of
consciousness, the
brain
cannot be risked to trauma if a continuous physical life is to be
maintained. Therefore, it cannot be
replaced or repaired in the same way other organs can. A method of
transferring consciousness would be required for an individual to
survive trauma to the brain, and this transfer would have to anticipate
and precede the damage itself.[citation
needed]
If there is no limitation on the degree of gradual mitigation of risk
then it is possible that the
cumulative probability of death over an infinite horizon is less
than
certainty, even when the risk of fatal trauma
in any finite period is greater than zero. Mathematically, this is
an aspect of achieving "Actuarial
escape velocity".
Biological
immortality
Biological immortality is an absence of aging, specifically the
absence of a sustained increase in
rate of mortality as a function of chronological age. A cell or
organism that does not experience aging, or ceases to age at some point,
is biologically immortal.
Biologists have chosen the word immortal to designate cells that are
not limited by the
Hayflick limit, where cells no longer divide because of
DNA
damage or shortened
telomeres. The first and still most widely used immortal cell line
is HeLa,
developed from cells taken from the malignant cervical tumor of
Henrietta Lacks without her consent in 1951. Prior to the 1961 work
of
Leonard Hayflick and Paul Moorhead, there was the erroneous belief
fostered by
Alexis Carrel that all normal
somatic
cells are immortal. By preventing cells from reaching senescence one can
achieve biological immortality; telomeres, a "cap" at the end of DNA,
are thought to be the cause of cell aging. Every time a cell divides the
telomere becomes a bit shorter; when it is finally worn down, the cell
is unable to split and dies.
Telomerase is an enzyme which rebuilds the telomeres in stem cells
and cancer cells, allowing them to replicate an infinite number of
times.[13]
No definitive work has yet demonstrated that telomerase can be used in
human somatic cells to prevent healthy tissues from aging. On the other
hand, scientists hope to be able to grow organs with the help of stem
cells, allowing organ transplants without the risk of rejection, another
step in extending human life expectancy. These technologies are the
subject of ongoing research, and are not yet realized.[citation
needed]
Biologically immortal species
Life defined as biologically immortal is still susceptible to causes
of death besides aging, including disease and trauma, as defined above.
Notable immortal species include:
-
Turritopsis nutricula, a jellyfish, after becoming a
sexually mature adult, can transform itself back into a
polyp
using the cell conversion process of
transdifferentiation.[3]
Turritopsis nutricula repeats this cycle, meaning that it may
have an indefinite lifespan.[14]
Its immortal adaptation has allowed it to spread from its original
habitat in the Caribbean to "all over the world".[15]
-
Bacteria (as a colony) – Bacteria reproduce through Binary
Fission. A parent bacterium splits itself into two identical
daughter cells. These daughter cells then split themselves in half.
This process repeats, thus making the bacterium colony essentially
immortal.
A 2005
PLoS Biology paper[16]
suggests that in a bacterial colony, every particular bacterial cell
may be considered to eventually die since after each division the
daughter cells can be identified as the older and the younger, and
the older is slightly smaller, weaker, and more likely to die than
the younger.[17]
-
Bristlecone Pines are speculated to be potentially immortal;[citation
needed] the oldest known living specimen is
over 5,000 years old.
-
Hydra is a
genus
of simple fresh-water animal possessing
radial symmetry. Hydras are
predatory animals belonging to the phylum
Cnidaria and the class
Hydrozoa.[18]
Evolution of aging
As the existence of biologically immortal species demonstrates, there
is no
thermodynamic necessity for senescence: a defining feature of life
is that it takes in
free energy from the environment and unloads its
entropy
as waste. Living systems can even build themselves up from seed, and
routinely repair themselves. Aging is therefore presumed to be a
byproduct of
evolution, but why mortality should be selected for remains a
subject of research and debate. Programmed cell death and the telomere
"end replication problem" are found even in the earliest and simplest of
organisms.[19]
This may be a tradeoff between selecting for cancer and selecting for
aging.[20]
Modern theories on the evolution of aging include the following:
- Mutation accumulation is a theory formulated by
Peter Medawar in 1952 to explain how evolution would select for
aging. Essentially, aging is never selected against, as organisms
have offspring before the mortal mutations surface in an individual.
-
Antagonistic pleiotropy is a theory proposed as an alternative
by
George C. Williams, a critic of Medawar, in 1957. In
antagonistic pleiotropy, genes carry effects that are both
beneficial and detrimental. In essence this refers to genes that
offer benefits early in life, but exact a cost later on, i.e.
decline and death.[21]
- The disposable soma theory was proposed in 1977 by
Thomas Kirkwood, which states that an individual body must
allocate energy for metabolism, reproduction, and maintenance, and
must compromise when there is food scarcity. Compromise in
allocating energy to the repair function is what causes the body
gradually to deteriorate with age, according to Kirkwood.[22]
Prospects for human biological immortality
Life-extending substances
There are some known naturally occurring and artificially produced
chemicals that may increase the lifetime or life-expectancy of a person
or organism, such as
resveratrol.[23][24]
Future research might enable scientists to increase the effect of these
existing chemicals or to discover new chemicals (life-extenders) which
might enable a person to stay alive as long as the person consumes them
at specified periods of time.[citation
needed]
Scientists believe that boosting the amount or proportion of a
naturally forming enzyme,
telomerase, in the body could prevent cells from dying and so may
ultimately lead to extended, healthier lifespans. Telomerase is a
protein that helps maintain the protective caps at the ends of
chromosomes.[25]
A team of researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Centre (Madrid)
tested the hypothesis on mice. It was found that those mice which were
genetically engineered to produce 10 times the normal levels of
telomerase lived 50% longer than normal mice.[26]
In normal circumstances, without the presence of telomerase, if a
cell divides repeatedly, at some point all the progeny will reach their
Hayflick limit. With the presence of telomerase, each dividing cell
can replace the lost bit of
DNA, and any
single cell can then divide unbounded. While this unbounded growth
property has excited many researchers, caution is warranted in
exploiting this property, as exactly this same unbounded growth is a
crucial step in enabling cancerous growth. If an organism can replicate
its body cells faster, then it would theoretically stop aging.
