If science discovers immortality, how will it effect religion?

Question

If scientists ever discover how to make people physically immortal, how do you think it will effect religious beliefs?

Answer 1

It depends of which religion you are talking. Some religions will take it in their stride and adapt, others will simply try to interpret it as the apocalypse and will then preach about trying to kill off all the imortals. Most religions will just keep preaching the same old thing except, the immortal human beings will have to listen to it for ever.

Answer 2

Great question! Wow, you could write a Ph.D. thesis on it. The following are a few of my first thoughts:

First of all, I don't think that scientific immortality and religion are necessarily mutually exclusive. One could make the case that God gave us the intelligence to figure it out. On the other hand, for some people with rigid religious beliefs, it might be extremely threatening. It would certainly have major implications for religion, and people, being the way humans are, would probably have a range of responses from denial and/or backlash to abandonment of religious beliefs, and everything in between.

There would need to be some sort of heavy-duty rethinking of things, including how to conduct one's life and society if immortality became possible.

By the way, it is spelled "affect."

Answer 3

its not going to happen,
tellimeres get destroyed every time a cell renews ,science allready knows how top replace them ,thus we would think to be able to live for ever right ,but
each time a cell divides we have the reality of chromosonal cross-over ,its a pure numbers game a small percentage will cause crossing over complications.
then there are every day accidents
that called death rate is only a small part caused /resultant of old age ,even immortals have problems with a car running over them,
then there is disease and self harm [self harm kills many more than car accidents] ,then there is things like black death ,germs and virus ,they to can will /might become immortal, its not even a matter of doudht ,its in the numbers ,science fact and fiction let alone the costs involved
you think its going to be cheap
medical costs have doubled in the last 6 years,
i rekon the poor will need religioun for longer than your question would suggest..
thus have no doudt ,if when it comes to so few ,it wont affect most of us in the least ,and religious beliefs not at all
when it comes it will be as the cure for baldness ,stop taking it you go bald again ,that research is expensive as you should be able to guess.

Answer 4

If scientists do discover it (which I strongly doubt), it could go either way. 1. people will strengthen their beliefs since they will be abale to serve God more and appreciate Him more 2. People will lose belief since they think God won't be able to harm the immortal and that he doesn't exist.

Answer 5

God himself has given Jesus and his anointed ones immortality. Yes, Jesus wasnt immortal in the beginning so are the other angels. All of them relies on God.

There is a difference in immortality and eternal life, in that immortality is independent from the life support God gives.

Answer 6

people rarely live past 100... making someone live to even 150 would be incredibly difficult. immortality is nearly impossible unless we became borgs like on star trek & our cells were integrated with computer systems (which could even break down themselves)

we've already had people experience brain death and then come back to life - so that's probably the closest thing... did they go to heaven and then get pulled back out? some actually say they do (the light, the tunnel, their relatives, etc... ) but doctors currely believe this is just an artifact of lack of oxygen to the brain.

Answer 7

The same has happened when
1. Galileo discovered the earth was round and not flat
2. Charles Darwin gave his theory of evolution that said that human were not created in the image of god, but have evolved from apes.
The clergy, pope, bishop, ayatullah khomeini will protest and threaten -- but ultimately they will accept the truth, it is a physical truth, you cannot wish it off. But the Bible and Quran will still remain -- they have a good number of (weak) followings.

Answer 8

no religion of this world dis-approves the immortality, in-fact base of every religion is immortality i.e god, so it would not make any difference. it will go in favor of religion.

more over i think that we never be so technically advance that we ever got the status of immortality. lets hope

Answer 9

considering the fundamentalists,
the religious will go on saying how this proves some god in some way, maybe saying that god has judged us and it's his gift. some fundamental christians for example might think god has once again granted humanity the right to live really long like in the days of adam and eve or noah which was temporarily withheld for our sins or whatever.
another possibility is that suicide will become religiously acceptable as its the only way to go meet god in the face of the lack of natural death. maybe group suicides or something.
or they will say its an attempt by the devil/satan's minions to prevent us from dying to go to heaven.
or that it is a test and we must reject the temptation to enjoy worldly pleasures forever.

Answer 10

"These constants came to him and he knew them to be true without the need of physical proof, but still the uncertainties of before went unsolved and plagued his restless mind. He thought too of the ramifications upon human culture should this new technology be made public. He looked at the ceaseless violence and selfish brutality of humankind toward one another and the so very primitive and barbaric religious practices still present in their so called ‘modern society’. And the greatest of all his doubts came to him - should he be the one responsible for giving these creatures the power to become Gods?"

J. Travis