The Intrinsic Value of Human Beings

 

What makes a human being valuable?

Probably one of the most important questions a person can ask. 

Is it their skills?

Their looks?

Their smarts?

To some degree it is all of the above.

Many things give human life value. 

People can be valued for what they have, and valued for what their name is, and valued for what they're good at.

These are quantifiably valuable aspects of the human condition.

What about intrinsic value?

Intrinsic value in regards to people is the value inherent in us all just for being human. A value unquantifiable. A value you can't put a price on.

For me, the intrinsic value of human beings and its inherent nature that gives each of us an almost priceless worth is our consciousness. Our sentience. Our ability to feel, think, love, experience, grow, learn, and hope.

These are unquantifiable and unpriceable traits that all advanced conscious beings, not just humans, share and experience.

      A human being is a natural receiver of information, one of the core tenets of a conscious entity, and as a result every one of us intakes the world, and the universe, in a different way and with a unique vantage point. We all see the world a little differently. 

   On top of that, every human has an imagination or level of creativity to some degree. We can create worlds of our own in our minds. Some people can create entire universes with their minds. 

   This creativity, sentience, and consciousness inherent in all of us is why I view human life as intrinsically valuable.

  Because of our status as a receiver of information and our creativity, killing or harming a human being is like killing or harming an entire world. An entire universe in some instances. Humans are like worlds within worlds or universes within universes. This viewpoint adds to the egregiousness of harming a human being because it creates immeasurable intrinsic value.

On top of that, Since I believe God is an infinite creative mind and that every consciousness in existence is an isolated, individualized sample of that mind, sharing in his "breath of life", the value of a human life becomes multiplied by an infinite degree to a truly priceless, unquantifiable level. So too is the egregiousness and atrociousness of harming one.

Regardless of the validity of the previous statement on humans being samples of God's mind, it's an ethos I try to live by. If you believe such a thing, it adds to the depth, scope, and worth of the human condition to an immeasurable and unfathomable degree. The intrinsic value of human life becomes so infinitely vast it becomes absolute under the above assumptions.