Editing Immortality (section)

{{Short description|Concept of eternal life}}
{{Other uses|Immortal (disambiguation)}}
{{distinguish|Immorality}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2015}}
[[File:Fountain of Eternal Life crop.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Fountain of Eternal Life]]'' in [[Cleveland]], Ohio, United States, is described as symbolizing "Man rising above death, reaching upward to God and toward Peace."<ref name="GVCM">{{cite web|url=http://www.clevelandvetsmemorial.org/GCVM_History.html |title=GCVM History and Mission |access-date=14 January 2009 |publisher=Greater Cleveland Veteran’s Memorial, Inc. |date=2003 |author=Marshall Fredericks |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090216170723/http://www.clevelandvetsmemorial.org/GCVM_History.html |archive-date=16 February 2009 }}</ref>]]

'''Immortality''' is the concept of eternal life.<ref>{{Cite OED|term=immortality|id=6198259326}}</ref> Some [[species]] possess "[[biological immortality]]" due to an apparent lack of the [[Hayflick limit]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berthold |first=Emma |date=2018-09-10 |title=The animals that can live forever |url=https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/animals-can-live-forever |access-date=2023-09-20 |website=Curious |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=7 Immortal Animals That Can Basically Live Forever |url=https://www.rd.com/list/animals-that-live-forever/ |access-date=2023-09-20 |website=Reader's Digest |language=en-US}}</ref>

From at least the time of the [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion|ancient Mesopotamians]], there has been a conviction that gods may be physically immortal, and that this is also a state that the gods at times offer humans. In [[Christianity]], the conviction that God may offer physical immortality with the [[resurrection of the flesh]] at the end of time has traditionally been at the center of its beliefs.{{sfn|Perkins|1984|pp=17–18}}{{sfn|af Hällström|1988|pp=9–10}}{{sfn|Endsjø|2023|pp=2–5, 28–30, 110–12}} What form an unending human life would take, or whether an immaterial [[soul]] exists and possesses immortality, has been a major point of focus of religion,{{sfn|Cullmann|1955}} as well as the subject of speculation and debate. In religious contexts, immortality is often stated to be one of the promises of divinities to human beings who perform [[virtue]] or follow [[divine law]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religion and Spirituality: On the Immortality of the Soul {{!}} Foundations |url=https://foundations.vision.org/immortality-soul-149 |access-date=2024-10-25 |website=foundations.vision.org |language=en}}</ref>

Some scientists, [[futurist]]s and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immortality may be achievable in the first few decades of the 21st century with the help of certain speculative [[technologies]] such as [[mind uploading]] ([[digital immortality]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=We'll be uploading our entire minds to computers by 2045 and our bodies will be replaced by machines within 90 years, Google expert claims "Kurzweil"|url=https://www.kurzweilai.net/daily-mail-well-be-uploading-our-entire-minds-to-computers-by-2045-and-our-bodies-will-be-replaced-by-machines-within-90-years-google-expert-claims|access-date=2021-12-30|language=en-US}}</ref>