[Darris McNeely] Do you want to live forever? Really? Now that was a question we were talking about in a production staff meeting here for Beyond Today a few days ago as we were planning out a future program. We were going to be doing a television program on the purpose of human life. And as we cover this topic a great deal on Beyond Today as our production staff talked, we got onto the matter of living forever, eternal life.

And the question came up, "Well, are we asking the right question?" Do people really want to live forever? What if people don't? What if it's not relevant to them? And we batted that around, and it's a good question because there are some people who don't want to live forever. Their life is such a trial, or they have had such suffering that they cannot imagine an eternity with this type of life that they have had in the physical life. So there are issues in this and there are matters to kind of work around.

I ran across an article in my files that does answer this question in one sense: Do you want to live forever? It turns out that there are billionaires who do want to live forever. In fact, many billionaires today are financing technology and other research in order to prolongate their life, human life, because they think that they, as one billionaire said, "I just don't get death. I never did get death." Of course this individual is worth about $45 billion dollars. And as the article that was in Forbes magazine brings out, you know, it just may be that these people, these billionaires, want to live forever and extend their life because this present life doesn't give them enough time to spend all the billions of dollars that they have. I think there may be a point there, but as the technology search goes on to try to elongate life, it is a continuation of something that has been going on hundreds of years.

The fountain of youth. Other means by which people have tried to extend life are the source of history and even legend. There's an interesting point that was made in this article that I thought was fascinating to consider, and perhaps it speaks a bit to the pride of human life. One particular project is going on that they will ultimately create a class of people they call neo-humans. The idea is that eventually technology would allow one's whole brain, knowledge, consciousness to be uploaded to some cosmic cloud, and then at some future time downloaded into some type of an avatar that then would carry on their conscious existence. These are some of the ideas that people are pursuing with money. The results, well, we'll just have to wait and see. But some of us may not be around long enough to find out whether they really do.

It comes back to the question that is even older than even some of the questions themselves from the book of Job chapter 14:14, Job 14:14. This is a question that I read quite often especially when I go into the house of mourning. Job asked the question, "If a man dies, will he live again?" That is the age old question. He was in a time of suffering. He wanted to know. He answered his own question in that verse. He said, "All of my appointed days I will wait until my change comes." He began to speak to the truth of the resurrection. And that's what the Bible does talk about. There is the hope of eternal life according to the Biblical teaching through Jesus Christ and within the overall plan that God is bringing about for redemption and salvation of all of mankind.

It's a fabulous story. It's a wonderful story. And it does answer the question who wants to live forever. The ultimate question is God wants to extend to all the opportunity for eternal life. That's a question worth asking and exploring.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.