Hold on, Christianity states that everyone is intrinsically valuable, that everyone is made in the image of God and we are children of God. At least it is my understanding.
It’s a common misconception in Christianity that God is just a ‘being among beings’. It’s more akin to the belief in existence itself, which is itself an absurdity once you think about it enough :) Some people may protest that they are part of reality though…
Weird article. How does one pray to "being itself", how does "being itself" take the form of a human, as Christians hold?
I'm sure they have complicated answers for that, how what seems like a more powerful version of a human, Jesus Christ, seemingly a being among beings, is actually the same thing as "being itself". They have a whole field for it, Christology. But in that, and in clarifying how "being itself" can have a will, make other beings "in its image" and generally interfere in mundane worldy-animal affairs, they should at least feel a little embarrassed when they claim to be nothing more than rational persons believing in "being" and deriding new atheists for not getting that.
He seems to understand but ignores completely that atheists aren't primarily talking about weird sorts of panentheism and so on in their denial of God, and when they are, they offer sophisticated arguments, rather than the non-arguments he presents.
Most new atheists I know deny the existence of free will, as it is a super natural phenomenon under most definitions. Since it is impossible for a being to prove or disprove the existence of their own free will, it becomes an act of faith to accept that will exists.
The intelligibility of being itself and the professed existence of will (again, if you believe in free will, you have a faith of sorts) point to a mind (because will requires a mind), this mind is a facet of the mystery that people call God.
Knowing where someone stands on free will is a good starting point :)
True. I believe Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim have similar beliefs as well in the value of a human life. But belief doesn't always translate into action.
Just a living example; many homeless shelters here forbid the use of drugs, even if it means turning the user out into the cold and near certain death. For many of the people operating the shelters, the value of that person isn't worth the cost of what they might due because of the addiction. Not just in economic, but in emotional and mental fatigue for the operators.
I supposed then that the question could more correctly stated as: Do people view all others as valuable enough to expend a given amount time, energy, and resources on to support? And that I still believe the answer is likely no.
I don't think this issue is so clear. Drugs may pose a danger to the person using them, others in the facility, potentially imperil any others trying to come clean, alongside countless other effects. In trying to solve one problem, you may well create a dozen potentially far more severe ones.
In life many things are not just a choice between a good decision and a bad one. Instead you end up having to choose between a bad decision and a horrible one. And so attacking the bad choice is easy, because it is undeniably clearly bad. But that doesn't mean the alternative is inherently better.
>Drugs may pose a danger to the person using them, others in the facility, potentially imperil any others trying to come clean, alongside countless other effects. In trying to solve one problem, you may well create a dozen potentially far more severe ones.
I think we're both saying the same thing. The addict could be helped with facilities to isolate them and full time support staff to help them. But that's exponentially more expensive to provide then just a safe place to sleep and a hot meal.
At some point or another, someone decided that this shelter will get these resources; money, space, heating, food, personnel, etc. Someone else decided that this was the best way to take these provided resources to help the group that was intended to help. And at some point both those people said that they're not going to help that addict; either they're not going to give the needed resources to it, or they're not going to use all the available resources to help the one at the expense of others. Whatever the justification might be, that was the result.
It might be the best decision that could be made given a set of bad answers to a worst problem. The net result is all the same though; deeming a person's not worth the cost of resources into supporting.
