Correspondence: "The BC" Publication

September 24, 2007

Dear Dr. Aardsma,

Once again, my yearly question: "How goes the research?" More importantly, (to me at least), when does publication of The Biblical Chronologist resume? ...

When you decided to postpone publication of The Biblical Chronologist in order to find out how we might be able to live longer, it was a disappointment to many of your faithful readers. You mentioned how life expectancy in Old Testament times often reached into the hundreds of years. Was it really worth suspending all your other investigations so that we may figure out the reason why God has shortened our life-span?

If this sounds like a complaint, well it has been a long time. And despite your investigations, I am not getting any younger (75, and counting). An update on the anticipated resumption of publication would be appreciated.

Francis

P.S. I remain one of your staunchest admirers.

Hello Francis,

So nice to hear from you once again.

Let me try to first answer your question: "Was it really worth suspending all your other investigations so that we may figure out the reason why God has shortened our life-span?"

The short answer is an unqualified, "Yes!". I suspect you want more than a short answer, so let me elaborate briefly.

My answer is determined by ethical considerations. I regard the task of researching the cause of reduced human longevity in the post-Flood era as a moral duty. The Bible clearly shows that people were living to be 925 years old on average prior to the Flood. Today the average life span in the U.S. is about 77 to 78 years. Something is clearly wrong at present. People are dying of "old age" while they are still very young compared to people who lived prior to the Flood. We must conclude, if the Bible is true, that "old age" as we now know it is a disease condition, not at all the normal result of human growth and development. Normal human growth and development would result in a life span of 925 years, even today.

I have discussed the probable nature of the current aging disease in The BC, so there is no need to go into detail here. But the important point to grasp and remember is that this disease is by far the worst killer on the planet. In fact, over 200,000 people die EACH DAY as a result of "old age" before they have reached their 80th birthday, while the Bible says they would go on living yet hundreds of years were the cure of the aging disease to be found.

Now let me try to put you in my shoes by a crude analogy. Suppose you had gone for a walk, seeking for a quiet place to work on the book you are currently writing. You find yourself beside a river, just upstream of a high waterfall. A boatload of people is drifting past out in the river, the boat's motor stalled. They have no anchor and no paddles. You happen to have a rope with you. Would it be morally right for you to turn away from them, and go on with your writing project, before you had exerted yourself to the utmost to save them?

My research into the chronology of Old Testament history, spanning several decades, has placed me in a unique position to understand and possibly do something about the cause of aging as we experience it at present. Can I ignore the plight of 200,000 people per day while a reasonable hope of helping them remains, and be morally right in doing so?

I made solution of the human longevity puzzle my goal in 2000. The history of invention in several fields seems to show a rule of thumb of roughly a dozen years from conception to practical application of a new idea. I have not been eight years full time on this particular new idea --- and I trust you will grant, judging by the little progress made on the longevity problem from different angles by scores of well-funded researchers the world over, that it is a much more difficult problem to solve than most.

I beg your patience, my friend. I fully intend to resume publication of The BC as soon as I can do so without hindering the longevity research effort (and my own conscience).

Sincerely,
Dr. Aardsma

September 27, 2006

Dear Dr. Aardsma,

This is Dr. K. here.

I use your materials almost every day.

What's happening on getting the journal cranked back up?

...

Dr. K.

Hello Dr. K.,

I still have no definite date in mind to resume publication of the BC. If truth be known, I am longing to share in the BC many things which I have learned in my research over the past several years. But I am still deeply immersed in the problem of the cause of shortened life spans post-Flood, and I do not yet feel right in my conscience about diluting this effort in any way. The physical cause of shortened life spans is a Bible/science research problem of very great difficulty, but also a problem worthy of very great sacrifice and exertion from all of us. If you would enlist the prayer support of whatever prayer-warriors you know, for the rapid completion of this longevity research work, I would be most grateful.

Sincerely,
Dr. Aardsma