re: 7th day adventists and life extension

david gobel (davegobel@erols.com)
Wed, 20 Jan 1999 11:49:58 -0800

Hi...I'm the one -

>there was a comment by a jehovahs witness i saw yesterday.
>that group also has the notion of soul sleep, but are less open
>to medical technology methinks. witness, are you still out there?
>comments? spike

Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe the Bible teaches the existence of an immaterial/immortal soul. We believe that we are entirely composed of material found on Earth (adham=Earthling-clay-human in hebrew), and when (sadly) we die, we are recycled to dirt. Jehovah's Witnesses' position on life is that we want to prolong it because it is a really cool gift. Kinda necessary in fact. We want to live forever. We believe that was the original intention. We will accept any medical procedure or method which has proven to be beneficial in double blind studies with ONE well publicized exception. We don't smoke. We don't take non-prescription addictive or hallucinogenic drugs. We are sexually monagamous. We may drink alcholic beverages in moderation. We drink coffee. I eat meat in small quantities - personal choice. I avoid saturated fat -personal choice. I practice CRAN to the degree my will power allows. I take low dose melatonin, anti-oxidants, and vitamins/minerals etc. Currently I avoid HG and DHEA because I feel that more research on dosing/periodicity needs to be done. I exercise both my body and mind, pursue that which in the long term helps me be happy, and drop that which makes me unhappy. Jehovah's Witnesses interestingly are a historical descendant of the Adventist movement. We have not done statistical studies on mortality within our community. Yet I personally know very many who have made it well past 90...my wife's grandmother just died at the age of 94 - many of her relatives of that generation are still alive AND active. Generally, we take responsibility for those who are aged among us, and therefore if the aged do go to nursing homes it is because the family is medically unable to care for their needs properly.

The only currently practiced medical procedure we avoid is blood transfusion. I do not desire to get into a flame war on this subject. Please however, do not presume my reasons are apriori irrational. I'm not sensitive on the subject, I just don't want to be seen to be the cause of controvery outside the boundary of the discussion space of this list.

Dave Gobel