BLOGPOST 1: Why do we age and die?

   Last year, August 9, 2012, my great grandmother died. Cause of her death? Old age. She died in her sleep at the age of 89 and it was quite a shock for us when our relatives told us about her death. We were all sad about it but we were also relieved because we all know that she died a natural death. As I was at the funeral, I went to my granny's coffin and asked her a silent question, "why do you have to die?" but of course, i didn't get an answer. All I got was my granny's peaceful face that looked like she was just sleeping. 

   I did not leave that question hanging, though. I found an article entitled "Adam and Eve Bible Story Summary" written by David Peach. I didn't know that our forefathers Adam and Eve have something to do with my unanswered question nor did I know that my question would lead me to the time God created the first Man and Woman.

  According to the article, on the sixth day of creation, God created the animals and a man. He named the man Adam and he created him on His image. God thought that it is unnecessary for a man to live alone so he made Adam sleep and then cut him open and made a woman out of his flesh. He named her Eve. 

It also stated in the article that God bestowed them many gifts such as personal communion with God, Himself, eternal life without getting sick, old and dead and a beautiful garden called Eden in which they could live with bountiful of plants and trees for food. However, there was a certain tree called Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in which they are not allowed to eat the fruit otherwise, they would die. But why did Adam and Eve disobeyed God? David Peach stated that a devil took a form of a snake and tempted Eve to eat one of its fruits. The devil was so cunning and the fruit was so beautiful so Eve ate it. Because of its delicious taste, Eve offered some to Adam and just like Eve he was tempted too. Without knowing that the future of the humankind will totally change with just one bite, Adam and Eve disobeyed the only command of God. 

"God told Adam and Eve in the beginning that they would die on the day they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One death was immediate. They were spiritually separated from God."

At first, I disagreed in this statement because Adam and Eve DID NOT die on the day they ate the fruit but later on, i realized that the death which was meant in the statement was about the death of the life God intended them to have. 

From the beginning, God created the first man and woman to be immortal. Adam and Eve resembled God very much except that they have a body and God is a sacred spirit. However, because of the original sin, they lost it all. They lost the personal communion with God and the eternal life. Even the Garden of Eden because they were sent out by the garden's guardian in God's order. They lived the life God never intended them to have. They got sick, aged, and died. Their first son killed their second son. But what if Eve didn't get tempted with eating the fruit? What if she refused the snake and turned her back on it? I'm sure we are all immortals right now because we don't have that original sin we inherited from Adam and Eve because they did not do it in the first place. I guess my great grandma will still be here with us telling us stories and singing us Visayan songs.

   We all grew up hearing the story of Adam and Eve and how a single bite of a fruit from a forbidden tree changed the humanity. This legend was quite a reasonable answer to my question, however, since we are now living in an epoch of modern technology, i also sought the answer to my question in science's perspective. 

  Browsing through the internet, i found an article entitled "Why we get Old" by Gary Vey. The article was quite interesting because it elaborated a certain reason why we age and die. The said article was well equipped with information about the answer i'm seeking for.


  According to the article, the reason why we age and die is because of the telomeres. The word "telomere" is new to me so i had to search its meaning in a dictionary. In Merriam-Webster dictionary, telomere means "The natural end of a eukaryotic chromosome composed of a usually repetitive DNA sequence and serving to stabilize the chromosome" It is often been compared to the blank leaders on films or recording tape. Indeed, telomeres do perform the same function. On the replication process of DNA molecules, they must split in half to be able to copy itself. the "old copy" dies and the new one goes on and soon will replicate itself and so on. What does the telomeres do?

The article stated that the best analogy to explain the telomeres in a layman's terms is the margin in an important type written document. Imagine that document being slapped on a photocopying machine a lot of times. A copy is made and that copy is also used to make another one and on and so on.      Telomeres serves as the white space or the margin because it protects the main data on the document itself from being chopped out of the following copies. The more copies are made, errors and misalignment accumulate. After enough copying, it is probable that the white space will diminish and some of the actual text will not be copied. That's what happens inside our cells and it is the reason why we age and die.

"As any cell gets older, it is under attack by oxides and free-radicals in the body and environment. We survive as living beings because our cells have the ability to duplicate and replace themselves before being killed by these natural causes. Each time our cells divide, the DNA molecule makes a new copy of itself." 

   This statement emphasizes the "photocopying" process of the DNA cells. This is the reason why our wounds heal, why our fingernails and hairs grow. But damage is also inflicted during the replication process because, as the cells get old, they become frail  because of the continuous process of replication.

    We are all programmed to believe that everything has an end. But what if the bright scientists nowadays are able to do something to prolong our lives? And better yet, prevent death? What if they discover something that would make our whole world upside down? The discovery of Immortality.