What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. ~Psalms 8:4-5
To a Christian, one of the most valuable things in this world is human life. This is because we know that each and every individual is fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, regardless of their physical appearance or genetic makeup. As such, each and every person is deserving of human dignity and love. However, as we see a moral and spiritual decline in our country (and in the world, for that matter) due to a rejection of God and His Word, we also see a corresponding diminishing of the perceived value of human life in society. Case in point: While watching a recent news broadcast, my wife was telling me that she was sickened and horrified to learn that a hospital in the UK was found to be burning the aborted fetuses of unborn babies right along with the rest of the hospital’s trash as a new ‘green’ way of heating their building. That’s right, these innocent little children were first murdered and then their lifeless bodies were simply tossed into the trash pile and incinerated, with absolutely no regard whatsoever. How utterly despicable to think that the remains of these dear children were used as the means of providing warmth to the very hands that had so coldly ended their lives.
Once again, we see that when the Absolute Authority of the Bible is discarded and replaced with atheistic and evolutionary notions, there remains no ultimate reason to value human life above that of any other ‘evolved’ mass of cells. In fact,
if we are all nothing more than rearranged bags of molecules, why should anyone care what happens to someone else? We wouldn’t get bent out of shape over a dead cancer cell or a housefly we squashed with our flyswatter, after all.
Why not do what we want to one another and even rearrange each other a little more if we feel like it (especially if it benefits us and we can get away with it)? We wouldn’t put a lion in prison for killing a zebra or for maiming a gazelle, would we? Besides, didn’t murderers, thieves, and terrorists evolve too? Why should they be punished for acting out the thoughts produced by the random chemical reactions in their evolved brains, if that’s what their DNA tells them to do?
Think about it: if one person’s brain fizz produces a standard that tells them that murder is OK and someone else’s brain fizzes a standard which says that protecting life is what they should be doing, then ultimately, what is the difference if both people are eventually just going to die anyway without consequence? Followed to its logical (read: illogical) conclusion, this corrupt line of reasoning tells us that it truly does not matter if one lives their life like Mother Theresa or if they live like Adolph Hitler, as both of them are now on equal footing—dead forever.
Like it or not, this is the result when we abandon the absolutes of the Christian worldview for the subjective standards of atheism, which postulates an accidental, random-chance, evolving universe. Apart from an absolute law giver, there can be no moral absolutes–only subjective personal preferences with regards to behavior. As such, ANYONE is then free to stipulate their own personal moral standards (including rapists, murderers, thieves, and child molesters), and there is no way to resolve the conflict, as one personal standard is just as valid as another. As such, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ become meaningless terms, as differing personal opinions are not ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, they’re just…..well….’different’. In an atheistic, evolutionary universe, that’s the most one could ever say about anybody else’s behavioral standards (no matter how personally offensive they may be).
Fortunately, we do not live in such a universe. We live in God’s universe where we all know that things like rape, murder, and stealing are absolutely wrong, since He has ‘hardwired’ His moral law into each of us and has given us a conscience to affirm that He has done so. This is an inescapable reality, as even the most diehard criminal locks his own doors at night to keep someone else from perpetrating upon him the very acts that he does to others, because he knows in his heart of hearts that his deeds are absolutely morally wrong, and not just a matter of personal preference. Likewise, the staunchest professing atheist not only expects to be treated with a certain level of reasonableness, dignity, and respect by his fellow human beings–he demands it! In doing so, he undermines his professed atheism and reveals plainly that, deep within, he knows that God exists as Creator and that he also has inherent value, being made in His image. In summary, it has been rightly observed that:
Humanism or atheism is a wonderful philosophy of life as long as you are big, strong, and between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. But watch out if you are in a lifeboat and there are others who are younger, bigger, or smarter. ~
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