Human longevity – CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation …

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Human longevity is the length of a person's life span. The Creationist reflections on this topic typically focus on the effects of the flood on the human lifespan, and the cause of human mortality. Ancient historical documents, including the Biblical book of Genesis, record lifespans approximately 10 times above what they are currently. However, immediately after the flood, human longevity shows a rapid decline.

According to the Bible's book of Genesis, God restricted the human lifespan to 120 years during the time of the Flood:

According to the book of Psalms, the average human lifespan (which at the time of the writing would have been 3,000 years ago, and we know must have been at least 2,500 years ago given the Dead Sea Scrolls) was 70 years:

Prior to the flood, Genesis 5 records that people lived extraordinarily long lives: routinely over 900 years. Methuselah is known for living longer than any other human in history, dying at the age of 969.

This longevity is believed to be so extraordinarily long in part because environmental conditions were optimal before the Earth was destroyed during the global flood. This perhaps maintained by a stronger magnetic field or dense atmosphere which collapsed during the flood.

It should be noted that there is nothing known about the human body which would fundamentally prevent humans from having lived that long in the past, or to one day live that long again.[1] Scientists do not know why humans age and ultimately die, although some have speculated[Reference needed] that it might be due to the shortening of telomeres, which could theoretically have been much longer prior to the flood.

Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, wrote:

After the great flood, human lifespans declined quickly and precipitously as seen in the chart at right.

There are several possible factors for consideration:

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Human longevity - CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation ...