Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

For Realist
Thank you for trying to explain your belief Realist, but I cannot begin to accept it because - biologic knowledge, observation of how the world works and experience will not let me accept it. Apart from which I would not want to live as long as you claim we can - it would be no nirvana - it would be a torture - a hell even - and also a very selfish thing to want. I am content to accept my allotted life span, however many more years it may be - I do not wish for everlasting life - for it is not possible - it does not exist (except perhaps in your mind).

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

I have

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

Ah, bless.

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

I was thinking the same exact thing

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

Ta Da!!!

https://www.petfinder.com/cat-breeds/Sphynx


Rehab's wrinkly cat!!!

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

Nature is all around you and she demonstrates daily how things operate. Do not the trees, every year, shed their leaves and then next season begin to grow again, sprouting new brangches, new buds, new leaves? They are in a long cycle of renewal taking nourishment (life energy) from the ground, the air and the sun.

Does Nature not show you repeatedly how she can reduce something back to its "first matter" and then reform it into something else? Do bodies buried in the ground stay there forever? Nope.

Seek and you will find.

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

No they decompose, just as a joint of beef would if it was left and never eaten. Any body that is not contained in a box will give energy though, in the form of fertilizer, but the body that gives that energy decomposes to the chemicals that are needed to give life to plants.
Energy never dies but human bodies do!

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

Dearest, the concepts you speak of are wonderful and all, but nothing lasts forever, not even trees. And humans are not trees. Human bodies, while remarkable in their ability to heal what's been broken, are also very fragile. We're not engineered as brilliantly as one may think.

Our lifespans, as short as they are, have been extended due to modern medicine and technology (people hundreds of years ago only lived 40 or 50 years, if they were lucky). Granted, many diseases and illnesses can be prevented. But sometimes life just happens and George dies of lung cancer although he's never smoked. Alice dies from heart disease despite eating a healthy diet and staying in shape. And what about all the innocent children with cancer? Children that should be running in the streets with their friends and playing ball and going to school and having birthday parties. Children that should be allowed to be children are laying in the hospital going through cancer treatments - many of them dying - before they've even had a chance to live. Where's the explanation (not to mention the justice) there?

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

If you knew me Realist you would perhaps realise that you do not have to lecture me about nature and how closely we are inter-related and inter-dependent. It is obvious to me that all things have their time and space in this world and everything must constantly be in a state of change/flux. When you are reduced to "first matter" as you say do you believe you will still be able to think and feel as you do now as a human being - and does it matter anyway.
These folks explain something of my thoughts and beliefs far better than I can:-

Oscar Wilde's Panthea

and

A quote from Albert Einstein

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty".

Re: As you get older is it inevitable that illnesses catch up with you?

All very nice but at the end of the day we all bloody die,