Embryonic stem cells express telomerase, which allows them to divide
repeatedly and form the individual. In adults, telomerase is highly
expressed in cells that need to divide regularly (e.g., in the immune
system), whereas most
somatic
cells express it only at very low levels in a cell-cycle dependent
manner.
Technological immortality
Main article:
Transhumanism
Technological immortality is the prospect for much longer life spans
made possible by scientific advances in a variety of fields:
nanotechnology, emergency room procedures, genetics,
biological engineering,
regenerative medicine,
microbiology, and others. Contemporary life spans in the advanced
industrial societies are already markedly longer than those of the past
because of better nutrition, availability of health care, standard of
living and bio-medical scientific advances. Technological immortality
predicts further progress for the same reasons over the near term. An
important aspect of current scientific thinking about immortality is
that some combination of
human cloning, cryonics or nanotechnology will play an essential
role in extreme life extension.
Robert Freitas, a nanorobotics theorist, suggests tiny medical
nanorobots could be created to go through human bloodstreams, find
dangerous things like cancer cells and bacteria, and destroy them.[27]
Freitas anticipates that gene-therapies and nanotechnology will
eventually make the human body effectively self-sustainable and capable
of living indefinitely, short of severe brain trauma. This supports the
theory that we will be able to continually create biological or
synthetic replacement parts to replace damaged or dying ones.
Cryonics
Cryonics, the practice of preserving organisms (either intact
specimens or only their brains) for possible future revival by storing
them at cryogenic temperatures where metabolism and decay are almost
completely stopped, can be used to 'pause' for those who believe that
life extension technologies will not develop sufficiently within their
lifetime. Ideally, cryonics would allow clinically dead people to be
brought back in the future after cures to the patients' diseases have
been discovered and
aging is reversible. Modern cryonics procedures use a process called
vitrification which creates a glass-like state rather than
freezing as the body is brought to low temperatures. This process
reduces the risk of ice crystals damaging the cell-structure, which
would be especially detrimental to cell structures in the brain, as
their minute adjustment evokes the individual's mind.
Mind-to-computer uploading
Main article:
Mind uploading
One idea that has been advanced involves
uploading an individual's personality and memories via
direct mind-computer interface. The individual's memory may be
loaded to a computer or to a newly born baby's mind. The baby will then
grow with the previous person's individuality, and may not develop its
own personality.
Extropian
futurists like Moravec and Kurzweil have proposed that, thanks to
exponentially growing computing power, it will someday be possible
to
upload human consciousness onto a computer system, and live
indefinitely in a virtual environment. This could be accomplished via
advanced cybernetics, where computer hardware would initially be
installed in the brain to help sort memory or accelerate thought
processes. Components would be added gradually until the person's entire
brain functions were handled by artificial devices, avoiding sharp
transitions that would lead to issues of
identity. After this point, the human body could be treated as an
optional accessory and the mind could be transferred to any sufficiently
powerful computer. Another possible mechanism for mind upload is to
perform a detailed scan of an individual's original, organic brain and
simulate the entire structure in a computer. What level of detail such
scans and simulations would need to achieve to emulate consciousness,
and whether the scanning process would destroy the brain, is still to be
determined.[28]
Whatever the route to mind upload, persons in this state would then be
essentially immortal, short of loss or traumatic destruction of the
machines that maintained them.
Time's futurists, as well as Dmitry Itskov, head of the 2045
Initiative (an international project attempting to reach the goal of
technological immortality) predict that this technology will be
available by 2045.[citation
needed]
Cybernetics
Transforming a human into a
cyborg
can include
brain implants or extracting a human mind and placing it in a
robotic life-support system. Even replacing biological organs with
robotic ones could increase life span (i.e., pace makers) and depending
on the definition, many technological upgrades to the body, like genetic
modifications or the addition of nanobots would qualify an individual as
a cyborg. Such modifications would make one impervious to aging and
disease and theoretically immortal unless killed or destroyed.
Evolutionary
immortality
Another approach, developed by biogerontologist
Marios Kyriazis, holds that human biological immortality is an
inevitable consequence of
evolution. As the natural tendency is to create progressively more
complex structures,[29]
there will be a time (Kyriazis claims this time is now[30]),
when evolution of a more complex human brain will be faster via a
process of developmental singularity[31]
rather than through Darwinian evolution. In other words, the evolution
of the human brain as we know it will cease and there will be no need
for individuals to procreate and then die. Instead, a new type of
development will take over, in the same individual who will have to live
for many centuries in order for the development to take place. This
intellectual development will be facilitated by technology such as
synthetic biology,
artificial intelligence and a
technological singularity process.
Mystical and religious pursuits of physical immortality
Many Indian fables and tales include instances of
metempsychosis—the ability to jump into another body—performed by
advanced Yogis
in order to live a longer life. There are also entire
Hindu
sects devoted to the attainment of physical immortality by various
methods, namely the Naths and the
Aghoras.[citation
needed]
Long before modern science made such speculation feasible, people
wishing to escape death turned to the supernatural world for answers.
Examples include Chinese
Taoists[citation
needed] and the medieval alchemists and their
search for the
Philosopher's Stone, or more modern religious mystics, who believed
in the possibility of achieving physical immortality through spiritual
transformation.
Individuals claiming to be physically immortal include
Comte de Saint-Germain; in 18th century France, he claimed to be
centuries old, and people who adhere to the
Ascended Master Teachings are convinced of his physical immortality.[citation
needed] An Indian saint known as
Vallalar claimed to have achieved immortality before disappearing
forever from a locked room in 1874.[32][unreliable
source?]
Rastafarians believe in physical immortality as a part of their
religious doctrines. They believe that after
God has
called the
Day of Judgment they will go to what they describe as
Mount Zion in Africa to live in freedom forever. They avoid the term
"everlasting life" and deliberately use "ever-living" instead.
Another group that believes in physical immortality are the
Rebirthers, who believe that by following the connected breathing
process of rebirthing they can physically live forever.[citation
needed]
Religious views
Main articles:
Afterlife and
Soul
The world's major religions hold a number of perspectives on
spiritual immortality, the unending existence of a person from a
nonphysical source or in a nonphysical state such as a
soul.
