Does one group of humans have more value than another?

[Jeremy]

Expanding our chat discussion on the earthquakes to the forum:

Do you think value of human life is measured by economic value? How well you know them and/or how much their life benefits yours? Or do you think all human beings have equal value (i.e. all humans are created in God's image)?

 

[doodle]

This may answer the question.

About 40 British Christians killed in UK on 7/11 got more US TV media coverage than millions of Iraq's Arab Christians killed/injured/forced to exile in Iraq.

 

[osan]

We are either equal in terms of our claims to life or we are not.

If we are, you have your answer.

If we are not, then anything goes, no answer is right or wrong, but rather nothing more than a matter of opinion.

Get back to us when you decide in which world you would rather live.

 

[Philhelm]

No. However, people have their own spheres of concern: family, close friends, acquaintances, community, nation, etc. Naturally, people will have a more direct concern for those who they feel closer to on a social level. This is not to say that lives are unequal, but an individual's value of others' lives will vary.

 

[Dreamofunity]

It depends on how you define economic value.

Most people get caught up in material analysis, ignoring other forms of value. I'd argue all forms of value fall under economic evaluation, but given most people only consider monetary/material value when using the term and not the value gained by say friendship, I probably wouldn't use the term 'economic value' without making the clarification first.

Having said that:

Value is subjective. Certain individuals, and even groups of people, are more valuable to me than others, but may not be for you, or anyone else.

 

[TortoiseDream]

Value isn't objective. Value to whom?

 

[Yieu]

Or do you think all human beings have equal value (i.e. all humans are created in God's image)?

This is my belief, and now I will back it with scripture.

According to scripture, there is no difference between any soul, regardless of specie.

All souls are the same and unchangeable, and are not a special feature of humanity, but rather is the animating force -- life is an effect of the soul, and where there is life, there is the soul.

The soul is eternal, and that means in addition to having no end, it also has no beginning; having no beginning, the soul predates the body it currently inhabits and existed previous to it.

Commentary at the links in the quote.

Chapter 2, Verse 20.
For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

Chapter 2, Verse 21.
O Partha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable, kill anyone or cause anyone to kill?

Chapter 2, Verse 24.
This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.

Chapter 2, Verse 25.
It is said that the soul is invisible, inconceivable, immutable, and unchangeable. Knowing this, you should not grieve for the body.

Chapter 5, Verse 18.
The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste].

 

[Stary Hickory]

All human life is subjectively valued by every individual. If a person's life has a significance in your life than that person will be more valued than someone you don't know or someone who hinders your existence.

 

[Yieu]

All human life is subjectively valued by every individual. If a person's life has a significance in your life than that person will be more valued than someone you don't know or someone who hinders your existence.

That subjective value is based on material associations, and thus is not exactly the same topic as the objective value of the soul -- the value of which is unchangeable and eternally the same amongst all individuals, races, and specie.

 

[Sola_Fide]

As far as Christianity goes, Gary North has said that probably the only notion of egalitarianism in biblical Christian philosophy is that we are all equal at the foot of the cross.

 

[TNforPaul45]

This is easy:

There are 4 types of quantitative valuations in the world: Nominal, Ordinal, Cardinal, and Interval. Since humans are not a commodity, due to their inherent and inalienable rights of freedom (Jefferson, 1776), then they cannot be valued or traded, they can only be categorized. Thus, humans are susceptible only to nominal categorizations and valuations, and the only statement that is valid is "Japanese" and "Haitians," and one cannot say "Japanese > Haitians." No higher subjective valuations can be placed on them.

Thus, all humans are equal.

 

[amy31416]

Group of lawyers/politicians/bankers vs. a group of plumbers/construction workers/doctors/nurses.

I know which set I'd flush if I had to choose. (Apologies to RP & Gunny )

 

[Sola_Fide]

The interesting thing is, pro-abortionists think one group of people are not equal to others: the pre-born.

To the pro-abortion statists, they only really became persons after they traveled a few inches down their mothers birth canal. Before that, they weren't people who deserved the protection of the law.

 

[noxagol]

Objectively, viewed from outside, one humans worth is no greater than another. Viewed subjectively from withing, each human will judge the value of all other humans differently, just as they do everything non-human. To not value humans differently is well, un-human.

 

[acptulsa]

Well, back in the 1970's when Ford figured out that the Pinto was a molotov cocktail on wheels, they measured the cost to implement a fix against the amount they estimated they would have to pay out in lawsuits. So, it would appear that the value of your life is directly proportional to the quality of your lawyer.

How sad is that?

 

[Dreamofunity]

This is easy:

There are 4 types of quantitative valuations in the world: Nominal, Ordinal, Cardinal, and Interval. Since humans are not a commodity, due to their inherent and inalienable rights of freedom (Jefferson, 1776), then they cannot be valued or traded, they can only be categorized. Thus, humans are susceptible only to nominal categorizations and valuations, and the only statement that is valid is "Japanese" and "Haitians," and one cannot say "Japanese > Haitians." No higher subjective valuations can be placed on them.

Thus, all humans are equal.

How do you define a commodity?

Why can't things that are not commodities be valued?


I could ordinally rank people based on individual preferences and values.

Ron Paul > Hitler.

 

[Xavi1990]

Expanding our chat discussion on the earthquakes to the forum:

Do you think value of human life is measured by economic value? How well you know them and/or how much their life benefits yours? Or do you think all human beings have equal value (i.e. all humans are created in God's image)?

6 million Jews died in the Holocaust.

7 million Ukrainians died from murder and starvation in a year from Stalin's collectivization policy.

Around 30 million people died during Mao's Great Leap Forward.

When is the last time you heard about the last two on the History channel?

 

[eOs]

http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

 

[Dreamofunity]

http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html

I love Cracked.

 

[lynnf]

your child and one of their friends fall into the torrential stream of a drainage ditch. there's a bridge downstream which you race to with your one rope and your one chance to save one, but not the other which will be swept to sea. there is where you find that some matter more than others. and its the same with groups of people. just human nature.

lynn