Animals

I was writing a paper for my ethics class - which, by the way, I think philosophy is ridiculously useless - and the question of what gives value to people came up. The topic for writing had to do with God as the source of morality, basically. My thoughts brought me to thinking that the value of people is dependent in some way, or to some people, upon their (our) relationship with God. For those who believe in a God that is real and relates to people as Father to child, I assume they must see value in other people because they are children of God. At the very least, even if they don't see individual value in human life, they see value in their own relationship with God so they follow what he commands them to do, which includes treating other people well. I come from the camp that believes all people are the children of God, thereby granting them intrinsic value. I wonder how I would value people if I didn't have this belief; I don't think that I can accurately suppose it as my beliefs are so much of who I am. Perhaps the value comes from a realization of what the self is. I would know how I value myself and then project that value upon other people. An interesting thing to think about. This next bit I will explore is heavily biased, which I don't apologize for, but I want to make it clear that I don't think this is how it is, it is just a route that my pondering took. It is a possible explanation from a strictly biological point of view, wherein humans are simply higher level organisms. It is interesting that I worry that my view might be offensive to someone who doesn't have the same core belief as me, when this approach may very well be what someone else's core belief is. All speculation of course, just another thought expansion exercise...

The rest of this post can be found in the Ajax's Whimsical Revolution ebook for Amazon's Kindle. The book is a compilation of my favorite posts, 78 to be exact, of which this is one. If you don't have a Kindle e-reader you can download the free Amazon Kindle app for PC or Mac.