Forever young

We are and will be forevermore, hopelessly and compulsively obsessed with youth and immortality. Wrinkle-free and an anti-aging existence is man's most cherished, yet, till date, most elusive desire. However, like celebrated scientist Albert Einstein, I too firmly believe that "God doesn't play dice with the universe", hence the scientific communities' consistent endeavours towards arresting the aging process and finding key to longevity, will bear fruits sooner or later. The resultant social, religious and ofcourse the visual impact of age-arrest will be phenomenal, to say the least.
Anti-aging ofcourse doesn't translate into immortality, however, it does negate the possibility of age associated physical degeneration as the cause of the final end. This does rob death of epitaphs like 'unavoidable' and the 'only reality'. Once immortality, in terms of age-freeze, becomes a reality, the society is bound to acquire a more competitive edge with the survival of the fittest emerging as the new moral code. A forever young world will compete for a share in the social and economic pie. The resultant struggle, as I visualise it, will be rather fearsome, specially in the face of accompanying population explosion.
On the family front spritely and young parents will be free from the handicap of old age. Good news no doubt. The family circle will expand to become a mini community geared towards creating greater visibility and guarding the interests of its members on the social front, thereby creating a second tier of struggle for existence.
There is ofcourse the possibility of humanity taking it a bit easy in life seccure in the knowledge that there is always the time to catch up later. The urgency of time running out in terms of age, will certainly come down several notches and might have man breathing easy.
The elixir of youth once discovered or decoded or devised will cause a major upheaval in the religious realm. The span between birth and death will become largely incalculable. Natural disasters, incurable diseases or physical harm might be the only factors which could cut a person's earthly sojourn short. Youth induced immortality might make the fear of hell fire or rebirth seem a remote possibility. With death induced terror receding, God's hold on man's life-strings will loosen considerably. The Almighty might not seem all that potent or menacing. Religious texts seeking obeisance by playing on man's inherent fear of death, will find few followers. A spiritual awakening will gain ascendancy over ritual and textual strictures or it might spell the beginning of a new age of reason where man uses intellect to figure out the cause and purpose of his creation.
On a philosophical note, age-freeze is a welcome idea as it spares us the infirmities of old age, however immortality seems so not worth it. Living on and on and on, without a purpose other than mere existence is as scary as death. An infinite life is not necessarily a fulfilling life. And it is quite likely that man might well become immortality weary sooner than later.