Value of a human life?

[KJPC]

“All human life has EQUAL AND UNLIMITED value,
regardless of education, wealth, or even…age.
No person, society, or government is endowed by God with the ability to assign value to ANY human life.”

An infant is not more or less valuable than the President of the U.S. who is not more or less valuable than a 70 year old retiree in Florida who is not of more or less value than a South American farmer and so on.

This is my personal philosophy. What do you think?

KJPC

 

[StCsDavid]

“And only where God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with him.”

Pope Benedict XVI

I think our Holy Father has a similar philosophy to yours.

​

 

[briang72]

Romans 12:4-5:

For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function,

so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another

I think St. Paul shared this philosophy. To deny this would be to deny a part of Christ.

 

[hasikelee]

“All human life has EQUAL AND UNLIMITED value,
regardless of education, wealth, or even…age.
No person, society, or government is endowed by God with the ability to assign value to ANY human life.”

An infant is not more or less valuable than the President of the U.S. who is not more or less valuable than a 70 year old retiree in Florida who is not of more or less value than a South American farmer and so on.

This is my personal philosophy. What do you think?

KJPC

My favourite will always be:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

 

[Hastrman]

An infant is not more or less valuable than the President of the U.S. who is not more or less valuable than a 70 year old retiree in Florida who is not of more or less value than a South American farmer and so on.

I think I’m not sure about the retiree in Florida; I have a hard time valuing the life of anybody who can be confused by a butterfly ballot.

Seriously, though, this is a rather uncontroversial statement. My philosophy of life is that it’s better to suffer evil than to do it and that honesty is the best policy.

Everyone says it: the fact is that what it means, is actually something very scary. How about, the life of the Pope is not worth more than the life of a pornographer?

That’s true, and the logical equivalent of what you said, but you didn’t feel at all the same reading it, did you?

 

[davidv]

IEveryone says it: the fact is that what it means, is actually something very scary. How about, the life of the Pope is not worth more than the life of a pornographer?

That’s true, and the logical equivalent of what you said, but you didn’t feel at all the same reading it, did you?

Actually I did feel the same way. Other than the conviction of will, at least with our lasted popes, the pope has no more lock on holiness than the pornographer. Neither one can be unjustly denied life.

 

[KJPC]

One of the reasons I posted this thread is that so often in the media I have heard reference to the value of a child’s life, just as an example. Then what happens is. that after it is implied often enough, society tends to adopt it as truth. A child’s life is more valuable than a grown person. We confuse our sympathitic feelings for the helpless (as a child would be) and somehow assign greater value to them.
If we valued everyone equally and taught that in schools and made it part of popular movies…we would start down the morally correct path.

 

[Hastrman]

One of the reasons I posted this thread is that so often in the media I have heard reference to the value of a child’s life, just as an example. Then what happens is. that after it is implied often enough, society tends to adopt it as truth. A child’s life is more valuable than a grown person. We confuse our sympathitic feelings for the helpless (as a child would be) and somehow assign greater value to them.
If we valued everyone equally and taught that in schools and made it part of popular movies…we would start down the morally correct path.

No, the helpless must be treated as more valuable, because they must be protected. Objectively the helpless are of no greater value, but you show me a society that doesn’t practice “women and children first” on a sinking ship, and I’ll show you a society that can’t function at all.

 

[CapIV]

“All human life has EQUAL AND UNLIMITED value,
regardless of education, wealth, or even…age.
No person, society, or government is endowed by God with the ability to assign value to ANY human life.”

An infant is not more or less valuable than the President of the U.S. who is not more or less valuable than a 70 year old retiree in Florida who is not of more or less value than a South American farmer and so on.

This is my personal philosophy. What do you think?

KJPC

I think it is a good philosophy abstractly. And I 100% agree with it. Practically however, I feel a little different. For example, while a General abstractly is of no greater worth than a private to God, he is practically more important to the army than the private is.

 

[cathgal]

Everyone says it: the fact is that what it means, is actually something very scary. How about, the life of the Pope is not worth more than the life of a pornographer?

That’s true, and the logical equivalent of what you said, but you didn’t feel at all the same reading it, did you?

One may not feel the same reading it, but can one take the life of a pornographer?

You see, when it comes down to a life of a person, no one can take it away.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Actually, there are times and circumstances when duty – as a soldier, policeman, fireman, etc – may require you to place someone else’s live above your own.

 

[KJPC]

Many good points are made in the responses to my original statement. But for clarification I would point out that the ability of someone to take care of themselves or the value of someone’s abilities are not the same as the value that God has assigned to every single human life. I don’t believe God assigned varriable levels of value to the lives of His children.

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and God Bless you.

 

[rpp]

I believe there is a very real difference between dignity and state and positon.

All people everywhere have equal dignity and value as a person. However, some people have a position, whether by choice or not, that makes them more important than another person.

A pregnant woman is more important than me because she carries another person.

The leader of a country is more important than I am.

