If Christianity Cannot Cheat Death, Does it Offer Anything

An amateur philosopher recently reviewed the efforts of the super-rich to find longer lives than the rest of us chumps. I've read the average age of death in the U.S. has been falling just a bit after rising for decade. But branches of science charge ahead with research on longevity. The rich now live longer than the poor. We can expect if there is progress in longevity the rich will live even longer and the poor have even shorter lives.

It's entertaining to wonder where Christianity falls in this debate about longevity. According to the tenets of the faith the big prize it offers is death, not life. Everyday somewhere it is repeated that the faith must cling to the Resurrection because without it people cannot be sold the idea their tithe buys a happy life for an eternity. That's a better deal than Trump's "The Art of the Deal."

I wonder who is now paying for research on longevity. If the poor will not benefit. If they are paying they are being robbed. It should be paid for exclusively by the rich. Of course, the religious concept of eternity is supposed to be available to the poor. Church membership, however, is dropping more rapidly now among the lower middle than it is for the upper middle class. Maybe people with lower incomes have figured out neither the research on longevity nor the myth of life after death are going to reach them. 

When I try to categorize the most outrageous religious beliefs I've ever heard, it's hard not to place the happy eternity at the top. Fear of death is widespread. Taking advantage of people's fear of death has always been a temptation. Putting in front of prominent people, even in ancient times, the prospect of power and money by merely claiming a way to beat death is a temptation too big to turn down. The apple Eve encouraged Adam to eat was tempting but does not compare to dangling in front of leaders, usually the wealthy class, the prospect of more money and power by selling the notion of a heavenly reward. 

As the myths of the Bible are slowly debunked and the star of myths, the promise of life after death, begins to fall will there be anything left. Well, yes. Upper middle class urban people are the group most likely to be in the faith. Perhaps the contacts and social life of the church is a draw that will keep some of them in the fold.