Is Long Life A Punishment From God ???

That's what the world's oldest woman says:

A woman who claims to be the oldest person in the world has told of the brutality of her deportation into Soviet internal exile by tyrant Stalin during World War Two.

Koku Istambulova is 129 according to her Russian passport and pension papers which show her date of birth as 1 June 1889.

Now in lucid and deeply shocking testimony, she has spoken emotionally of the appalling day her native Chechen people were deported en masse by Stalin to the steppes of Kazakhstan almost 75 years ago and says the only happy day in all her years was when she entered a home built from her own hands back in her native land.

You can read the rest @
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6272007/Worlds-oldest-woman-129-remembers-time-people-deported-Stalin-World-War-Two.html

I can see how the poor might consider long life to be a curse. The rich, on the other hand, appear to be seeking immortality:

The late physicist and author Prof Stephen Hawking has caused controversy by suggesting a new race of superhumans could develop from wealthy people choosing to edit their and their children’s DNA.

Hawking, the author of A Brief History of Time, who died in March, made the predictions in a collection of articles and essays.

The scientist presented the possibility that genetic engineering could create a new species of superhuman that could destroy the rest of humanity. The essays, published in the Sunday Times, were written in preparation for a book that will be published on Tuesday.

“I am sure that during this century, people will discover how to modify both intelligence and instincts such as aggression,” he wrote.

“Laws will probably be passed against genetic engineering with humans. But some people won’t be able to resist the temptation to improve human characteristics, such as memory, resistance to disease and length of life.”

You can read the rest @
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/14/stephen-hawking-predicted-new-race-of-superhumans-essays-reveal

Hawking, as usual, was correct. The rich will do whatever it takes to live long lives, and I'm certain they'll enjoy every minute ... even if it means they have to kill the rest of us in the process.