However any doctrine in this area misleads without a prior definition of
"soul". Another problem is that "soul" is often confused and used
synonymously or interchangeably with "spirit".
As late as 1952, the editorial staff of the
Syntopicon found in their compilation of the
Great Books of the Western World, that "The philosophical issue
concerning immortality cannot be separated from issues concerning the
existence and nature of man's soul."[33]
Thus, the vast majority of speculation regarding immortality before the
21st century was regarding the nature of the
afterlife.
In both Western and Eastern religions, the spirit is an energy or
force that transcends the mortal body, and returns to the
spirit realm whether to enjoy heavenly bliss or suffer eternal
torment in hell,
or the
cycle of life, directly or indirectly depending on the tradition.
Ancient Greek
religion
In
ancient Greek religion, immortality originally always included an
eternal union of body and soul, as can be seen in
Homer,
Hesiod,
and various other ancient texts. The soul was considered to have an
eternal existence in Hades, but without the body the soul was considered
dead. Although almost everybody had nothing to look forward to but an
eternal existence as a disembodied dead soul, a number of men and women
were considered to have gained physical immortality and been brought to
live forever in either Elysium, the Islands of the Blessed, heaven, the
ocean or literally right under the ground. Among these were
Amphiaraus,
Ganymede,
Ino,
Iphigenia,
Menelaus,
Peleus,
and a great part of those who fought in the Trojan and Theban wars. Some
were considered to have died and been resurrected before they achieved
physical immortality.
Asclepius was killed by Zeus only to be resurrected and transformed
into a major deity.
Achilles, after being killed, was snatched from his funeral pyre by
his divine mother Thetis, resurrected, and brought to an immortal
existence in either Leuce, the Elysian plains, or the Islands of the
Blessed.
Memnon, who was killed by Achilles, seems to have a received a
similar fate.
Alcmene,
Castor,
Heracles, and
Melicertes were also among the figures sometimes considered to have
been resurrected to physical immortality. According to
Herodotus' Histories, the 7th century BC sage
Aristeas of Proconnesus was first found dead, after which his body
disappeared from a locked room. Later he was found not only to have been
resurrected but to have gained immortality.[34]
The philosophical idea of an
immortal soul was a belief first appearing with either
Pherecydes or the
Orphics, and most importantly advocated by
Plato and
his followers. This, however, never became the general norm in
Hellenistic thought. As may be witnessed even into the Christian era,
not least by the complaints of various philosophers over popular
beliefs, many or perhaps most traditional Greeks maintained the
conviction that certain individuals were resurrected from the dead and
made physically immortal and that others could only look forward to an
existence as disembodied and dead, though everlasting, souls. The
parallel between these traditional beliefs and the later resurrection of
Jesus was not lost on the early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued:
"when we say ... Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and
rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propose nothing different from
what you believe regarding those whom you consider sons of Zeus." (1
Apol. 21).[35]
Buddhism
Buddhism teaches that there is a cycle of birth, death, and
rebirth and that the process is according to the qualities of a
person's actions. This constant process of becoming ceases at the
fruition of
Bodhi (enlightenment)
at which a being is no longer subject to causation (karma)
but enters into a state that the
Buddha called amata (deathlessness).
According to the philosophical premise of the Buddha, the initiate to
Buddhism who is to be "shown the way to Immortality (amata)",[36]
wherein liberation of the mind (cittavimutta) is effectuated
through the expansion of wisdom and the meditative practices of
sati and
samādhi, must first be educated away from his former
ignorance-based (avijja)
materialistic proclivities in that he "saw any of these forms, feelings,
or this body, to be my Self, to be that which I am by nature".
Thus, desiring a soul or ego (ātman)
to be permanent is a prime consequence of ignorance, itself the cause of
all misery and the foundation of the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra).
Form and consciousness being two of the five
skandhas, or aggregates of ignorance[citation
needed], Buddhism teaches that physical immortality
is neither a path to enlightenment, nor an attainable goal[citation
needed]: even the gods which can live for eons
eventually die. Upon enlightenment, the "karmic seeds" (saṅkhāras
or
sanskaras) for all future becoming and rebirth are exhausted. After
biological death an
arhat, or buddha, enters into
parinirvana, a state of deathlessness due to the absence of
rebirth, which resulted from cessation of wantings.
Christianity
|
This
section needs attention from an expert in Christianity.
Please add a reason or a
talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with
the section.
WikiProject Christianity (or its
Portal) may be able to help recruit an expert.
(August 2007) |
Christian theology holds that
Adam and Eve lost physical immortality for themselves and all their
descendants in the
Fall of Man, though this initial "imperishability of the bodily
frame of man" was "a preternatural condition".[37]
Christians who profess the
Nicene Creed believe that every dead person (whether they believed
in Christ or not) will be
resurrected from the dead, and this belief is known as
Universal resurrection.
Bible passages like
1 Corinthians 15 are interpreted as teaching that the resurrected
body will, like the present body, be both physical (but a renewed and
non-decaying physical body) and spiritual.
Contrary to common belief, there is no biblical support of
"soul immortality" as such in the New Testament, see
Soul in the Bible. The theme in the Bible is "resurrection life"
which imparts immortality, not about "soul" remaining after death.
Luther and others rejected
Calvin's idea of "soul immortality". Specific imagery of
resurrection into immortal form is found in the Pauline letters:
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for
the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought
to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know
that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
In Romans 2:6–7 Paul declares that God "will render to every man
according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing
seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life", but then in
Romans 3 warns that no one will ever meet this standard with their own
power but that Jesus did it for us.
Born-again Christians believe that after the
Last Judgment, those who have been "born again" will live forever in
the presence of God, and those who were never "born again" will be
abandoned to never-ending consciousness of guilt, separation from God,
and punishment for
sin.
Eternal death is depicted in the
Bible as
a realm of constant physical and spiritual anguish in a
lake of fire, and a realm of darkness away from God. Some see the
fires of Hell
as a theological metaphor, representing the inescapable presence of God
endured in absence of love for God; others suggest that Hell represents
complete destruction of both the physical body and of spiritual
existence.
