Why did people in the bible live so long?

Originally posted by Byrd

Originally posted by jimboman
Maybe the gene theory someone mentioned earlier in the thread had something to do with the longer life-spans before the flood.

...

Folks really didn't live long in "the old days." [...]

jimboman, & anyone else, here's a 10 paragraph article, on a single page, easy read that may be of interest...

www.gennet.org...

the quick read deals with [...the problem of aging....by David N Menton, Ph.D] he tells in laymans language about things like cell division limits,
what science refers to as "Hayflick's Limit",
also the "Telemore depletion theory" and processes like
'Mutation Repair' that are presently of limited utility
in our present day natural bodily processes.....
he also points out that the skin is not older than ~30days in either a younster or a 90 yr old, also the cells in the intestine get replaced in only 4 days, & that the heart cells are one of the few areas that cells don't rejuvinate/replace/?heal?
and a lot of other thought provoking data.!! in a short article




I do acknowledge & go with Byrd's statement that
"Folks really didn't live long in "the old days".

but..........the exceptionally long life phenomena is not an impossibility,
as long as the cell division limits, the cell replacement mechanisms are not restricted by the deterioration of the dna strings, mutations & free radical damages can be remedied, etc etc etc
then, if science cooperates, it is potentially possible in the future for a person to live, say 200-500 years....
& whose to say that in the first 1,000-1,500 years after the biblical creation, that the 'Adam' line of men didn't live long lives as the Genesis account tells us.



[edit on 12-1-2007 by St Udio]

Originally posted by GriBiT
I've always been intersted in the long life spans spoke about in the bible. Life spans of 100's of years. Over 900 in the case of Adam. Then they slowly decrease over time. After "Noas flood" they decreased even more until they reached the average age that we have now (70 years give or take).

A mutation occurred which re-enabled the production of functional L-gulono-gamma-lactone oxidase. This caused people carrying these gene alleles to have significantly longer life spans. Over time it bred out. Now no-one has functional GLO anymore.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

whose to say that in the first 1,000-1,500 years after the biblical creation, that the 'Adam' line of men didn't live long lives as the Genesis account tells us

you're kidding right
you're taking one example of old age from a religious text and treating it like its solid evidence
dude its a religious text it was written around 650bce by a group of Hebrew slaves to make themselves feel good about their #ty circumstances and in the most part rewritten from texts that existed in mesopotamia and which can still be read
the bible has been proven false in certain areas time and time again
you really haven't heard the term "poetical license" have you


perhaps you could just explain to me how it was that of every race on earth who were writing things down at this time it was only the Hebrews who claimed this remarkable age in their texts
its not therefore a human ability
its just a Jewish one

now if this were true out of the top ten oldest people who have lived recently you'd expect half of them to be hebrew wouldn't you
none of them were
not a one


theres no need to disprove the ages of the Patriarchs in the bible
first of all you'd have to prove it
and you havent done that yet
have you

im not sure if this was suggested or not(if so sorry). but could it have been back in the old days the earth rotated faster around the sun.

i know the the earth has been known to rotate faster on a daily basis back during the days of biblical dating. its speed has fluctuated due to magnetic pole switching through time. according to geologist the last switch occurred about 2500 or 3000 years ago. this only accounts for the days being longer or shorter depending on what end of the switch its on. but maybe there is a connection to the yearly cycle as well????

just a thought

this doent not explain the much larger ages portrayed in the bible tho.

just a small amount would be accounted for. like an additional 10-40 years



[edit on 13-1-2007 by Glyph_D]

Maybe the answer is sin?
It says in the Bible that all sin leads to death.
If man had multiplied, than so had his sins (collectively), making death come sooner.

Maybe because they did not smoke, take manufactured drugs, and drink hard liquor.

Don't forget that they did not have the processed and genetically modified foods we have. Their air was cleaner and they worked harder therefore they were fitter. They did not use fossil fuels either.

Some of the diseases rife in our modern world were perhaps unheard of then because they are diet and lifestyle related.

I am not trying to be sarcastic...I am serious...makes sense to me

My theory is that people at that time had no real clue how long a year was. They went by the cycles of the moon and thought that was the year. (unless you lived in egypt.)

