Is the human life-span finite?

In another thread, SkinWalker said:

What evidnece is there to support the notion that the human life-span is finite?

Sure, bodies a born and they die. But is the body all there is to a human?

 

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the way to test if the body is all there is to human is to change all the organs and tissues slowly throughout the life of a human into metal functioning organs or in-vitro engineered organs...and than when no last cell of original will remain. Ask that question.

 

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What you are suggesting would also require to prove that 'that which makes the body alive' does not move from one part of the body to the other - and so that when an organ or tissue is cut out and replaced, 'that which makes the body alive' is also cut out and replaced.

 

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As far as science knows today , life is definitely finite.

 

exactly

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reincarnation just cant be grasped in our days.

 

Does 'what science knows today' have any bearing on whether life is finite or not?

 

We can observe the birth and death of an individual and there is no indication or good reason to believe that they continue to live once deceased. Indeed, the body begins a steady measurable state of decay and the brain -the center of thought and consciousness- ceases to show activity. This is good reason to suggest that human life is finite.

On the other hand, there is no good reason to suggest otherwise. There is no indication that the person continues to live once the body is dead (how could it!?). Nor is there indication that there is a mechanism for such a concept to exist in reality.

Therefore, the human life is a finite process like all life.

 

the key word here is "human life", let as assume that what we started off before becoming humans is there with us after the death. Our non-human part defining us. Human is like a glove one wears, except in this case we dont know why the glove is on us and why it is taken off.

 

Nothing lasts forever, thats the way its gotta be.
Whether a 'soul' continues on is irrelevant since we are talking about life-spans.

 

but why assume that we cannot have more than one life-span?

A gamer can play more than one game. Once immersed, they forget reality.

 

Tentative argument + tentative argument = certainty.

:bugeye:

 

This is different from claiming that is finite. The assertion would be something like....so far there is no evidence that human life is not finite.

 

All conclusions in science are tentative. Nor have I made any mention of "certainty" (Nice straw man, btw).

It's arriving at a conclusion based upon evidence. Contrary to the poorly applied saying, absence of evidence is, indeed, evidence. In the 125 billion or so people who have ever been born, none have shown any evidence of possessing wings. We can, therefore, conclude that humans do not fly with their own wings. Likewise, there has never been any good evidence or good reason to suggest that human life can continue past the homogeneous decay of tissue. Therefore, we can conclude that people die.

Like all scientific explanations, however, the conclusions are conditional and contingent upon evidence. Should a member of Homo sapiens sapiens be born with wings and take flight, then the former conclusion will require revision. Should a member of H. sapiens sapiens actually survive its body, then this conclusion, too, will be revised (perhaps the sum neural activity can be "downloaded" to a new brain or artificial neural network where neurons can continue firing and, thus, a consciousness can persist out of the body).

Until such time as technology permits, human life is finite.

 

life span or life·span
n.
1. A lifetime.
2. The average or maximum length of time an organism, material, or object can be expected to survive or last.

lifespan
noun
the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death); "the battery had a short life"; "he lived a long and happy life" [syn: life]
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lifespan

There is no reason whatsoever to assume anything else.

 

Might I suggest you apply this logic elsewhere in the forums as well ?

 

So this was meant as tentative.

There is no need to conclude. Certainly not in a discussion forum, religion where this originated, even in a science forum. There is no need to state it as a fact and end a discussion.

tentatively asserted.

 

In a discussion forum there is no reason to assume, period. It is as if one must, regardless of context, assume either that life ends or it does not. One must assume one or the other. Why?

Imagine if scientists maintained this attitude in all contexts. It would inhibit advances. We have no evidence this is possible, therefore we should assume it is impossible. Next.

 

No.
There is no indication whatsoever that we are more than our body, therefor we should not assume that we are. Next.

 

Please reread my post. You just made an argument why we should not assume something. I can only assume that you did not fully read my post or did not understand it.

 

Yes, I know that's what you said. The problem is that you thought you were correcting me.