N.T. Wright, a theologian and former
Bishop of Durham, has said many people forget the physical aspect of
what Jesus promised. He told Time: "Jesus' resurrection marks the
beginning of a restoration that he will complete upon
his return. Part of this will be the
resurrection of all the dead, who will 'awake', be embodied and
participate in the renewal.
John Polkinghorne, a physicist and a priest, has put it this way:
'God will download our software onto his hardware until the time he
gives us new hardware to run the software again for ourselves.' That
gets to two things nicely: that the period after death (the
Intermediate state) is a period when we are in God's presence but
not active in our own bodies, and also that the more important
transformation will be when we are again embodied and administering
Christ's kingdom."[38]
This kingdom will consist of
Heaven and Earth "joined together in a new creation", he said.
Roman Catholicism
Catholic Christians teach that there is a supernatural realm called
Purgatory where souls who have died in a
state of grace but have yet to expiate venial sins or temporal
punishments due to past sins are cleansed before they are admitted into
Heaven.[citation
needed] The Catholic Church also
professes a belief in the
resurrection of the body. It is believed that, before the
Final Judgement, the
souls of all who have ever lived will be reunited with their
resurrected body.[citation
needed] In the case of the righteous, this will
result in a glorified body which can reside in Heaven. The damned, too,
shall reunite body and soul, but shall remain eternally in Hell.[citation
needed]
Seventh-day
Adventists
Seventh-day Adventists believe that only God has immortality, and
when a person dies, death is a state of unconscious sleep until the
resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as
Ecclesiastes 9:5 which states "the dead know nothing", and 1
Thessalonians 4:13–18 which contains a description of the dead being
raised from the grave at the second coming.
- "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul." (cf.
Gen 2:7)
The text of Genesis 2:7 clearly states that God breathed into the
formed man the "breath of life" and man became a living soul. He did not
receive a living soul; he became one. The New King James Bible states
that "man became a living being". According to the Scriptures, only man
received life in this way from God. Because of this man is the only
living creature to have a soul.
- "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field ... wherein is the breath of life." (cf.
Genesis 2:19,
7:15)
- "Both man and beast ... have all one breath, so that a man hath
no preeminence above the beast."(cf.
Ecclesiastes 3:19)
Of the many references to soul and spirit in the Bible, never once is
either the soul or the spirit declared to be immortal, imperishable or
eternal. Indeed only God has immortality (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16).
Adventists teach that the resurrection of the righteous will take place
at the second coming of Jesus, at which time they will be restored to
life and taken to reside in Heaven.
Jehovah's
Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses believe the word soul (nephesh or
psykhe) as used in the Bible is a person, an animal, or the life a
person or animal enjoys. Hence, the soul is not part of man, but is the
whole man—man as a living being. Hence, when a person or animal dies,
the soul dies, and death is a state of non-existence, based on
Psalms
146:4,
Ezekiel 18:4, and other passages.[39]
Hell (Hades
or Sheol)
is not a place of fiery torment, but rather the common grave of
humankind, a place of unconsciousness.[40][41]
After the
final judgment, it is expected that the
righteous will receive eternal life and live forever in an Earth
turned into a
paradise. Another group referenced as "the little flock" of 144,000
people will receive immortality and go to heaven to rule as Kings and
Priests. Jehovah's Witnesses make the distinction that those with
"eternal life" can die though they do not succumb to disease or
old age, whereas immortal ones cannot die by any cause.[42]
They teach that Jesus was the first to be rewarded with heavenly
immortality, but that
Revelation 7:4 and Revelation 14:1, 3 refer to a literal number
(144,000) of additional people who will become "self-sustaining", that
is, not needing anything outside themselves (food, sunlight, etc.) to
maintain their own life.[43]
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)
In Latter-day Saint (Mormon)
theology, the spirit and the body constitute the human soul. Whereas the
human body is subject to death on earth, they believe that the spirit
never ceases to exist and that one day the spirits and bodies of all
mankind will be reunited again. This doctrine stems from their belief
that the resurrection of Jesus Christ grants the universal gift of
immortality to every human being.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also
believe that, prior to their mortal birth, individuals existed as men
and women in a spiritual state. That period of life is referred to as
the first estate or the
Pre-existence. Latter-day Saints cite Biblical scriptures, such as
Jeremiah 1:5, as an allusion to the concept that mankind had a
preparation period prior to mortal birth: "Before I formed thee in
the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I
sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations".[44]
Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the
Latter Day Saint movement, provided a description of the
afterlife based upon a vision he received, which is recorded within
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's canonical writings
entitled
Doctrine and Covenants.[45]
According to the 76th section of the
LDS scripture, the afterlife consists of three degrees or kingdoms
of glory, called the
Celestial Kingdom, the
Terrestrial Kingdom, and the
Telestial Kingdom. Other Biblical scriptures speak of varying
degrees of glory, such as 1 Corinthians 15:40-41: "There are also
celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial
is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory
of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star cdiffereth from another star in glory."
The few who do not inherit any degree of glory (though they are
resurrected) reside in a state called
outer darkness, which, though not a degree of glory, is often
discussed in this context. Only those known as the "Sons
of Perdition" are condemned to this state.
Other
Christian beliefs
The doctrine of
conditional immortality states the human soul is naturally mortal,
and that immortality is granted by God as a gift. The doctrine is a
"significant minority
evangelical view" that has "grown within evangelicalism in recent
years".[46]
Some sects who hold to the doctrine of
baptismal regeneration also believe in a third realm called
Limbo,
which is the final destination of
souls who have not been
baptised, but who have been innocent of mortal sin. Souls in Limbo
include unbaptised
infants
and those who lived virtuously but were never exposed to Christianity in
their lifetimes.
Christian Scientists believe that sin brought death, and that death
will be overcome with the overcoming of sin.
Hinduism
|
This
section needs attention from an expert in Hinduism.
Please add a reason or a
talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with
the section.
WikiProject Hinduism (or its
Portal) may be able to help recruit an expert.
