The Value of Human Life

Life is precious...

In researching for leading a discussion on the nature of the soul and the mind/body problem, I remember reading an article on flashes of light at the moment of fertilization of an egg by a sperm.

Please check out this brief video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-vfTQQZ5W0

There is a correlation with zinc and light at the moment of fertilization which researchers are calling a "zinc firework," which is quite literally a flash of light. I think this is extraordinary for several reasons.

The Bible Describes God as Light

In 1 John 1:5-7, the Bible says,

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

It is interesting how John describes the Almighty in this passage. There is such a vivid contrast between light and darkness in this picture that the author paints. He is telling us that God is not physical, but Spirit. In any case, we also know that God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in Spirit and truth from John chapter 4.

The Bible Describes Jesus as Light

Also in John’s gospel, we find an interesting description of Jesus as well: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1:4-9).

This passage is saying that Jesus was light, and that this light was the light of all mankind. Look again at the last sentence in this passage; “The true light that gives light to everyone…” Jesus is the true light, and He gives light to everyone! Could this light be describing a soul? If the lack of a soul means death, which is how many theologians would define death, when a soul leaves a body, then a soul entering a body would seem to mean life, which would make a lot of sense in this passage in John.

The Shroud of Turin has an Image Burned into its Fabric

If the Shroud of Turin is for real, which many people believe that it is (and honestly they have several reasons to believe such), then there is a photographic negative which burned into the fabric, which seems that this would have been caused by something dealing with light. If this is where the Spirit re-entered the body of Jesus Christ, then this would all seem to make perfect sense. Do you see the significance of both cases of this flash of light? If there is a flash of light that happens when an egg is fertilized, why would it be out of the question that there was a flash of light when Jesus was resurrected? When He re-entered into the lifeless body? https://www.shroud.com/

Some Implications

First of all, if a soul/spirit enters a human being at the moment of conception (the reason for the flash of light is what I am arguing), then it seems that abortion is out of the question. Do you really want to be the one responsible for destroying life? NY just went completely numb in the heart (and brain) because they now allow abortion up to birth. Wouldn’t a soul in a body mean that this is equal to personhood? How do we define personhood/person? How do we know that one has personhood? It seems that this is to what it all boils down. We will keep it simple, yet not out of the question with consciousness. A person is definitely a person of they are conscious. But what does that look like? Is a person in a coma conscious? Well, if they are, then it seems we better not pull the plug too early.

How about someone with special needs? I had a cousin who had cerebral palsy all of my life. As a child, I didn’t understand what was going on with her. She was probably about 10 years older than me. She had no reasoning, and one had no way of knowing how she handled morality and immorality. She could not function at all, according to memory, and she lived in a special home all of her life, up until death. Was she conscious? Did she have a soul? Was she a person? Yes, without a doubt. This flash of light seems to be correlated with the soul entering into an entity, which is ultimate personhood. In other words, the standard of personhood is having a human soul.

In our day and age, we are letting go of the idea that life is very precious. There are countries now who will help you die if you want to, and abortion plagues the face of our planet. Shouldn’t one of the most extreme goals in life be to live? Yet we are finding so many excuses to kill people off. Those who are elderly get to decide when they die now. What happened to letting God be God? Who knows if the sickness that someone is going through will change and they will be healed!? It seems that pain is a part of being human and that the human experience cannot be fully completed if one ends their life early or if they do not even get a start at life.

I say this now while not in pain, but I do think that it is fascinating that there is a threshold of pain. The pain can only get so bad before our bodies shut off. It is not like when we are in pain that the pain escalates and we are under an amount of pain never reached before in the history of human beings. Our bodies have protective measures that will deal with things we cannot handle. Much like extreme pain. In any event, while we are conscious as human beings, from fertilization to when our soul leaves our body,

We don’t consider life as something precious today because people are told that they come from monkeys, which ultimately came from inorganic matter… that their existence ultimately came from chance. With this idea bleeding into other worldviews, we become desensitized as people who once saw life as something precious. Now, it seems that it doesn’t sting as much when we hear of an actor committing suicide. A mass shooting has enormous shock value for those not involved in any way, but what does it carry beyond that? Do we really contemplate these things enough? What about abortion? Do we really want to be responsible for murdering babies, of all people? What in the world happened to our sensibility? What happened to our value of life and seeing it as precious? The Bible says that we should go forth and multiply, I think that the reason for that is because life is precious. Think of the odds that are required for life to even exist on planet earth. Our environment on earth is so finely tuned that even the tiniest change would render all life on earth as lost.

Life is precious. Even Buddhists recognize this. They feel bad when they kill mosquitoes that are sucking their blood. I do not think that we need to feel bad about this, because God made us rulers over all animals as human beings (Genesis 1:26-27). Human life is intrinsically valuable, and we are missing it. Many today are not afraid to kill human babies, but anytime someone kills a dog, look out! I have a friend who I am not very close with whose wife was ferociously bit by a dog. Not a small bite, but it was pretty serious. Not only did the owners of the dog let it live, but it was not even punished. How does a dog know that it is doing something wrong? Do dogs have morals or are they trained to do what we tell them to do by our morals? What if a trained dog decides to be a dog one day and bite someone in the face? Why in the world would we put up with something like this? It seems that the dog should be put down, however you call it, because what if it happened again? What if it went even further in its destruction? What if it was your wife that was next? Or your small child? This article values human life over all other life on earth. The reason for this is because human life is more valuable. Even more valuable than an injury to a human by a nonhuman.

Ouch levers.

Take a quick look at Exodus 21:28-32: “If a bull gores a man or woman to death, the bull is to be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death. However, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded. This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death” (Emphasis mine).

It is clear from this reading that human life is held infinitely higher in value than animal life. The reason for this is because animal life is not intrinsically valuable. Why is the owner to be put to death if the bull has had a habit of goring? Because the owner no longer values human life as he should and this behavior does not work in society! Imagine if everyone who had bulls with a habit of goring people to death. Bulls or any living thing under the rule of man is not the priority.

Sure, we can dumb it down to a case by case basis, but an animal that bites a human should seriously be considered dangerous against humans, no matter what the event. The problem in all of this is that people have dramatically reduced their value of human life. It is time that we take this value up again and see human life as extremely precious.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” –John 13:34-35

Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus

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