Fault in human DNA strand?

by El blanko 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  El blanko

  Hi there - I'm sorry if this is off topic slightly, but I need information.

  I am not learned in this area of science and wondered if it is true that there is a fault within human DNA that science assumes is the reason we break down and die and are unable to explain.

  Forgive my ignorance here. This question spins off from a conversation I had this afternoon with an ex-JW who wishes to get back to the Kingdom Hall and was using this argument to present his ideas to me. I told him that I was not aware of this particular area of study but would look into it for him.

  I am assuming that he read this in an Awake article maybe?

  Any thoughts appreciated.
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  jaredg

  hmmmm....i don't think that there is a fault in the human DNA. any fault would technicaly be a mutation. i have heard (discovery channel baby) about certain genes that scientists are studying in animals that live very long like turtles and animals that regenerate like some worms to try and isolate this gene and then introduce it into mammals and later humans to see if it can lengthen life. i'll talk to my friend who is a zoology and anthropology major and see if he has heard anything about faults in human DNA. but just a quick question...if being mortal is due to faulty DNA does that mean that everything on earth has faulty DNA?
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  Elsewhere

  I bet this same guy would also tell you that eating fruit offered by a talking snake that walked upright on feet (Gen. 3:14) is what caused this specific damage at the genetic level in just the right place to cause aging.

  Read Genesis again and you will find that nowhere does it say that humans were made to live forever... instead it actually says that Jehover actually prevented Adam and Eve from eating from the Tree of Life, which WOULD have made them immortal. According to the bible, humans don't live forever because Jehover was afraid of them.

  Gen. 3: 22: "Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" -- 23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken."

  Adam and eve were not banished from the garden of eden for eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil... they were banished because god did not want them to live forever.

  I think your friend is confusing a "DNA fault" with a Telomere. A Telomere is what causes the body to age and is not a fault or error.

  http://www.infoaging.org/b-tel3-what.html

  What are telomeres?
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  Leolaia

  Telomeres do not cause the body to age; their purpose, like the plastic knobs on the ends of shoelaces, is to prolong cell division and thus prolong life. It is the process of cell division itself that causes aging, as the process is not perfect and slightly damages the telomeres during each division. Telomeres are basically long sequences of junk DNA that contain no information and can be lost without losing real genetic information in the genes. But when the telomeres run out, then cell division causes real problems and eventually stops to protect the genes. The body though has an agent called telomerase that protects and even rebuilds the telomeres. It is this chemical that is likened to being a fountain of youth. But it can also be dangerous. Telomerase is implicated in cancer, in allowing a cell to divide almost infinitely in an uncontrolled manner.
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  Undaunted Danny

  That's it! 'a circle has no ends'.Because our DNA strands are linear they 'snip-off' and are finite.

  What matters most today is slowing the rate of cell divisions.

  Humans are genetically pre-programed to live 120 years and that is that.No more cellular replications.

  Back to the proverbial tortoise and the hare,the slow snapping turtle can live 300 years?
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  Elsewhere

  Telomeres do not cause the body to age; their purpose, like the plastic knobs on the ends of shoelaces, is to prolong cell division and thus prolong life. It is the process of cell division itself that causes aging, as the process is not perfect and slightly damages the telomeres during each division.

  It isn't that the process of cell division is not perfect; it is, as you pointed out, because each time a cell divides a little piece of the telomeres are cut off. The telomeres basically act like a "count-down" clock to tell the cell when to stop dividing.

  This is not an error... it is part of the normal operation of cells during mitosis.
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  Farkel

  Although the link below deals with the Eden story and "good vs. evil", it does present arguments that God somehow "tinkered" with our DNA after the fall of Adam.
  
  
  
  
  
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  Farkel
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  XQsThaiPoes

  The problem with ageing is the byproducts of oxidation. Hence all this nonsense talk of drugstore anti-oxidents. Retiles live so long because they are cold blooded with slow metabolisms which means by the time they start showing signs of ages they are very old. Bats and birds are the only spieces that seem to get away with fast metabolisms and long life. In theory you could live forever but it takes technology we dont have. No body has discovered a brain transplant. Because one of the systems that takes the most abuse from oxidation is the human brain.
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  Undaunted Danny

  I have spent 12 years of on/off R+D on 'emortality' .

  The first agony to hit me HARD after my jw exit was my mortality.I had squandered my youthful vital years.

  Nearly everything posted here so far is concise and pretty much on the money.

  Amazing,apostates are smart people that's why were out.
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  El blanko

  Thanks for your input guys, I will read through, consider the information and prepare my report.

  Cheers