(August 2009) |
Hinduism propounds that every living being, be it a human or animal,
has a body and a soul (consciousness) and the bridge between the two is
the mind (a mixture of both). If there is an imbalance between any of
these three components it can result in illness and 'death'. 'Death' as
we know it,is the ceasing of the body to function and therefore the soul
which is immortal will have to migrate to another body and occupy
some-other mind thereby creating consciousness there, be it a human or
animal depending upon the 'karma' or 'past deeds' done in the previous
physical body/bodies or life/lives. Central to the philosophy of
Hinduism is 'BRAHMAN' which is the embodiment of all souls and therefore
the ultimate consciousness. BRAHMAN is infinite, has no dimensions, and
is embodiment of all knowledge and the absolute truth and therefore the
ultimate bliss and enlightenment for all souls. To join BRAHMAN is the
ultimate goal of all souls, a soul can only join BRAHMAN upon becoming
perfect, until such time the soul will have to keep changing bodies and
experience events based on its karma in order to perfect itself and
therefore continues the cycle of birth and death. BRAHMAN is also the
sum total of the trinity gods (and avatars) worshiped by Hindus viz.
1.Brahma, the creator 2. Vishnu, the protector 3. Shiva or Maheshwara,
the destroyer. Brahma is responsible for sending the part of the BRAHMAN
which was imperfect to perfect itself on earth and for that purpose
created various levels of physical form. Vishnu who is the protector
pronounces that one must perform ones DHARMA or duty or follow the laws
in-order to obtain good karma and hence graduate to a high physical and
mental form and finally join the ultimate BRAHMAN. Maheshwara or Shiva
is the god of destruction and 'death' says that just as a new star can
only be born upon the destruction of an old star which has been burning
bright, just so do we find that only in complete destruction is there
creation and that the ultimate truth, immortality and permanence is in
the soul which joins the BRAHMAN and that physical matter is recycled
over and over again. A soul will have been successful when it stops
getting recycled like lowly and unconscious physical matter does.
Therefore 'death' is not the end as the soul is immortal and endless.
Differences between Hinduism and Buddhism: 1) Buddha was one of the
avatars of Vishnu, the preachings of Buddha from the Hindu perspective
represent only a fraction of the whole truth. Buddha preaches that
attachment with people was the cause of sorrow when 'death' happens and
therefore propagates detachment from people. Hinduism on the other hand
does not teach detachment, but stresses duty and how relations with
people have to take place based on Dharma or duty. In Hinduism, Lord
Shiva explains 'death' to be a journey of the immortal soul in pursuit
of 'Moksha' and therefore a fact of life. 2) While Buddhism says
retirement into the forest for meditation is to take place starting from
childhood, this is viewed as escapism by Hinduism. Hinduism allows for
this to happen only after performing all dharmas or duties of ones life,
starting from studying scriptures, working to support children and
family and taking care of aged parents, and lastly after all the dharma
is done retire to the forest and slowly meditate and fast until physical
disintegration to reach the ultimate truth or BRAHMAN.
Terminology
Representation of a soul undergoing
punarjanma. Illustration from Hinduism Today,
2004
Hindus believe in an immortal soul which is
reincarnated after death. According to Hinduism, people repeat a
process of life, death, and rebirth in a cycle called
samsara. If they live their life well, their
karma
improves and their station in the next life will be higher, and
conversely lower if they live their life poorly. Eventually after many
life times of perfecting its karma, the soul is freed from the cycle and
lives in perpetual bliss. There is no eternal torment in Hinduism,
temporal existence being harsh enough, although if a soul consistently
lives very evil lives, it could work its way down to the very bottom of
the cycle.
Punarjanma means the birth of a person that pays for all the
karma of
previous lives in this birth.[citation
needed]
Sri Aurobindo states that the Vedic and the post-Vedic rishis
(such as
Markandeya) attained physical immortality, which includes the
ability to change one's shape at will, and create multiple bodies
simultaneously in different locations.[citation
needed]
There are explicit renderings in the Upanishads alluding to a
physically immortal state brought about by purification, and sublimation
of the 5 elements that make up the body. For example in the
Shvetashvatara Upanishad (Chapter 2, Verse 12), it is stated "When
earth, water fire, air and akasa arise, that is to say, when the five
attributes of the elements, mentioned in the books on yoga, become
manifest then the yogi's body becomes purified by the fire of yoga and
he is free from illness, old age and death."
The above phenomenon is possible when the soul reaches enlightenment
while the body and mind are still intact, an extreme rarity, and can
only be achieved upon the highest most dedication, meditation and
consciousness.
Certain
peculiar practices
The
Aghoris of India consume human flesh in pursuit of immortality and
supernatural powers, they call themselves gods and according to them
they punish the sinners by rewarding them death on their way to
immortality. But it is to be noted that today they only consume the
humans who are already dead and only those who wish to be treated this
way upon death. They are looked down upon by Brahmins because of their
fascination for physical form as opposed to the immortal soul aspect of
it. Also vegetarianism which is propagated by hinduism is so completely
diregarded in that they even consume humans be it the already dead.[47]
They distinguish themselves from other Hindu sects and priests by their
alcoholic and
cannibalistic rituals.[48]
Another view of immortality is traced to the Vedic tradition by the
interpretation of
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
That man indeed whom these (contacts)
do not disturb, who is even-minded in
pleasure and pain, steadfast, he is fit
for immortality, O best of men.[49]
To Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the verse means, "Once a man has become
established in the understanding of the permanent reality of life, his
mind rises above the influence of pleasure and pain. Such an unshakable
man passes beyond the influence of death and in the permanent phase of
life: he attains eternal life ... A man established in the understanding
of the unlimited abundance of absolute existence is naturally free from
existence of the relative order. This is what gives him the status of
immortal life."[49]
Islam
The
Golden Gate in Jerusalem, known as "The Gate of Eternal
Life" in Arabic, as it stood in 1900
|
This
section has been nominated to be checked for its
neutrality. Discussion
of this nomination can be found on the
talk page. (October 2010)
|
|
This
section needs attention from an expert in Islam.
Please add a reason or a
talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with
the section.
WikiProject Islam (or its
Portal) may be able to help recruit an expert.