The convicted serial rapist and murderer on death row is less important than me.

The unrepentant homosexual man living an unchaste life is of equal dignity to me. Whether he is more important depends on his position. If he is also a pornographer and pimp, then I would certainly say he is less important because he promotes and profits from degrading others. On the other hand, if he were, say, a city councilman for a large city, he would be a little more important than me as he is an elected community leader (which I am not).

We are all conceived with equal dignity, which can never be abrogated, but respect must be earned and once lost is very difficult to ever restore.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Greetings and peace be with you all,

This all seems very cosy, but we seem to have a total disregard for the value of human life. Every day thirty thousand people die due to grinding poverty and preventable disease in Africa.

We look up to the richest men on Earth, and the combined wealth of the three richest men is said to be about the same, as the combined wealth of the forty eight poorest countries. About a third of the worlds population live in these countries.

About a billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
About half the worlds population lives on less than two dollars a day.

In the spirit of praying for trade justice

Eric

 

[ribozyme]

Greetings and peace be with you all,

This all seems very cosy, but we seem to have a total disregard for the value of human life. Every day thirty thousand people die due to grinding poverty and preventable disease in Africa.

We look up to the richest men on Earth, and the combined wealth of the three richest men is said to be about the same, as the combined wealth of the forty eight poorest countries. About a third of the worlds population live in these countries.

About a billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
About half the worlds population lives on less than two dollars a day.

In the spirit of praying for trade justice

Eric

People are going to ignore what you say here and praise the virtues of laissez-faire capitalism. Discussing wealth inequality in this forum will elicit cries of “class envy.”

Personally, I sometimes wonder what I can do to rectify this. Well, I cannot not unfortunately do anything significant.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Greetings and peace be with you all,

This all seems very cosy, but we seem to have a total disregard for the value of human life. Every day thirty thousand people die due to grinding poverty and preventable disease in Africa.

We look up to the richest men on Earth, and the combined wealth of the three richest men is said to be about the same, as the combined wealth of the forty eight poorest countries. About a third of the worlds population live in these countries.

About a billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
About half the worlds population lives on less than two dollars a day.

In the spirit of praying for trade justice

Eric

And much of that suffering is due to corrupt and incompetent governments – which often use starvation as a weapon to keep their people in line. Throw in tribal warfare, caudillioism and a few other problems, and we see that, try as we might, we cannot pull some of these nations into the 21st Century.

A good curent example is Darfur. Does anyone have a workable solution for the problems there?

On the other hand, a counter-example is Singapore – a tiny nation with few natural resources (they don’t even have enough water for their population – they have to pipe it from Malaysia.) Yet Singapore is affluent, with 95% home ownership. And they did it with hard work, universal education, and a committment to their own people.

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Greetings and peace be with you vern humphrey

And much of that suffering is due to corrupt and incompetent governments –

If we dismiss the poor in the third world by saying they are simply victims of corrupt governments, then we place little or no value on their lives. But I wonder by comparison, the value that God puts on the lives of the poor and oppressed?

In the spirit of praying for justice for the poor

Eric

 

[vern_humphrey]

Greetings and peace be with you vern humphrey

If we dismiss the poor in the third world by saying they are simply victims of corrupt governments, then we place little or no value on their lives. But I wonder by comparison, the value that God puts on the lives of the poor and oppressed?

In the spirit of praying for justice for the poor

Eric

“Dismiss the poor?”

Tell me, how will you overthrow those corrupt governments? Are you willing to go into Darfur, North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, or Eritria?

If not, what right do you have to chide others?

 

[Eric_Hyom]

Greetings and peace be with you vern Humphrey;

Tell me, how will you

overthrow those corrupt governments? Are you willing to go into Darfur, North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, or Eritria?
Does that mean that all the desperately poor people on this Earth live in conflict zones, and thus cannot be helped by rich people in rich nations?

If not, what right do you have to chide others?

Please forgive me if I came across as chiding others, I feel deeply troubled about the injustice in this world. At a recent Christian Aid meeting it was mentioned that one in sixteen verses in the New Testament are to do with the poor. It seems that God places a great emphasis on our responsibility to the poor.

In the spirit of praying for justice for all people

Eric

 

[vern_humphrey]

Greetings and peace be with you vern Humphrey;

Does that mean that all the desperately poor people on this Earth live in conflict zones, and thus cannot be helped by rich people in rich nations?

“Conflict zones?”

There are many repressive governments where there is no “conflict,” just brutal corruption.

Please forgive me if I came across as chiding others, I feel deeply troubled about the injustice in this world. At a recent Christian Aid meeting it was mentioned that one in sixteen verses in the New Testament are to do with the poor. It seems that God places a great emphasis on our responsibility to the poor.

In the spirit of praying for justice for all people

Eric

We can read the Bible, too.

The issue is what can be done, and who will do it. Are **you **prepared to overthrow Kim Jong Il, for example, who keeps his people in crushing poverty?