Human Value from a Christian Perspective

[Cooraan]

I am a Christian so this will be from a Christian perspective obviously. And sorry if this cuts off short or seems a bit incomplete we have tornadoes sprining up all around right now and I might have to spring for cover.

I have been giving death a lot of though today, and while I do not fear death per se it's not something I am really looking forward to. But thinking of death led me to consider what the purpose and value of life holds, which I'm sure everyone has given thought to.

My thoughts centered mainly on the value of life, more specifically my value. And when I mean my value I mean what I have done with my life that has made it meaningful. From a strictly human standpoint I've done quite a bit; I'm in college getting an education that will hopefully land me a good job, I've donated money to charities and genuinely tried to share my wealth, I've done some volunteering to help the less fortunate, and I've been a pretty kind person most of my life. By world standards I've done good.

But from a Christian perspective I've done pretty bad. While my actions have been good and kind and it should be a part of a Christians life(well everyone's life really), I've never gone beyond that. And I understand that those who aren't Christians might find this odd or even a bit meaningless, but to me it holds a lot of importance.

I've never really given much care to others in my prayers or in my thoughts really. I've never really shared my faith with anyone. Which again may seem odd to those who aren't Christians, but its the real core of our beliefs; it shows the value of our lives. Why? Because its about sharing the love that I feel personally. Not because I get a reward or some sense of pride and accomplishment from it, but because it would be extremely selfish of me if I didn't. I believe that there is an afterlife and that you must know God to get there, and how selfish would it be of me to never share that information? What value would my life be if I were to hold on to this great information and keep it to myself? Absolutely nothing.

So I want to make my life valuable, not to me but to everyone.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Several years ago I decided to trust in God. And if your not sure what that means, it basically means I've take Christ as part of myself. While I don't have time to get into the doctrine of it. I just want to say it was the best choice I have made in my life. I have truly never been more at peace than that day. And so I share with all who read this my experience. Not to convert for numbers or a reward, but because I humbly care enough about you to share this with you. I understand most of you are strong in your beliefs about God or the lack of a God, but if anyone ever wants to ask me a question about God or would like me to pray for them just send me a PM.

I realize that this isn't the normal type of posts around here and to make this more of a debatable topic; does life hold any real value to you at all? From an atheistic or agnostic standpoint? If so what is it?

[RangerGxi]

Im an Atheist.

I value my life because it is my only life. It has value because I enjoy it, I enjoy experiencing things, friendships and just simply living.
Christianity kind of stomps on the value of life by introducing a second, much better life.. for the christians <.<.. Us Atheists deserve to burn for eternity.


George Carlin "Life is valuable because... We're Alive, its self interest"

[Cooraan]

Im an Atheist.

I value my life because it is my only life. It has value because I enjoy it, I enjoy experiencing things, friendships and just simply living.
Christianity kind of stomps on the value of life by introducing a second, much better life.. for the christians <.<.. Us Atheists deserve to burn for eternity.

From a Christian perspective everyone deserves to burn for eternity, even Christians.

I've heard it said that, if you are joyful, you have fulfilled God's will on Earth. As a point of further consideration, here is a quote by Saint Mother Maria of Paris:

I agree with the quote but think of it this way, if I spent my whole life as a servant to others being as nice and helpful to the poor, and the sick, but if I never share with them the true meaning of God then what have I done? I've taken the greatest piece of information and kept it to myself. Which means I have done nothing of real value. And I'm not trying dismiss helping people as worthless, I was just saying that those works that I have done were valueless from a Christian perspective.


I have another question that I think everyone should ask themselves. What value are you to the world? And I don't mean that in a sense of usefulness, but what have you added to the world?

[Gaidin]

I have another question that I think everyone should ask themselves. What value are you to the world? And I don't mean that in a sense of usefulness, but what have you added to the world?

Loaded and largely inapplicable question. The world, in the end, decides what our value is in retrospect. And given how few people are well known outside their own community you're going to get some very depressing answers.

[Hilarion]

I agree with the quote but think of it this way, if I spent my whole life as a servant to others being as nice and helpful to the poor, and the sick, but if I never share with them the true meaning of God then what have I done? I've taken the greatest piece of information and kept it to myself. Which means I have done nothing of real value. And I'm not trying dismiss helping people as worthless, I was just saying that those works that I have done were valueless from a Christian perspective.

Don't mean to sound sappy here, but the true meaning of God is love. By showing others compassion, you are spreading the Gospel message and carrying out the command of Christ. It is possible to inspire others to become Christian by setting a good example yourself through your deeds and spirit, in fact there is no better way to sow the seeds of faith in others than through this method. Spreading God's love is not a matter of handing out Bibles, it's a matter of actively loving the world and bearing the Cross that Christians must bear by humbling yourself before God and mankind.

