Rearranging Molecules

Murder is universally considered wrong. Everyone, regardless of belief or place of birth, cannot condone senseless killing. Human life has value and meaning, we have no right to snuff it out prematurely. However, this commonly held truth is not necessarily compatible with all systems of belief. Many people today reject the idea of God and creation. Theories that give a semantic explanation of our existence are becoming more and more common. What people do not admit is the implications these ideas have on the concept of humanity and life.

The Big Bang is the most common theory accepted by atheists, so it is this theory we will use for our purposes. The Big Bang theory operates on the assumption that the world, and by extension all life on it, was created by an act of chance. Supposedly a large explosion set into motion a chain of events creating everything we know today. This includes all organisms and life forms, which are said to have evolved over time to their present state. Consider the following question: If humans are merely randomly arranged particles thanks to chance, what makes human life valuable? If we are truly nothing but products of chance then murder is not a crime. Is the offender not simply rearranging molecules that were randomly connected in the first place? Where is the intrinsic value? If a scientist breaks apart chemical bonds we do not arrest him. When a farmer kills a cow for food we do not declare him a murderer. Yet if we are nothing but objects who evolved over time, there is no difference between us and those things. A human is nothing but a more complex animal according to evolution. A lion kills the cubs that threaten his place of power in the pride. A king kills the people who threaten his throne. Wolves fight each other over food and power. Men are no different.

As a Christian I can state that human life has value beyond atoms because we were made in the image of God. I can say that our creator made us for a purpose and gave us value. And that killing is a crime because of that value and because he forbids it. This is my justification. But to one who does not believe in God, where does the justification of value come from? Some say it is because we are self aware and intelligent. However, this does not explain why we would have more value than any other animal on earth. Sentience does not mean importance. In the end we would still simply be very self-important molecules. Is man so full of his own importance that he simply asserts it because he believes it to be true? We are far from objectively considering our own worth. The universe does not revolve around man. It does not stop when he suffers or dies. Time leaves him behind, and would happily continue if he were to vanish. The only things that care about his well being are other men and God. Being “more advanced” than everything else on earth means nothing. If we were to find life more advanced than us in thought or technology are we less valuable than them? Would we be any different to them than a dog or a cat is to us? In truth, if humans are nothing but an act of chance, a random sequence of DNA, then life has no discernible value. 

-BlackFox

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