L ! F E

Alright, I'm just going to throw this out there - the value of human life has decreased and I'm just not starting to realize how much. With debates about euthanasia arising more and more each year and along with that doctor assisted suicides. When is it ever okay to help someone die? That is murder - and realize that even in places where doctor assisted suicide is legal, if they are ever accused of abusing their power they are tried for murder. Another thing is that there is a line in the oath that all doctors swear to follow when they become doctors that says they will, by no means, ever help a patient to die. Doesn't euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide go against that very oath? Here, is it very obvious that the value of human life is small. Argue that it is ending their suffering - fine - but keep in mind that they're suffering wouldn't have been prolonged if we didn't keep them alive.

Another easy way to see the de-valuization [not a real word] of humanity is in new cases of suicidal college students being kicked out of school. A recent news article brought to attention the issue of suicide and the pandemic that is has over colleges. The article, written by David B. Caruso, stated that attempted suicides in college settings have been isolated as being unacceptable student behavior. Caruso seems to be aiming the article toward an audience of college student, concerned parents, or possibly even college faculty. At Hunter College a nineteen-year-old girl attempted suicide by taking excessive amounts of Tylenol. Fortunately she was able to call for help in time to save herself but when she came back to campus and went to her dorm, the lock had been changed and she was forced to leave school – she was expelled.

And then there is suicide bombings. It seems to me like the value of human life in that part of the globe is so miniscule that is barely exists anymore. This is just sad - human life is huge, it's extreme, it's exhilarating and to minimize that to what it's become cannot be right. I think our world is in desperate need of a reminder of the value of life. Scientists say that our existence is just a FREAK occurrence of the cosmos (if that were true, are humans just going to waste away the small blip they have in the years of earths life?)

As for Christians or really any believer in the hereafter, why waste away? The Bible says that in the end, the earth will be renewed. As Rob Bell put it in his book Velvet Elvis: "And God isn’t just interested in reclaiming his original dream for creation; he wants to take it further. Imagine if you took all the sin and death our of the Bible. You would be left with a short book. It would have four chapters to be exact: Genesis 1 and 2; Revelation 21 and 22. In Genesis 1 and 2 we are told of a garden, but in Revelation 21 and 22, we are told of a city. A city is more advanced, more complicated than a garden. If a garden is developed and managed and cared for, it is eventually going to turn into a city. If there was no sin or death, creation would still move forward because God doesn't just want to reclaim things; God wants to see them move forward." (Bell 161). So the earth is our home even after the fact; He will make things good.