Does life have value?

Originally posted by sonship
If [atheists] value human life most of them see nothing but a future of melting back into the dust of the earth for all people.

It is a very difficult matter to see. But man's life is a kind of "vessel" a "container".

The created human life is a very valuable matter primarily because it was created to "contain" something. We were created to contain the Uncreated Life the Person of God.

Created life was designed (as in man's case) to be a vessel or container of the Uncreated and unseen Eternal Life.

When we read that man was created in the image of God and according to the likeness of God, it is good to think of this as a glove being made in the image of a human hand. The concept is not altogether physical as much as metaphysical, spiritual, mystical and divine.

The man created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) is like a glove made in the image of a living hand. The glove is designed to contain the hand. Man is shaped in (if you will) a kind of "God shaped" design for the purpose of containing God.

To leave the above brief word with one New Testament verse to highlight this, I would submit Second Corinthians 4:7 about the ministry of the apostles as pioneers in the new covenant.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us." (2 Cor. 4:7)

Originally posted by FMF
In other words, you create "value" in human life ~ and meaning in your own ~ by imagining - asserting - hoping - that death is not the end

So Genesis 1 animals seem to proceed man's creation.
But Genesis 2 Adam precedes the animals creation.

Now why could God had made this less puzzling?
Couldn't Moses tell that this would cause some problems in understanding?
The same Moses who details the furniture and measurements and details of the tabernacle with such precision, surely must have anticipated his writing of Genesis 1 followed by Genesis 2 would cause us all some harmonization problems.

In BOTH accounts man is the crown of all creation.
In both accounts the utmost value is seen in human kind. Though he is one of the living creatures he is nonetheless unmistakably at the apex of them all.

Originally posted by sonship
Sometimes I sit astounded at the promises of Jesus Christ. The promise of "eternal life" seems something for which I did not think to conceive to ask.

The value of human beings is also seen depicted in the closing description of the New Jerusalem at the end of history.

God is the light. And the light is in the Lamp. Grasp this.
I said God is the LIGHT and the LIGHT is inside shining out of the LAMP.
And the LAMP is the LAMB.

God is the LIGHT shining out to manifest Himself from within the LAMP of the LAMB of God.

" And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. " (Rev. 21:23)

"And he carried me away in spirit onto a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal." (21:10,11)

"And night will be no more; and they have no need of the light of a lamp and of the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine upon them; and they will reign forever and ever." (22:5)

In eternity past God had a plan to create the universe and to be manifested in it.
For this He created millions of items.
And for this He created many creatures.

He just said "Let them be". But with humanity He got more involved. With humanity He got more intimately related in a kind of counsel of the Triune God and said "Let Us ...".

With nothing else in creation did God say "Let Us" . But on the sixth day of His making He said it, concerning human beings.

"And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing which creeps upon the earth.

And God created man in His own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen. 1:26,27)

Originally posted by FMF
This promise for "something for which [you] did not think to conceive to ask" means you can value life while non-believers can't?

Originally posted by sonship
An atheist though is hard pressed to ground his value of man.

Originally posted by sonship

The atheist denying God still has the intuitive sense of self worth and value but his rationale grounding for it flounders as he gropes around in darkness for a "Godless" explanation as to WHY he should be that way.

Originally posted by sonship
...the Christian has a rational grounding for such value in the eternal value of the Creator.

Originally posted by sonship

Does an atheist give more value to a mortal life than a theist?

Most of the atheists that I have talked with seem not to clear about the relative value of human life over the cockroach. In trying to escape from man being made in the image of God, they seem forced to dumb down humans to be just another animal.

If they value human li ...[text shortened]... that life does not really have value. Or groping for a bases of its value is a bleak exercise.

Originally posted by FMF
You said that "most" non-believers you've discussed it with can't tell the difference - in terms of value of life - between human beings and cockroaches.

When you talk about someone trying"to ground" his value of man in something, by any chance, would the only thing you would accept as being able to "ground" one's perception of value, happen to be Jesus?

Originally posted by sonship...

I think if they were honest the ultimate answer for them is that life does not really have value. Or groping for a bases of its value is a bleak exercise.