(May 2008) |
And they say [non-believers in Allah], "There is not but our worldly
life; we die and live
(i.e., some people die and others live, replacing them) and nothing
destroys us except time." And when Our verses are recited to them as
clear evidences, their argument is only that they say,
"Bring [back] our forefathers, if you should be truthful."
Say, "Allah causes you to live, then causes you to die; then He will
assemble you for the Day of Resurrection,
about which there is no doubt," but most of the people do not
know.(Quran, 45:24–26)
Muslims
believe that everyone will be resurrected after death. Those who
believed in Islam and led an evil life will undergo correction in
Jahannam (Hell)
but once this correction is over, they are admitted to
Jannat (Paradise) and attain immortality.[citation
needed] Infidels on the other hand and those who
committed unforgivable evil will never leave Hell. Some individuals will
therefore never taste Heaven.
(Quran,002.028) "How can ye reject the faith in Allah?- seeing
that ye were without life, and He gave you life; then will He cause
you to die, and will again bring you to life; and again to Him will
ye return."
Muslims believe that the present life is a trial in preparation for
the next realm of existence. He says [man says], "Who will give life to
bones while they are disintegrated?" Say, "He will give them life who
produced them the first time; and He is, of all creation, Knowing." [It
is Allah] He who made for you from the green tree, fire, and then from
it you ignite. Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to
create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing
Creator. (Quran, 36:78–81)
But those who disbelieve say, "The Hour (i.e., the Day of Judgment)
will not come to us." Say, "Yes, by my Lord, it will surely come to you.
[Allah is] the Knower of the unseen." Not absent from Him is an atom's
weight within the heavens or within the earth or [what is] smaller than
that or greater, except that it is in a clear register – That He may
reward those who believe and do righteous deeds. Those will have
forgiveness and noble provision. But those who strive against Our verses
[seeking] to cause failure (i.e., to undermine their credibility) – for
them will be a painful punishment of foul nature. (Quran, 34:3–5)
Judaism
In both Judaism and Christianity, there is no biblical support of
"soul immortality" as such.[citation
needed] The focus is on attaining resurrection life
after death on the part of the believers.
Judaism claims that the righteous dead will be resurrected in the
Messianic age with the coming of the messiah. They will then be
granted immortality in a perfect world. The wicked dead, on the other
hand, will not be resurrected at all. This is not the only Jewish belief
about the afterlife. The
Tanakh
is not specific about the afterlife, so there are wide differences in
views and explanations among believers.
The
Hebrew Bible speaks about
Sheol
(שאול), originally a synonym of the grave-the repository of the dead or
the cessation of existence until the Resurrection. This doctrine of
resurrection is mentioned explicitly only in
Daniel 12:1–4 although it may be implied in several other texts. New
theories arose concerning Sheol during the
intertestamental literature. Some Hellenistic Jews postulated that
the soul (nefesh נפש) was really immortal and that Sheol was actually a
destination of the dead awaiting the Resurrection, a syncretic form of
Platonic Philosophy. By the 2nd century BC, Jews who accepted the
Oral Torah had come to believe that those in Sheol awaited the
resurrection either in Paradise (in the
bosom of Abraham) or in Torment (Tartarus).
Taoism
It is repeatedly stated in
Lüshi Chunqiu that death is unavoidable.[50]
Henri Maspero noted that many scholarly works frame Taoism as a
school of thought focused on the quest for immortality.[51]
Isabelle Robinet asserts that Taoism is better understood as a way of
life than as a religion, and that its adherents do not approach or
view Taoism the way non-Taoist historians have done.[52]
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrians believe that on the fourth day after death, the human
soul leaves the body and the body remains as an empty shell. Souls would
go to either heaven or hell; these concepts of the afterlife in
Zoroastrianism may have influenced Abrahamic religions. The word
immortal is driven from the month "Amurdad", meaning "deathless" in
Persian, in the
Iranian calendar (near the end of July). The month of Amurdad or
Amertata is celebrated in Persian culture as ancient Persians believed
the "Angel of Immortality" won over the "Angel of Death" in this month.[53]
Ethics of
immortality
The possibility of clinical immortality raises a host of medical,
philosophical, and religious issues and ethical questions. These include
persistent vegetative states, the nature of personality over time,
technology to mimic or copy the mind or its processes, social and
economic disparities created by longevity, and survival of the
heat death of the universe.
Undesirability of immortality
The doctrine of immortality is essential to many of the world's
religions. Narratives from Christianity and Islam assert that
immortality is not desirable to the unfaithful:
The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with
Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where
he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away
with Lazarus by his side. He called out, 'Father Abraham, have
mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in
water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.'
But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you
received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil
things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.
Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been
fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you
cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.'
Those who are wretched shall be in the Fire: There will be for
them therein (nothing but) the heaving of sighs and sobs: They
will dwell therein for all the time that the heavens and the
earth endure, except as thy Lord willeth: for thy Lord is the
(sure) accomplisher of what He planneth. And those who are
blessed shall be in the Garden: They will dwell therein for all
the time that the heavens and the earth endure, except as thy
Lord willeth: a gift without break.
The modern mind has addressed the undesirability of immortality.
Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov commented, "There is nothing
frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than
eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven."
Physical immortality has also been imagined as a form of eternal
torment, as in
Mary Shelley's short story "The Mortal Immortal", the protagonist of
which witnesses everyone he cares about dying around him.
Jorge Luis Borges explored the idea that life gets its meaning from
death in the short story "The
Immortal"; an entire society having achieved immortality, they found
time becoming infinite, and so found no motivation for any action. In
his book "Thursday's Fictions", and the stage and film adaptations of
it,
Richard James Allen tells the story of a woman named Thursday who
tries to cheat the cycle of reincarnation to get a form of eternal life.
At the end of this fantastical tale, her son, Wednesday, who has
witnessed the havoc his mother's quest has caused, forgoes the
opportunity for immortality when it is offered to him.[54]
Likewise, the novel
Tuck Everlasting depicts immortality as "falling off the wheel of
life" and is viewed as a curse as opposed to a blessing.
University of Cambridge philosopher Simon Blackburn, in his essay
"Religion and Respect," writes, ". . . things do not gain meaning by
going on for a very long time, or even forever. Indeed, they lose it. A
piece of music, a conversation, even a glance of adoration or a moment
of unity have their alloted time. Too much and they become boring. An
infinity and they would be intolerable."
