eternity however, I see no obvious psychological reason why this should remain so. Religious forgiveness is supposed to restore; I see no reason why it should not in fact restore to the body the freshness it had before sin was committed. When sin is committed, it is not the physical movements, it is the spiritual content of the act which gives the act its quality, and which damages the body in time. If in eternity the mind and consciousness can be fully restored by becoming self-reflective, why not the body too?
Naturally one has doubts, because there are features in the anatomy of the body, which seem to make aging inevitable. There is hardening of the arteries, no blood supply to the cartilages to renew them, and decay of the teeth, which though not fatal suggests decay is progressive. The fibrous nature of the arteries toughens and becomes less elastic, due presumably to molecular polymerisation; with hardening of the arteries comes degeneration of the brain. If hardening of the arteries is inevitable and irreversible, degeneration of the brain is too. But this begs the question. Which comes first? Is it hardening of the arteries which causes hardening of the consciousness; or hardening of the consciousness which causes hardening of the arteries? If you doubt that hardening of the consciousness produces degeneration of the flesh, look at a few people in the street the next time you go out. You will see it there. I am aware of the theory which says that when cells divide and subdivide, there comes a time when the quality degenerates, and this begins to be marked after about seventy years. To maintain the quality it is necessary for one cell to mate with another, as in conception. I wonder what nature did before the mating of cells had been evolved? I suppose there was unicellular division for the first hundred million years that life existed; and my guess is that the cells at the end were more complex and of better quality than at the beginning.
I accept that the problems of aging are at best very difficult, at worst…