Comments for Eden: The Sequel at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 11 out of 11 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Fri, 24 May 2013 06:19:12 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8351 There is a flaw in this article. God indeed changeg His mind and reduced the human lifespan. We can read it in Genesis 6, 3: "And God said: My spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years". The meaning is, that man's days, which before the flood were usually 900 years, should now be reduced to 120 years. That was a punishment established by God on account of the sins of the men on earth. - indignantcatholic Sun, 02 Oct 2011 09:05:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8330 "We are meant for death and death is not our enemy." I would never argue for excessive prolongation of life as fallen man's medical goal but it is quite wrong and careless terminology to see death as anything but our enemy. It is death which was slain at Calvary. - dpence Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:30:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8282 The "average" age of people has nothing to do with longevity, Brad. Longevity has to do with whether man's body itself can survive past, say, 120 years. The "average" age when people die has to do with general health. and, it's even more absurd to think that a 40 year old in 1850 was the equivalent of an 80 year old today. Even if most people died by age 40 in 1850, which isn't the case if you exclude infant mortality, a 40 year old then is the same as a 40 year old today. (Except that he probably dressed and behaved like an adult and didn't run around in jeans, Reebocks and T-shirt like his 14 year-old son). - Fred Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:36:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8280 Demographically, the problem in Social Security is that we have TOO FEW people of working age to support the people who want to retire. This isn't Malthus; Au Contraire! In Greece, twenty-five sets of four grandparents, (100) on average, have only forty-two grandchildren to support them. Is it surprising that the Greek government cannot continue making the retirement payments they are currently making to their oldsters? In the USA, the "Woodstock generation" failed to give birth to enough children to support them IF they retired as early as age 67. How about 70? How about 73? If you don't have enough children to support your retirement, you better work long enough to save PLENTY. (Twelve years of retirement income? Maybe fifteen?) TeaPot562 - TeaPot562 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:13:50 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8278 People have been willing to do extreme things to limit population when longevity is in the mid to 3/4 century range. If a rich powerful elite discerns that they can be living hundreds of years the desire to suppress, control and limit the masses will be ..... - Steve Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:25:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8274 A more plausible scenario is one in which "youth" is guaranteed up to age 70, when the "Sandmen" come to put you down -- unless you're one of the "best and brightest", say, a US President-for-Life, in which case your life is extended indefinitely. But the MOST plausible scenario is this: "For the hoary social curse Gets hoarier and hoarier, And it stinks a trifle worse Than in The days of Queen Victoria, When They married and gave in marriage, They danced at the County Ball, And some of them kept a carriage, AND THE FLOOD DESTROYED THEM ALL." Perhaps this time it would be an epidemic rather than a flood, but the idea is the same. - Howard Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:33:15 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8273 Moderns scoff at multi-century lifespans in the bible. But what if today the AIDS virus were to become spreadable by mosquitoes, to everyone on earth, and there were no cure or treatment? Children would all be born with it, and we would live to be 20 or 30 at most, dying of other diseases and infections we would be unable to fight off. Eventually in the future, people would scoff at the stories of lifespans of 80, 90 and 100 as if they too were mythical. How do we know something like this didn't happen in the past, an inbred infection that has made us lose our 500-year life expectancy? These stories could be true. - Mike Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:14:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8270 Malthusian nightmare. - DrMac Mon, 26 Sep 2011 08:06:11 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8257 Today's epistle from St. Paul to the Philippians 2:1-11 is perhaps the most recognizable of the Pauline passages; it is among my favorite. I hear the "....that at the NAME of JESUS, every knee must bend...." and the very hair on my head tingles with expectancy, longing, hope and the "let me bend now my Lord, now and then," plea arises in my heart with tears streaming down....to behold Him and be so honored to be low before Him..... but the passages opens with a great appeal from St. Paul. For a complete oneness, for humility, for imitation of Christ's own emptying instead of Adam's grasping. Isn't this grasping of Eden's apple the lie of our culture? Our 21st Century culture of Death: birth control, abortion, sterilization, euthanasia, pulling-the-plug and denying food and water on the one hand, denying and killing present life, yet All-Powerful in the name of progress and science, pouring countless dollars into an abyss of transplants, stem-cells, life extensions? Only the very kenosis of Christ lived and poured out in our own lives will complete both the "joy of St. Paul" and bring the life everlasting we all long for. "So in life or in death, we are the Lord's." - debby Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:08:37 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8256 Interesting piece, Brad. Imagine what living to 969 would do to the Social Security trust fund! Methusaleh likely would have not collected even a tenth. Then what would he have done? Even 150 would break the Treasury so perhaps it's best that we be satisfied to get our "biblical 70". As for age, what does it matter what number you reach? As Mark Twain said, "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." - Grump Sun, 25 Sep 2011 04:56:41 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2011/eden-the-sequel.html#comment-8255 My business is the area of financial and estate planning and I meet clients of intelligence and means every day. I have known some for years and they are quite candid with me. They look at their lives as one Long March to raise money to spend on the high costs of living in this area, the education of their children and "putting something away" for their retirement. Then they have been dealing with the external world of finance since 2008 and an economy resulting from a collapsing empire. Two income families have become a necessity. They will admit that life makes very little sense to them, religion, even for serious Catholics, is almost a hobby, and they await the day they pass from this earth quickly so they don't spend ten years in a nursing home with a festoon of dribble from the left side of their mouths due to the stroke they suffered when they were eighty-three. It is an interesting piece, Brad, and I look forward to the feedback from the readers. - Manfred Sat, 24 Sep 2011 19:44:35 +0100