Politics
Although scientists state that radical life extension, delaying and
stopping aging are achievable,[55]
there are still no international or national programs focused on
stopping aging or on radical life extension. In 2012 in Russia, and then
in the United States, Israel and the Netherlands, pro-immortality
political parties were launched. They aimed to provide political support
to anti-aging and radical life extension research and technologies and
at the same time transition to the next step, radical life extension,
life without aging, and finally, immortality and aim to make possible
access to such technologies to most currently living people.[56]
Symbols
There are numerous symbols representing immortality. Pictured here is
an Egyptian
symbol of life that holds connotations of immortality when depicted in
the hands of the
gods and
pharaohs
who were seen as having control over the journey of life, the
ankh
(left). The
Möbius strip in the shape of a
trefoil knot is another symbol of immortality. Most symbolic
representations of infinity or the life cycle are often used to
represent immortality depending on the context they are placed in. Other
examples include the
Ouroboros, the Chinese fungus of longevity, the ten
kanji,
the
phoenix, the
peacock in Christianity,[57]
and the colors
amaranth (in
Western culture) and
peach (in
Chinese culture).
Fiction
Immortal
species
abound in
fiction, especially in
fantasy literature.
See also
- List of life extension-related topics
References
-
^
Marshall Fredericks (2003).
"GCVM History and Mission". Greater Cleveland Veteran's
Memorial, Inc. Retrieved
2009-01-14.
-
^
Oxford English Dictionary "Immortality"
-
^
a
b
Gilbert,
Scott F. (2006).
"Cheating Death: The Immortal Life Cycle of Turritopsis".
Retrieved 2009-06-14.
-
^
de Grey, Aubrey; Rae, Michael
(September 2007).
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse
Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York, New York:
St. Martin's Press. p. 416.
ISBN 0-312-36706-6.
- ^
a
b
Joel Garreau (October 31, 2007).
"The Invincible Man". Washington Post: C01.
-
^
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1921).
Hypertext Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. p. 6.4311.
-
^
Kurzweil, Raymond (2005).
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.
Viking Adult.
ISBN 0-670-03384-7.
-
^
Hayflick, L (2007).
"Biological Aging is No Longer an Unsolved Problem".
Annals of The New York Academy of Science.
-
^
Bernstein C, Bernstein H. (1991)
Aging, Sex, and DNA Repair. Academic Press, San Diego.
ISBN 0120928604
ISBN 978-0120928606
-
^
"Classification of diseases functioning and disability".
-
^
Sar,
V; Ozturk, E (2005). "What is Trauma and Dissociation?".
Journal of Trauma.
-
^
Walker, Peter (1991).
International Search and Rescue Teams, A League Discussion Paper.
Geneva:
League of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
-
^
Lin Kah Wai (18 April 2004).
"Telomeres, Telomerase, and Tumorigenesis -- A Review".
MedGenMed 6 (3): 19.
PMC 1435592.
PMID 15520642.
-
^
Scott F.
Gilbert (March 5, 2003).
"Cheating Death: The Immortal Life Cycle of Turritopsis".
Developmental Biology, 8th edition.
Retrieved 2007-04-02.
-
^
"'Immortal' jellyfish
swarming across the world". London:
Telegraph Media Group. January 30, 2009.
Retrieved 2009-06-14.
-
^
http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/08/01/54/PDF/stewart_Plos.pdf
-
^
"Bacteria Death Reduces Human Hopes of Immortality". New
Scientist magazine, issue 2485, page 19. February 5, 2005.
Retrieved 2007-04-02.
-
^
Gilberson, Lance, Zoology Lab
Manual, 4th edition. Primis Custom Publishing. 1999.
-
^
Clark, W.R. 1999. A Means to an
End: The biological basis of aging and death. New York:
Oxford University Press.
[1] About telomeres and programmed cell death.
-
^
Harrison's Principles of Internal
Medicine, Ch. 69, Cancer cell biology and angiogenesis, Robert
G. Fenton and Dan L. Longo, p. 454.
-
^
Williams, G.C. 1957. Pleiotropy,
natural selection and the evolution of senescence. Evolution,
11:398-411.
[2] Paper in which Williams describes his theory of
antagonistic pleiotropy.
-
^
Kirkwood, T.B.L. 1977. Evolution of
aging. Nature, 270: 301-304.
[3] Origin of the disposable soma theory.
-
^
"Resveratrol may increase life span". Phytochemicals.info.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
":: compound resveratrol may turn off a protein that guards
cancer cells from cancer-fighting therapies".
Wordpress.rudramani.com. 2009-07-13.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
MacRae,
Fiona (November 20, 2008).
"Scientists are a step closer to creating 'elixir of life'".
Daily Mail (London).
-
^
Alleyne, Richard (November 20, 2008).
"Scientists take a step closer to an elixir of youth".
The Daily Telegraph (London).
Retrieved May 5, 2010.
-
^
Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
Microbivores: Artificial Mechanical Phagocytes using Digest and
Discharge Protocol, self-published, 2001
[4]
-
^
Anders, Sandberg; Nick, Boström
(2008).
Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap. Technical Report
#2008‐3. Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University.
Retrieved 5 April 2009. "The basic idea is to take a
particular brain, scan its structure in detail, and construct a
software model of it that is so faithful to the original that,
when run on appropriate hardware, it will behave in essentially
the same way as the original brain."
-
^
Miconi T. Evolution and complexity:
the double-edged sword. Artif Life. 2008 14(3:325-44
-
^
"retrieved 23 October 2010". Elpistheory.info.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
"retrieved 23 October 2010". Accelerationwatch.com.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
"vallalar.org". vallalar.org. 2010-07-07.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
Adler, Mortimer J., ed.; et al. (1952).
The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western
World. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 788.
-
^
Dag Øistein Endsjø. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the
Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
2009:47-104.
-
^
Dag Øistein Endsjø. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the
Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
2009:54-64; 100.
-
^
Majjhima Nikaya 2.265,
Samyutta Nikaya 5.9 (PTS)
-
^
Adler, Mortimer J., ed.; et al. (1952).
