Can a person make their life longer or shorter? isn't it for God to decide?

Question

by living a healthy life do you really believe you're making your life longer? and by abusing your body with substances...do you really think you'll die sooner?

Answer 1

The following is an excerpt of my 20 year old son's suicide note/will:
"The effexor XR is horrible, but it's impossible to get off of safely. Search google for "venlafaxine withdrawal". But the pain, the pills... there is no other way out. I wanted/hoped that things would improve. Paxil and effexor are evil DRUGS, made and prescribed for the profit of Pharmaceutical companies...with no care taken about the effects they have on a person's brain, body, well-being, and safety. You really should read up on the horrible experiences people have suffered due to paxil, and/or effexor. The nightmares, psychosis, feeling of a need to get up/do something, [caused by high blood pressure from these pills] suicidal thoughts, nausea, skin-crawling feeling, etc. The constant pain, strange feelings, nervousness, uneasy feelings, toothaches, dizzyness, nausea, etc. It's too much to take. I really wish the psychosis was not so bad. I feel so uneasy, strange, like I'm not ME. Tell Christina that I'm sorry about what happened when she was down here...but having a quiet, dark-at-night, private room, with t.v. shows and websites to keep me occupied, was needed for my sanity. I love you Mom, Dad, Daniel, Christina. I do not believe what I am about to do is cowardly..."

Shortly after writing his will (I have only included the parts of his will that talks about effexor and it's effects) he went to the roof of our 14 story building and jumped to his death. After his death I found on his computer an analogue of his last six days on effexor. He stated that on january 4rth of 2005 his dosage was cut back to half. Beside this dosage he states "experienced extreme psychosis on half a dose. I am praying for sleep for tonight. Tomorrow i will go back on a full dose." The next 4 days he took a full dose each day until the 9th of january, which is left blank because that is the day he committed suicide.

P.s. Substances are not only street drugs but some medications that are prescribed...THIS DRUG KILLED MY SON...in fact, in Britain, they have banned all, but one, of these types of antidepressants [called SSRI's] for youth and young adults because of the high suicide rates while on or trying to withdraw from them.
Our son was so brilliant, but this drug ruined his mind, so that he wasn't thinking clearly. To answer your question, yes a person can make their life shorter...due to circumstances not under their control. However, living a healthy life doesn't guarantee that you will live longer, because you can die from
a natural disaster, drive by shooting and on and on...you can also die from striving too hard to be healthy...a friend of mine told me that a friend at work died of a heart attack and he used to run on a daily basis to keep fit. Edgar Cayce also said that everyone is always in the right place at the right time...so I do believe that when it's your time to die, it's your time to die
The following is a poem I wrote about God taking our son:
GOD GOES FISHING

EVERYDAY GOD LIKES TO GO FISHING
TO CATCH SOME OF HIS CREATIONS

HE PUTS A LIVE WORM
ON THE END OF HIS HOOK
AND THEN LOWERS HIS HOOK
INTO THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE

AND WHOEVER IS READY TO GO HOME TO GOD,
BITES THE BAIT AND THEN DISAPPEARS

AND THAT IS THE DAY
IT IS MEANT TO BE
FOR A CHILD OF GOD
TO GO BACK HOME WITH HE

OUR SON TAYLOR BIT THE BAIT
AND LEFT THE OCEAN OF THE EARTH'S PEOPLE
TO BE WITH GOD,
TAKEN BY THE END OF GOD'S FISHING ROD
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
ON JANUARY 9TH, 2005

GOD WANTED OUR SON BACK HOME WITH HIM
THE NIGHT TAYLER DIED
GOD TOOK HIM ALIVE
EVEN THOUGH HIS BODY WAS DEAD
HE WAS TAKEN HOOK LINE AND SINKER
TO HEAVEN INSTEAD

C) 2007 operacats

Answer 2

For one part I believe everyone has a mission in this planet, the reason why God let us be and born, with the family that you have.

But actually the rest is all cause and effect, you get here with free will, so if you are breathing is because you want it to, if not other story this would be, and everyday choices makes different paths, if you take care or not, I think that is not the important, I think is how good will you do whatever you meant to come to this world to do, but, if you abuse your body with anything call it vice or else, to finish that special task will take more.

Every decision can make life not shorter or longer, instead better.

Answer 3

It is debatable as to whether ancient Biblical persons lived hundreds of years, or if there is a definitional problem with "years." Don't forget, God is said to have made the world in 6 days, but many faithful scientists say the word "day" may have originally been metaphorical.
It is not debatable that we live longer, on average, than our grandparents, and 3 times as long as primitive man. Most of that progress has been made from the "luxury's" of life, like refrigerated foods and pest control and antibiotics.

Answer 4

by living a healthy life I'm making my life healthy and likely creating more options/choices for my life. Substance abuse, unhealthy choices tend to limit one's options.

But you never really know how something will turn out. I can make all kinds of healthy choices and a plane could fall out of the sky and kill me. Or I could lay down on the railroad tracks and have my legs cut off and live to get prosthetics and run faster than ever.

I think it's funny to suggest God is 'deciding' when I'm going to die, as though he's watching me like a bug in a box.

I am a part of God, created in Its own image.

Answer 5

Of course. If I shoot myself, haven't I killed myself? If so, then I have made my life shorter, and it stands to reason I will be able to make my life shorter other ways as well, whether those other ways are jumping off a building, poisoning myself with cyanide, or poisoning myself with unhealthy living.

If when I shoot myself I have not killed myself, then why is there any religious prohibitions on suicide? Or murder? If my killing myself isn't really me shortening my life, but rather God deciding to shorten my life, then it is not really suicide, not under my control, and so not something that is a sin. Likewise, if I shoot someone else, and they die, it is not really me shortening their life, but rather God deciding to shorten their life. And so I have not killed them, have had no control over them dying, and so could not have done anything wrong. This is all absurd, but it is what follows from believing that people cannot affect the length of life, that it is all in God's hands.

Answer 6

Edgar Cayce said that there are people who have not died.
As long as your desire is serve and help people you may live forever...it is our own selfishness that ends our stay here.
The bible states that if you..."honor thy mother and father" you will extend your life in the land.
Its really up to you.

I don't believe that it is solely one's self indulgent narcissism that keeps them going. It is more how they can serve and contribute to the whole, or the ONE ("GoD", the electricty, the Lifeforce that contains all things).
In that service you become of value in sustaining that which sustains you.
As if a single cell in your body could combat destructive cells and preserve you for ever. That is how YOU come to be in "HIS" service.
An asset to "God" and all within HIM.

How long would you keep such a cell in your body, if you could keep it for as long as you wished?

Answer 7

instead of putting your life-expectations in GODS hands all of us have their own responsibility to treat our body and mind well and to our best intentions....I quess abusing your body with drugs,booz,pills,bad food and too much stress you might live less longer than ...WHAT

Answer 8

I hope I can make my life longer but my health gets in the way.
But I'm really trying.

Answer 9

And the follow-up question, "is the Pope defying the Will of God by driving a Pope-mobile with bullet-proof glass?"

Answer 10

God doesn't decide, he let's us choose. Our choices at a spiritual level are what decide.