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What makes life sacred or valuable?

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leejosepho
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22 Apr 2013, 5:34 am

b9 wrote:
if there were no humans, everything would go to rack and ruin. vehicles would get dirtier and dirtier. dust would pile up in houses and buildings. everyone's lawns would become overgrown until they were in a hideous condition. just imagine what state the roads would be in with no one to maintain them?

Yes, and now even we cannot keep our concrete jungle well-maintained.


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b9
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22 Apr 2013, 7:00 am

leejosepho wrote:
b9 wrote:
if there were no humans, everything would go to rack and ruin. vehicles would get dirtier and dirtier. dust would pile up in houses and buildings. everyone's lawns would become overgrown until they were in a hideous condition. just imagine what state the roads would be in with no one to maintain them?

Yes, and now even we cannot keep our concrete jungle well-maintained.

i was not being serious.



leejosepho
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22 Apr 2013, 7:40 am

Understood, and our "concrete jungles" sometimes cause me to ponder the differences between intelligence and wisdom!


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ruveyn
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22 Apr 2013, 8:37 am

Another thing that makes life valuable is its scarcity in the Cosmos. The Cosmos is mostly non-alive. Once we are off planet we will have to go a long way to find living things elsewhere.

ruveyn



Fnord
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22 Apr 2013, 9:59 am

daydreamer84 wrote:
What makes life sacred or valuable?

It can not be created in vitrio ... yet ...



daydreamer84
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22 Apr 2013, 1:26 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Another thing that makes life valuable is its scarcity in the Cosmos. The Cosmos is mostly non-alive. Once we are off planet we will have to go a long way to find living things elsewhere.

ruveyn


Good point. There may be conditions supporting life in some distant galaxy or solar system but as far as we can tell it's very rare (we haven't found it yet).



Last edited by daydreamer84 on 22 Apr 2013, 1:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

daydreamer84
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22 Apr 2013, 1:27 pm

Again, thanks for all the replies.



PrncssAlay
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24 Apr 2013, 8:15 am

Mike1 wrote:
The death of a human can make entire communities grieve, whereas the death of a wild animal only makes small numbers of other animals of their species grieve, if any grieve at all.


Which brings up the subject of "grieving," another thing which I totally don't understand. If the dead body is similar to a leaf which has fallen from a tree in the autumn, and either the spirit is somewhere else or nowhere, what is there to grieve about? If our relationship with the now-dead person was honest, then there is nothing more to say. At a very recent funeral in our family, the two or three people who were hysterically (and showily) grieving were the very ones who manipulated and bullied him while he was living.



leejosepho
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24 Apr 2013, 11:22 am

PrncssAlay wrote:
Mike1 wrote:
The death of a human can make entire communities grieve, whereas the death of a wild animal only makes small numbers of other animals of their species grieve, if any grieve at all.


Which brings up the subject of "grieving," another thing which I totally don't understand. If the dead body is similar to a leaf which has fallen from a tree in the autumn, and either the spirit is somewhere else or nowhere, what is there to grieve about?

"Born to die", my grandfather used to say, and death is certainly just as much a part of life as is birth.

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If our relationship with the now-dead person was honest, then there is nothing more to say.

At least in theory, I will will bear no grief over the matter of any life coming to an end. And yet, I will almost surely grieve the loss of companionship if my wife might precede me in death even though I might "celebrate" the "success" or perceived value cherished and gained from her life and its part in mine.

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At a very recent funeral in our family, the two or three people who were hysterically (and showily) grieving were the very ones who manipulated and bullied him while he was living.

Definitely disgusting.


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PsychoSarah
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24 Apr 2013, 1:02 pm

Nothing, really. People like to think that life is valuable, especially their own, so they seek out any reason they can find to support this view. Ultimately, the human race will die out, the sun will explode, and the world will end. We will be forgotten, no matter what accomplishments we make.



PrncssAlay
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24 Apr 2013, 1:05 pm

PsychoSarah wrote:
Nothing, really. People like to think that life is valuable, especially their own, so they seek out any reason they can find to support this view. Ultimately, the human race will die out, the sun will explode, and the world will end. We will be forgotten, no matter what accomplishments we make.


So true.