A question about evolution and living forever

Hey everyone this will be my first post so please go easy on me if this has already been discussed somewhere here on ATS.

My question is, if evolution is real wouldn't that mean that eventually we as humans would live forever? Now let me get this out of the way now. I am a christian but I also believe in evolution. I don't want this turning into who is right and who is wrong about this subject. I just simply want this question answered for what it is.

If I'm correct and please correct me if I am wrong as I'm not that educated with this type of stuff but doesn't evolution eliminate weak traits? Doesn't evolution make us bigger, faster, and stronger? Won't things like goosebumps and wisdom teeth be eliminated by evolution since we as humans have no need for them anymore? So my thinking is eventually won't us evolving eliminate things that may make us sick or weak? Won't we eventually over millions of years become "super human' or a race that will live forever? Another question I have is does DNA evolve and if so wouldn't that make my question even more valid?


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Not really. Some force (global warming, asteroids, etc) could collide with the earth and destroy humans. Furthermore we're not really sure why we die. We die because we get old but why? Our cells continuously reproduce and replace our old cells. Why can't we be forever young? Who knows. I think NDEs are the best evidence of living forever

reply to post by someguy0083


I realize that the chances of us actually making it to that point or slim since some outside force could eliminate us but what if for some reason we do get to that point? I also believe NDE's are a window into what happens when we die but I think that's another question and topic all in itself..

reply to post by RBinOkc


I'm still waiting for the aware study with sam parnia. If we can see things without our eyes, this would freak people out.

I remember a similar study conducted by penny sartori. None could see the pictures but they could remember things in the rooms that they couldn't see

Immortality is a useless trait for evolution, which is why it has never occurred naturally. A useful way to look at this is Dawkins's "Selfish Gene" picture of evolution, where the fundamental unit to be maintained by natural selection is not the individual, nor the group or the species, but the gene. Individuals are merely disposable vehicles for the replicating information contained in the genes. As long as the genes survive (that is, are replicated in offspring before the individual dies), the survival or death of the individual is not very important.

I mean yeah course it's possible, with evolution anything is I am told, we might even loose a toe or some crap at some point.

On a more important note how can you be a Christian and believe in the theory of Evolution..

Don't they completely contradict themselves?

reply to post by RBinOkc


Individual humans wouldn't live forever. Best case scenario is that our species survives far into the future but even then after a few million years it will probably have become a different species through the gradual change of evolution.

reply to post by Atzil321


You know I wonder why the genes are working so hard to reproduce. Is there a purpose for the genes to continuously reproduce? Is it trying to achieve something. Accordingly, I wonder how genes feel about homosexuals. Homosexuals cannot reproduce nor can the genes carry on. What would genes say to homosexuals? (note I am pro gay-marriage and pro gay-rights, get off my back).

Originally posted by Sparta
On a more important note how can you be a Christian and believe in the theory of Evolution..

Don't they completely contradict themselves?

No, they really don't.

I don't see why everyone seems to think they do.

Darwin may not have been a Christian but he wasn't an atheist.

If you don't believe me go read On the Origin of Species and do some background on him while you're at it.

reply to post by Sparta


Well I guess it depends on your interpretation of the bible.

In the beginning god created the heaven and the earth. Now if you look at the ancient Hebrew text, the term days and periods are exactly the same. So god could have created the universe in days or in periods. We don't know because the original story was passed on via words of mouth. So humans could have been created by god is terms of period.

Furthermore if we look at the universe and how evolution occurs, it looks like intelligent. Like my physicist friend once said, take all the same in the world. If the 4 fundamental forces were off by just 1 grain of sand, we wouldn't be here.

Furthermore, evolution is a bit strange. Wallace (the guy before Darwins) stated that evolution looked "intelligent." If evolution was random, then why did all this randomness equal us (humans) vs them (apes). We're basically both the same, how did we mutate this way and they did that way? How did randomness lead us here and randomness made them stay the same?

Evolution is a process, wallace questioned why? In my opinion I don't know.

reply to post by Sparta


It would be contradicting if I believed in everything I've been told to believe but I don't. I believe the words in red and honestly that's about it. Everything else is written by man with his opinions and views in mind. I believe that god started the process and time did the rest with his guidance. IMHO I just can't believe nothing started from nothing but also don't believe it just happened overnight or in 6 days.

reply to post by someguy0083

You know I wonder why the genes are working so hard to reproduce. Is there a purpose for the genes to continuously reproduce? Is it trying to achieve something. Accordingly, I wonder how genes feel about homosexuals. Homosexuals cannot reproduce nor can the genes carry on. What would genes say to homosexuals? (note I am pro gay-marriage and pro gay-rights, get off my back).

