7th day adventists and life extension

Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 23:09:50 -0800

> Brian Williams wrote: study... is one involving 7th day
> adventists(sp?). ...
> proves being a 7th day adventist is good for your health. Are you
> aware of any other study?

brian, since you brough this up: for years now the seventh day adventists
have been trying to convert their retired church worker pension program from a pay-as-you-go to fully funded. this is an admirable goal for an organization that predicts the soon end of the world. {8^D

turns out, the standard actuarial tables have proved quite useless: the church workers live and live and live, all the while cheerfully soaking up pension checks. (my college roommate's grandfather is a retired sda minister, still going strong at 92.)

there is much debate, but the retired church workers have the following in common:

  1. the smoking rate is extremely low (probably <1%)
  2. majority vegetarians, probably lower fat diet than average
  3. very large percentage anglo saxon (longer life expectancy)
  4. low alcohol consumption
  5. they live long and prosper {8^D

as i have stated here before, seventh day adventist is the only christian sect i know of that has no conflict with the notion of cryonics (since they do not separate body and soul) and are very open minded regarding radical life extension techniques as demonstrated at loma linda university. the llu medical ethics board is notoriously open minded.

there was a comment by a jehovahs witness i saw yesterday. that group also has the notion of soul sleep, but are less open to medical technology methinks. witness, are you still out there? comments? spike