2. What hope do many entertain, and why?

² Significantly, The New York Times Magazine of September 28, 1997, featured the article “They Want to Live.” It quoted a researcher who exclaimed: “I really believe we could be the first generation that lives forever”! Perhaps you too believe that everlasting life is possible. You may think so because the Bible promises that we can live forever here on the earth. (Psalm 37:29; Revelation 21:3, 4) Yet, some people hold that everlasting life is possible for reasons other than those found in the Bible. Considering a couple of these reasons will help us to appreciate that everlasting life is really possible.

Designed to Live Forever

3, 4. (a) Why do some believe that we should be able to live forever? (b) What did David say about his formation?

³ One reason many believe that humans should be able to live forever has to do with the marvelous way in which we are made. For example, it is truly miraculous how we were formed within our mother’s womb. A leading authority on aging wrote: “After performing the miracles that take us from conception to birth and then to sexual maturation and adulthood, nature chose not to devise what would seem to be a more elementary mechanism to simply maintain those miracles forever.” Yes, considering our miraculous makeup, the question lingers, Why do we have to die?

⁴ Millenniums ago the Bible writer David contemplated those very miracles, although he could not actually see inside the womb as scientists can today. David mused about his own formation when, as he wrote, he had been ‘screened off in the belly of his mother.’ At that time, he said, ‘his kidneys were produced.’ He also told of the formation of his “bones” when, as he observed, “I was made in secret.” David then spoke of “the embryo of me” and noted in connection with that embryo within his mother’s womb: “All its parts were down in writing.”​—Psalm 139:13-16.

5. What miracles are involved in our formation in the womb?

⁵ Obviously, there was not a literal handwritten blueprint for the formation of David within his mother’s womb. But in David’s meditation on the making of his “kidneys,” his “bones,” and his other body parts, it seemed to him as though the development of these was according to a plan​—that everything was, as it were, “down in writing.” It was as if the fertilized cell within his mother had a large room full of books with detailed instructions on how to form a human baby and these complicated instructions were passed along to each emerging cell. Thus, Science World magazine uses the metaphor of ‘each cell in a developing embryo having a complete cabinet of blueprints.’

6. What evidence is there that we are, as David wrote, “wonderfully made”?

⁶ Have you ever thought about the miraculous functioning of our bodies? Biologist Jared Diamond noted: “We replace the cells lining our intestine once every few days, those lining the urinary bladder once every two months, and our red blood cells once every four months.” He concluded: “Nature is taking us apart and putting us back together every day.” What does that actually mean? It means that regardless of how many years we might live​—whether 8, 80, or even 800—​our physical body remains very young. A scientist once estimated: “In a year approximately 98 percent of the atoms in us now will be replaced by other atoms that we take in in our air, food, and drink.” Indeed, as David lauded, we are “wonderfully made.”​—Psalm 139:14.

7. Based on the design of our physical bodies, what have some concluded?

⁷ Based on the design of our physical bodies, an authority on aging said: “It is not obvious why aging should occur.” It really seems that we should live forever. And this is why men are trying to achieve this goal through their technology. Not too long ago, Dr. Alvin Silverstein wrote confidently in his book Conquest of Death: “We will unravel the essence of life. We will understand . . . how a person ages.” With what consequence? He predicted: “There will be no more ‘old’ people, for the knowledge that will permit the conquest of death will also bring eternal youth.” Considering modern scientific inquiry into the human makeup, does the thought of everlasting life sound so farfetched? There is another even stronger reason for believing that everlasting life is possible.

The New York Times Magazine article “They Want to Live” spoke of the “deity: technology” and of the “enthusiasms about technology’s potential.” One researcher was even said to be “blithely confident . . . that genetic augmentation techniques will become available in time to save [us] by halting aging, maybe reversing it.” Really, though, human efforts have proved totally ineffective in stopping aging or in conquering death.

13. How does the structure of our brain indicate that we were intended to live forever?

¹³ Does this mean that there is no way to gain everlasting life? Not at all! There is a way! The structure of our marvelous brain, with its virtually unlimited capacity for learning, should convince us of this. Molecular biologist James Watson called our brain “the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.” And neurologist Richard Restak said: “Nowhere in the known universe is there anything even remotely resembling it.” Why would we have a brain with the capacity for storing and assimilating virtually unlimited information and a body that is designed to function forever if we were not intended to enjoy everlasting life?