The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western
World. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 784.
-
^
Van
Biema, David (February 7, 2008).
"Christians Wrong About Heaven, Says Bishop ". Time.
Retrieved May 5, 2010.
-
^ "Is There LIFE
After Death?", The Watchtower July 15, 2001. Web version
available at
[5]. Retrieved January 26, 2006.
-
^ Hell-Eternal
Torture or Common Grave? The Watchtower, April 15, 1993,
p. 6.
-
^
What Really Is Hell? The Watchtower, July 15, 2002.
-
^
The Watchtower, 1 December
1963, 732, "The Gift of Immortality"
-
^
Insight on the Scriptures
Vol. 1 p. 1196: "Incorruption"
-
^
"Jeremiah 1:5". Bible.cc.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
"Section 76 lds.org". Scriptures.lds.org.
Retrieved 2010-11-04.
-
^
The Nature of Hell. Conclusions and Recommendations by
Evangelical Alliance
-
^
Indian doc focuses on Hindu cannibal sect,
MSNBC
-
^
The Aghoris,
Channel 4
-
^
a
b
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the
Bhagavad-Gita, a New Translation and Commentary, Chapter 1-6.
Penguin Books, 1969, pp 94-95 (v 15)
-
^
Creel,
Herrlee G. (1982). What is Taoism? : and other studies in
Chinese cultural history. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press. p. 17.
ISBN 0226120473.
-
^
Maspero, Henri. Translated by Frank
A. Kierman, Jr. Taoism and Chinese Religion (University of
Massachusetts Press, 1981), p. 211.
-
^
Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth
of a Religion (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997
[original French 1992]), p. 3–4.
-
^
Hoshang, Dr. Bhadha.
http://tenets.zoroastrianism.com/topi33.html
-
^
Allen, Richard James, "Thursday's Fictions", originally
published by Five Islands Press, Wollongong, in 1999,
republished online in 2011 at the Australian Poetry Library
-
^
Scientists' Open Letter on Aging
-
^
A Single-Issue Political Party for Longevity Science
-
^
Wilson,
Ralph F.
"Peacock as an Ancient Christian Symbol of Eternal Life".
Jesus Walk Bible Study Series.
Retrieved January 18, 2011.
Further reading
- Cave, Stephen (2012).
Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives
Civilization. Crown.
ISBN 0-307-88491-0.
-
Salmond, Stewart (1903).
The Christian Doctrine of Immortality.
-
Allen, Richard James (1999). Thursday's Fictions.
Wollongong: Five Islands Press.
ISBN 0-86418-596-0.
-
Alexander, Brian (2003). Rapture: How Biotech Became the New
Religion. Basic Books.
ISBN 0-7382-0761-6.
-
Bova, Ben (2000). Immortality: How Science Is Extending Your
Life Span-and Changing the World. Avon: New York.
ISBN 0-380-79318-0.
-
Cullmann, Oscar (1955).
Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?.
Archived from
the original on 2009-10-26.
-
Endsjø, Dag Øistein (2009). Greek Resurrection Beliefs and
the Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
ISBN 0-230-61729-8.
-
de Grey, Aubrey; Rae, Michael (September 2007).
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse
Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York, New York:
St. Martin's Press. p. 416.
ISBN 0-312-36706-6.
-
Edwards, Paul (1997). Immortality. Prometheus Books.
ISBN 1-57392-130-0.
- Elixxir (2001). The Immortalist
Manifesto: Stay Young & Save the World. Authorhouse Books.
ISBN 0-7596-5339-9.
-
Freitas Jr., Robert A. (2002).
"Death is an Outrage".
Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- Hall, Stephen S. (2003).
Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
ISBN 0-618-09524-1.
- Immortality Institute (2004). The
Scientific Conquest Of Death. Libros En Red.
ISBN 987-561-135-2.
- Perry, R. Michael (2000). Forever
For All: Moral philosophy, Cryonics, and the Scientific Prospects
for Immortality. New York: Universal Publishers: New York:
Universal Publishers.
ISBN 1-58112-724-3.
-
Pickover, Clifford (2007). A Beginner's Guide to Immortality:
Extraordinary People, Alien Brains, and Quantum Resurrection.
New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.
ISBN 1-56025-984-1.
-
Rohde, Erwin (1925). Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in
Immortality among the Greeks. New York: Harper & Row.
- West, Michael D. (2003). The
Immortal Cell: One Scientist's Quest to Solve the Mystery of Human
Aging. Doubleday.
ISBN 0-385-50928-6.
External links
This audio file was created from a revision of the " Immortality"
article dated 2006-7-27, and does not reflect subsequent edits
to the article. ( Audio
help)
Religious and spiritual prospects for immortality
-
"Death and Immortality" Dictionary of the History of Ideas,
etext at the University of Virginia Library
-
"Immortality" Immortality – What Will Eternal Life Be Like?
-
The Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the Body
Lecture by Heinrich J. Vogel
-
An Essay on the Scriptural Doctrine of Immortality by
James Challis
-
Eternity: Christ’s Return, Chiliasm, Resurrection of the Dead,
Judgment, Hell, Luther on Eternity, Heaven J.P. Meyer,
The Northwestern Lutheran, August 22, 1954, Vol. 41, # 17 to
April 14, 1957, Vol. 44, #8
-
"How you Can Have Eternal Life" Jack Graham, PowerPoint
Ministries, Christianity.com
-
Got Eternal Life? Got Questions Ministries
-
Immortality Taoist essay, personaltao.com
-
The Trial to Conquer Death Ancient Scientific Yoga – The First
Atom's Final Attempt
-
[6] A review by Dr. Peter Fenwick of the book Human Immortality
by Mohammad Samir Hossain
In literature
|
|
1)
scrivi
le parole inglesi dentro la
striscia gialla 2)
seleziona il testo 3)
clicca "Ascolta il testo"
DA INGLESE A ITALIANO
Inserire
nella casella Traduci la parola
INGLESE e cliccare
Go.
DA ITALIANO A INGLESE
Impostare INGLESE anziché italiano e
ripetere la procedura descritta.
|
|