The first part of your question is akin to asking the meaning of life itself, and i can offer no satisfactory answer Homsexuality has been observed in many species, us included. So it must serve a purpose. I can't offer a full explanation though, as it is not something i have researched in any meaningful way.

reply to post by someguy0083

Yeah good point actually, I guess God or anybody else who has the right to tell anyone, ever told anyone to take the Bible literally anyway, it's just our modern interpretation of it, it just conflicts with the fundamentalist understanding, not the Bible itself,

I just read the Bible for a different reason, not for the religious view but the historical view, when you can read the meanings of it all and understand it how it was meant to be they really are impressive stories and historical accounts.

With immortality it is not needed to reproduce. Without reproduction evolution is not there.
If you consider evolution as a path to perfection that can be reached, it will eventually stop evolving.
If you consider evolution as a path to correspond in the most perfect way to an ever changing sets of variables of the surroundings you will keep evolving.

Would an immortal die if a comet hits the earth? or will he/she/it be floating alive trough space maybe in several parts?

Originally posted by someguy0083
You know I wonder why the genes are working so hard to reproduce. Is there a purpose for the genes to continuously reproduce? Is it trying to achieve something.

There's no ultimate goal, it's merely the consequence of nature selection favoring this type of "behavior".

Accordingly, I wonder how genes feel about homosexuals. Homosexuals cannot reproduce nor can the genes carry on. What would genes say to homosexuals? (note I am pro gay-marriage and pro gay-rights, get off my back).

Very few people are strictly homosexual or heterosexual. In fact, it can be argued that all humans are born bisexual. A preference of one gender over the other doesn't mean that one cannot make babies. Also, homosexual behavior might in some cases increase the chance of kins reproduction, so the chance of the genes living is still benefiting..

Originally posted by Snglddy
With immortality it is not needed to reproduce. Without reproduction evolution is not there.
If you consider evolution as a path to perfection that can be reached, it will eventually stop evolving.
If you consider evolution as a path to correspond in the most perfect way to an ever changing sets of variables of the surroundings you will keep evolving.

Would an immortal die if a comet hits the earth? or will he/she/it be floating alive trough space maybe in several parts?

Depends what you would class immortal? I mean long lasting life and complete immortality are different I guess, all depends if you are a spiritual person or not, when you would die as an immortal you might be reborn in a new physical body or live life as a spirit, hell if I know..

I think that as we evolve viruses and diseases evolve with us. I guess it would be mother nature's way of making sure she can "thin out the herd" every now and then.

reply to post by Sparta


sparta I'm in law school (HATE ME) so I understand issues of interpretation. I basically read the constitution over and over again and to be honest I have no Fing idea what it means. They are written so vaguely (well the first 10 and 14) that nobody has any idea what they mean.

For example, abortion comes from the 14th amendment..but the 14th amendment was originally created to incorporate the first 10 amendment to the states (incorporation issues). Nowhere does the 14th amendment mention abortion or a women's right to abortion. But by god it's there. We often talk about the spirit of the constitution and not the actual document itself.

I see the same regarding the bible. If you look at the whole you're going to hell for eternity thing, only the old testament mentioned it. When jesus showed up and the new testament, Jesus never mention anything about condemnation. Hell Jesus even took in prostitutes, tax collectors, and murderers. The only mention of hell was went Jesus told his followers that rejecting god will place you in a void away from God. That once you accepted god into your life, you return from the void.

Plus the rest of Jesus stories were about helping each other and being good. The Gist of the new testament is to be good to each other.

I think you have the right idea. Incorporate the bible into your life (even if you don't believe in god) to help you become a good person.

let's assuming that there is a god. I think he/she/it would care more about you being good and nice to each other than praying to him/her/it. That's my interpretation.

But then again I'm agnostic and fundamentalists scare the # out of me

reply to post by aunnie


actually I think virus and diseases are evolving faster than us with the overusing of the antibiotic thing

Originally posted by Sparta
Depends what you would class immortal? I mean long lasting life and complete immortality are different I guess, all depends if you are a spiritual person or not, when you would die as an immortal you might be reborn in a new physical body or live life as a spirit, hell if I know..

If you consider that is immortality (nothing wrong with that) there is no need to evolve to immortality. in that case being in an immortal body closes the other worlds.