So yea people thought that they were living hundreds of years because they had no idea what a year was.

well you last two guys are failing to take into account that there are only 23 people in the bible accredited with long life spans
so people not knowing what a year was is out because everyone else was living normal modern lifespans
and it being something to do with diseases is out unless you can account for a reason why these diseases chose not to affect these 23 biblical patriarchs

you know you could always ask a Rabbi
last time i did that he said that it was because the writers of the bible wanted these few men to be regarded as extremely wise and that ascribing them a great age although not factually true was a way of saying they were blessed and they were clever
and you know really
A rabbi would know the answer to this one

Originally posted by GriBiT travelers (with long life spans) crashed and were marooned here and mixed with humans here on Earth, then over time the "Alien" age span decreased as it was diluted over the many generations until modern times.

Sounds a Bit "MiddleEarthish" To me

Originally posted by Marduk

whose to say that in the first 1,000-1,500 years after the biblical creation, that the 'Adam' line of men didn't live long lives as the Genesis account tells us

perhaps you could just explain to me how it was that of every race on earth who were writing things down at this time it was only the Hebrews who claimed this remarkable age in their texts
its not therefore a human ability
its just a Jewish one

in the link provided (which i did not attempt to cover in depth) the author in the opening paragraph cites that other civilizations also had ?myths?
of long lived heros/demigods/founding personnages....
these included the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Indians, Chinese
i'm sure a longer list exists, but these civilizations either were older than the tribes of Isrealites & Jews, or at around the same era....which points out the almost universality of the exceedingly long-life traditions in different groups.

since the Bible & Torah accounts are most often in the western worlds conscious & discussions....that is why i brought up the Genesis story of the long-lived Patriarchs ~not because that story has anymore veracity or authority than other traditions~

