Can Google Solve Death?

The cover of the September 30, 2013 Time magazine poses this startling question.

For years we have heard that the two things in life of which we can be certain are death and taxes.  I do not know whether the prime movers at Google actually believe they can “solve death” or if this is just Time magazine exercising hyperbole.  I suspect it is the later.  Extending the life span, if it can be done so that some quality of life is maintained, is a worthy goal, but we all know that in this world parts wear out whether they make up mechanical devices or biochemical ones.  Nothing will last forever….not even Google.  ( I would refer you to the poem Ozymandias by Shelley.)

No one has figured out how to reverse the Second Law of Thermodynamics, so things do tend toward randomness and disorder.  Before that law and its corollaries were stated by man, the Bible quoted Jesus Christ saying, “Do not store up for your selves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy…”    (Matthew 6:19) This deterioration was not God’s intent when he created a perfect world.    It was after sin entered that the ground was cursed and painful toil was necessary because of entropy. (Genesis 3).  It was at that time that God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.  He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  Death became a certainty.

Here is the good news!  Google does not need to solve death…that has already been done.  “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15:22) The sacrificial death of Christ on the cross frees us from the law of sin and death.  By faith, we believe that although death will destroy our physical bodies, our spirits will live on in the presence of God.

So, if Google wants to spend their resources trying to find a way to increase my life span, that’s OK with me.  But, I’ll be happy if they succeed with the car that drives itself, so that I can still get around once I am too frail, blind and deaf to drive safely on my own.

Given their enormous stockpile of cash, I certainly think it would be a better idea for them to work on that other “certainty”…taxes.  I think the odds are better of solving that problem.