DEATH & DECAY

One of the certainties about life is that it ends in death. For most living things, including human beings, that end in death is preceded and followed by some form of decay. In this respect, human beings are just one life form amongst many and the human body is just another form of animal matter. However, advances in science and technology allow human beings to resist decay and death. In the developed world large resources are committed to avoiding or repairing human decay and prolonging human life.

Science and theology offer reasons for suggesting that decay and death are natural and even essential for life on Earth. In this light, to resist decay and death is to attempt to defy the nature of the world in which we live and our own nature as creatures. Such an understanding does not fit easily with the developed world’s current expectation that decay (certainly) and death (possibly) can be overcome successfully.