thanks for dissecting the post i contributed to the thread
~~~~~~~~~~~


after thought:

??...the 'Adam' line of men...??
may fall into a mix of theology-anthropology rather than the human physiology which this thread seems pointed at...

but, think about it Marduk, the tribal G0d of the Bible, had to engineer
something just-as-good, or even better, than the human models the other
heavenly G0ds were creating in other parts of the world...hence the long-lives attributes.
The 'Adam' line of men, were GM'd models too, it's just that the heavenly G0ds, engineered the longevity genes or functions to progressively deteriorate, and over the course of several generations to become a known but lost attribute that could only be regained thru that particular G0ds' process of "Salvation" [keeping the pets in the cage model]

including the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Indians and Chinese

I read this
but it simply isn't true
the Babylonians do not claim anywhere that any of their number lived beyond the standard life span
i know this for a fact
the Romans also did not claim to have anyone who was human of a great age
neither did the greeks
so basically the piece you linked to is a piece of crap
but then when you actually consider why it exists namely

The Missouri Association for Creation (M.A.C.) was founded in 1972 by two graduate students at the University of Missouri in Columbia. These students felt a need to establish a forum from which they could critically examine the scientific evidence as it pertains to the origin of the Cosmos in general and living organisms in particular. As the name chosen for the organization suggests, they were convinced on the basis of their own study that a careful consideration of the scientific evidence would overwhelmingly favor a creation model over against an evolutionary model of origins.

creationists believe that the world was built in 7 days by a guy called God in 4004bce
this link to a scholarly Hebrew discussion will tell you how valid that is
www.youtube.com...
I'm starting to think that the "St" part of your nick has gone to your head
normally you present valid arguments with good links
this time
just the reverse
are you trying to get canonised by the catlicks or something ?

"I know this for a fact"


O! do you now. Are you credible in the history of the babylonians? How do you know this for a fact. Please tell. Oh and your link to youtube, is perfect evidence. Considering everyone knows how reliable youtube is.

[edit on 15-1-2007 by spaceman16]

[edit on 15-1-2007 by spaceman16]

[edit on 15-1-2007 by spaceman16]

Originally posted by Marduk



I'm starting to think that the "St" part of your nick has gone to your head
normally you present valid arguments with good links
this time
just the reverse
are you trying to get canonised by the catlicks or something ?

?? perhaps the "St" actually represents a Studder.

the link & the info it contained wasn't intended to change your (or anyones)
viewpoint and the link isn't exactly in line with my thinking either.....
i put the opinion out there as an opinion, not as an absolute scientific fact,
so the reader can see & compare...

If you'll note in my little free association ~after-thought~ addition at the bottom of the post,
you will note I take the view that men are like different models of cars, developed/(re)engineered by different creators all over the earth.
& that 'men' are just one line, as there were the 'Heros', 'Demigods' also
and that stand is hardly compatible with (your term) 'catlicks' view of religion & spirituality, dogma or cannons.

take the exaggerated longevity issue up with the threads recognized academic & science oriented person, Byrd...s/he will cite accredited sources about ancients' living hundreds & thousands of years...



gotta go now, cheers





[edit on 15-1-2007 by St Udio]

Byrd...s/he will cite accredited sources about ancients' living hundreds & thousands of years...

accredited by who
a scribe with a priestly agenda
thats not accreditation
thats religion

its very rarely factual

Originally posted by GriBiT
I've always been intersted in the long life spans spoke about in the bible. Life spans of 100's of years. Over 900 in the case of Adam. Then they slowly decrease over time. After "Noas flood" they decreased even more until they reached the average age that we have now (70 years give or take). Whenever I think of this I recall a book by Irwin Ginsburgh, Ph.D. and his book "First, Man. Then Adam!". He reviews Genisis from a different perspective. Implying that travelers (with long life spans) crashed and were marooned here and mixed with humans here on Earth, then over time the "Alien" age span decreased as it was diluted over the many generations until modern times. He also goes into other aspects of Genesis like that when God said l"let there be light" it may have refered to the big bang. Also passages such as something refering to old scripture saying Adam came to the third planet from the sun, as if from outside out solar system. My excerpts don't do his thesis justice, but you get the general idea.

Wanted to get this started while I continued research on this.

This link shows a chart of ages in the bible as a start.
On this site they have a different hypothethis, but I don't fully agree with it. They talk about the age dropping after "Noas flood" but it took quite a while for the life span to slowly decrease. I really added this link just to show a visual of the life spans in the bible in a chart.

Bible Life Span Chart

I really want to find something online to link to about the book "First, Man. Then, Adam!" I'll keep searching. In the mean time....Your thoughts?

because their age is not referred to an human age

Originally posted by Marduk
well you last two guys are failing to take into account that there are only 23 people in the bible accredited with long life spans
so people not knowing what a year was is out because everyone else was living normal modern lifespans
and it being something to do with diseases is out unless you can account for a reason why these diseases chose not to affect these 23 biblical patriarchs

you know you could always ask a Rabbi
last time i did that he said that it was because the writers of the bible wanted these few men to be regarded as extremely wise and that ascribing them a great age although not factually true was a way of saying they were blessed and they were clever
and you know really
A rabbi would know the answer to this one

I failed !!! Oh well sucks to be me

I figured it out! Marduk is a secret agent sent in by ATS to make us all fight! Marduk, you're not getting paid are you?

ATS wouldn't be as poppular if we all agreed, right? We wouldn't be trying to search out more and proving more if there was no doubt.

The last person that made us fight all the time was Nygdan. Nygdan's more agreeable these days, or is on other missions.

Or is Nygdan now Marduk?


I couldn't help myself. Oh, I blew the cover. You're going to have to erase this post like it never happened.

Ha Ha

actually last time I checked Nygdan was a member of the mod team
I don't make you all fight all the time
I just make you guys who make it up as you go along look badly informed and sometimes stupid all the time
If that in future makes you actually consider evidence and stop trying to sound like experts on something you know nothing about then thats job done imo

you would do well to actually pay attention to the subject matter than to post what is purely a personal attack Lostinpieces

although I'm not bothered some people must be wondering why you're so bad at research you can't actually formulate a sensible reply to anything
oh and I'm still waiting for you to provide scientific evidence that the world is hollow like you claimed
anytime you're ready

I dont know if someone allready spouted what I am about to, I dont have time right now to go over everyones replies... First off I am an atheist and no longer believe this to be true but this was what I figured at some point..
In the beginning things were perfect, man was a perfect genetic creation, no mutations no susceptibility to sickness or disease and the environment was perfect as well which allowed for the long lifespans.. than came the flood and the rapid decrease in longevity of mankind, no longer would the environment allow for the long lifespan, the genes started to mutate rapidly and were passed on in an alarming rate to offspring... Thats all I have to say about that.

In the beginning things were perfect, man was a perfect genetic creation,

in the beginning we evolved from earlier forms of man
and the diseases evolved with us
so realistically
the there is no beginning for mankind because we have always been here
though we havent always been human