Why do people not live hundreds of years?

Answer 1

In nature, the role of a person is to pass on his genes to the next generation. Once that has been achieved, and the offspring are old enough to be independent, the parent no longer contributes to the reproduction of the species but becomes a potential liability, competing with younger, fertile members of the group for food and shelter. Population groups in which older members die at the end of their reproductive contribution, are more likely to be successful compared to groups that have to care for very old members. This may sound callous, but it is the way nature works.

Of course, people could live to hundreds of years if they continued to reproduce throughout that lifetime, but another factor comes in to play. If individuals and their own offspring continued to have children year after year for hundreds of years, then overpopulation is the inevitable result, with mass starvation and possibly the extinction of the entire group. So, nature has given us just the right balance. We are fertile just long enough to guarantee that each generation is replaced by the one that follows, then (in the absence of medical intervention) live just long enough to look after our own offspring and perhaps some of our grandchildren.

Man has always longed for immortality, or at least near-immortality. We see this in the story of Adam and Eve, where we are told why immortality is no longer possible. We also see this right through the Book of Genesis, which attributes incredibly long lifespans to all the Hebrew forebears, although perhaps not to members of other nations.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Because faults build up in the body's cells as they divide and replicate and the telomers get shorter. In other words you body falls to bits eventually.