[XIII]

Don't mean to sound sappy here, but the true meaning of God is love. By showing others compassion, you are spreading the Gospel message and carrying out the command of Christ. It is possible to inspire others to become Christian by setting a good example yourself through your deeds and spirit, in fact there is no better way to sow the seeds of faith in others than through this method. Spreading God's love is not a matter of handing out Bibles, it's a matter of actively loving the world and bearing the Cross that Christians must bear by humbling yourself before God and mankind.

QFT.

[boofhead]

Don't mean to sound sappy here, but the true meaning of God is love. By showing others compassion, you are spreading the Gospel message and carrying out the command of Christ. It is possible to inspire others to become Christian by setting a good example yourself through your deeds and spirit, in fact there is no better way to sow the seeds of faith in others than through this method. Spreading God's love is not a matter of handing out Bibles, it's a matter of actively loving the world and bearing the Cross that Christians must bear by humbling yourself before God and mankind.

Very well said. When JWs or Mormons come to my door knocking I honestly do get cranky and feel like telling them to piss off. My home is my castle, my comfort zone, and I don't like uninvited people breaking the boundaries of my sanctuary without invitation. This method of proselytizing, plus Bible bashing or yelling from a soap-box (because honestly, yelling in public does make a person look like a complete lunatic) probably turns people away more than drawing them into the fold.

When I have shared my beliefs in my life, it has never come from directly proclaiming and forcing my views on others. It has come from day to day getting to know people, and them getting to know me. And sometimes people ask me for help and advice - that's when I tell them what gives me my inner strength. That's how I plant the seed, by being a person people would come to talk with, and through giving my own testimony when I've been asked.

As a manager with some teenage kids on my staff, I think I've been able to influence a few of them for the better.....especially a couple of the cool/rebellious/smartarse types. Just the other day I took the time to ride my new motorcycle around to the house of one of these kids (who quit the job recently to sit on his bum at home and get looked after by mummy) and show him. You should have seen his eyes light up. ''That's ing sick!'' he said. I told him to get a job, stop smoking pot, getting drunk and spending his money on MacDonalds, buy himself a bike, and get a life! Doesn't sound like a Christian thing to say really, but it is - it's about hard work, diligence, persistence, I showed him I cared by going around there etc

I've waffled on enough. There are ways and means to spread the Word without turning people off.

[Ensiferum]

I may have a weird standpoint at this topic. I belive that I am not alive, I don't think it is possible to draw perfect lines between what is living and what is not living.

So I belive that nothing is really living.

We are just an extremely advanced process/cooperation between particles

[Krixux]

Very well said. When JWs or Mormons come to my door knocking I honestly do get cranky and feel like telling them to piss off. My home is my castle, my comfort zone, and I don't like uninvited people breaking the boundaries of my sanctuary without invitation. This method of proselytizing, plus Bible bashing or yelling from a soap-box (because honestly, yelling in public does make a person look like a complete lunatic) probably turns people away more than drawing them into the fold.

When I have shared my beliefs in my life, it has never come from directly proclaiming and forcing my views on others. It has come from day to day getting to know people, and them getting to know me. And sometimes people ask me for help and advice - that's when I tell them what gives me my inner strength. That's how I plant the seed, by being a person people would come to talk with, and through giving my own testimony when I've been asked.

As a manager with some teenage kids on my staff, I think I've been able to influence a few of them for the better.....especially a couple of the cool/rebellious/smartarse types. Just the other day I took the time to ride my new motorcycle around to the house of one of these kids (who quit the job recently to sit on his bum at home and get looked after by mummy) and show him. You should have seen his eyes light up. ''That's ing sick!'' he said. I told him to get a job, stop smoking pot, getting drunk and spending his money on MacDonalds, buy himself a bike, and get a life! Doesn't sound like a Christian thing to say really, but it is - it's about hard work, diligence, persistence, I showed him I cared by going around there etc

I've waffled on enough. There are ways and means to spread the Word without turning people off.

brilliant !!!!!!!
I agree totally, it is through our example and not by pushing around that people get to God. My attitude is to help whenever possible not asking a reward and even refusing one if offered. If asked, or if the discussion gets me there (well nutty me I kind of push it “there”) I state my believes and just that.

[Cooraan]

Don't mean to sound sappy here, but the true meaning of God is love. By showing others compassion, you are spreading the Gospel message and carrying out the command of Christ. It is possible to inspire others to become Christian by setting a good example yourself through your deeds and spirit, in fact there is no better way to sow the seeds of faith in others than through this method. Spreading God's love is not a matter of handing out Bibles, it's a matter of actively loving the world and bearing the Cross that Christians must bear by humbling yourself before God and mankind.

I agree wholeheartedly. I had works, and no faith though. Works should be a testament of my faith.

[The Dude]

While I could comment on your experiences, it would add little I think. I am an atheist and have always been, though I will admit that my reasons as of late have been better than the reasons I used to have.

So what I will do is just answer your last question and see if there's anything in my answer that gives you something to work with.

So where do I begin. Well as I said I've always been an atheist. What atheism means to me is not a rejection of God, but a rejection of theism. Theism is the notion, not just that God exists, but that he exists because of reasons X, Y and Z. We never just believe something, we always believe something for a certain reason.

What I do as an atheist is simply say this: I don't find your reasons sufficient, therefore I am not what you would classify a theist. But I of course carry a belief myself: that your reasons aren't sufficient. And if they're not sufficient to believe in the naked notion of God, then they're certainly not sufficient to become a member of a religion.

Now some may argue that this leaves me without a valid moral standard to engage the world around me with, but I say that that's putting the cart before the horse. For me, the power of human understanding is the source in which I try to look for my answers. I have to employ my own understanding in as radical and as challenging a way as I can, because I owe it to myself as a being possessing these powers to employ them.

Now your question was this: how do you value life? I value it in the following sense: human beings are thrust into this world without consent, and once in it we find ourselves facing the struggle of understanding just what exactly we've gotten ourselves into. As such, life has meaning insofar as we want to discover its meaning. In this sense, the meaning of life relies on itself to be of importance at all. Imagine a world in which mankind suffered a sense of lethargy unlike anything you have ever seen. We wouldn't ask after existence, we wouldn't inquire into the how and what of things. We would not even be inspired to work towards a goal, because that alone implies a sense of belonging and achieving that is inherently tied into what we think life should be about.

In such a world, life would have no value at all.

Therefore, for life to have value, we have to ask, we have to inquire, we have to do all of these things that we have the power to do.

The beauty of that truth is that I have to exist, and so do you. We all have to exist, on opposing sides of the fence, in order to provide a counterbalance to each other's being. It is a law of nature that friction between two elements results in a product of whatever kind. In our case, I have to be here to challenge your notion of the world, and you have to be here to challenge mine. Whether or not either of us are right or wrong is actually completely irrelevant.

[Hilarion]

I've heard it said that, if you are joyful, you have fulfilled God's will on Earth. As a point of further consideration, here is a quote by Saint Mother Maria of Paris:

"The way to God lies through love of other people, and there is no other way. At the Last Judgement I shall not be asked if I was successful in my ascetic exercises or how many prostrations I made in the course of my prayers. I shall be asked, did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and prisoners; that is all I shall be asked."

So, I would disagree that you have done badly from a Christian perspective, to the contrary you have done better than me in all my studies of theology and prayers, so if you continue on your present course of action, I'm sure all else will come naturally.

[Col. Tartleton]

I am alive. I will die. These truths are self evident (well actually I don't know that I will die but the evidence is pretty conclusive.)

By no fault of my own I am alive. By no fault of my own I will die.
By no merit of my own am I alive. By no merit of my own will I die.

So at the basic level there is a lack of choice in the matter.

I am.
We are.
You (s.) are.
You (p.) are.
It is.
They are.

To be.

The sum of everything is to be.

At the most basic level that is what the idea of God is. That which exists throughout everything else. The problem, is worshiping it. See it's not that Atheists don't think there is this sort of higher levels of existence or whatever, we just don't think it's magical. The idea is that we are smart enough that we'll make sense of everything given enough time. The thing is we don't want to leap to conclusions. Religion is a leap of faith. It's not needed. Eventually science should resolve everything. But in baby steps. Part of that is an acceptance that we will die wrong and ignorant. That's Socrates: "I know that I know nothing." There is no secret that we can learn in our life that will crack everything. Religions offer that there are, and clearly they're lying or wrong. We can be wrong, but we should try to be less wrong.

Why do we live?
Because...

Should we live a good life?
Maybe.

What is a good life?
Whatever you want it to be.

How do we live that good life?
However you want to get there.

All of this philosophy stuff is getting ahead of itself. Frankly we have barely worked out the little things, we're nowhere near answering "the big questions."

How much is a human life worth?
How much would you pay for it?

For now, that's Human Value. What worth can you assign to existence? Reason for it or not, I can assign a lot of worth. Probably somewhere between super infinity and hyper infinity, it's a lot.

[Sphere]

Don't fret, your existence here on Earth will be what, 70-90 years? After which there is an eternity in heaven. ~80 years as a fraction of eternity is zero, so just remember that your time spent being alive is actually an infinitely small part of your existence.