Intrinsic Worth

I just finished reading, “Our world losing understanding of what it means to be human” by Deborah Gyaong, Canadian Catholic News in the April 26, 2015 edition of the Catholic Register. The article angered me. The article is about Ravi Zacharias, an apologist who spends more than 200 days a year travelling the world.

Ravi argues that we are losing our perspective of what it means to be human. The Judeo-Christian perspective of the intrinsic worth of all human beings was the premise of belief, ethics, and religion that dominated the European world for centuries and the new world of North America inhabited by the Europeans.

“We are not random products of time, matter and chance,” said Ravi. He goes on to say, “The Bible says, ‘In the beginning God…’ ” We humans are created in God’s image. As such, we humans have intrinsic value or worth.

Look at what is going on in the Middle East and in Africa. What value do people who live in these places put on a human being?  The value of human worth is deteriorating in Canada by complacent citizens who offer no remedies and a government that offers no leadership.

When I was in Grade 8 in public school, I remember going to the school auditorium to hear a different Minister from a different denomination each month read from the Bible and say a few prayers.

I wasn’t into religion then. It was a bit boring but never offensive. “Court bans prayer in city councils” is another article by Deborah Gyapong in the same newspaper, where the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on April 15^th that the Saguenay council must stop praying before meetings and pay $30 000 in damages to some atheist who launched a complaint into the matter.

Wasn’t it just two or three years ago that the courts ruled in favor of removing bibles from government buildings in the United States of America? Now there is a movement afoot in America and Canada to remove the word “God” from our national anthems. More atheists are offended by the use of “God” in anything.

I respect different religions of our world that stipulate love God and love your neighbour. I have no respect for self-righteous zealots who lop off peoples’ heads because they don’t follow a religious belief. I have no respect for people who desecrate artifacts, statues and buildings that were at the foundation of modern civilizations. Such people are endeavouring to erase cultures and their history to promote their own beliefs. And no one is stopping them.

Where has the respect gone for our diversity? Where has the respect gone for human value?

Atheism is not a religion; it is a conclusion. While the so-called atheists are trying to get rid of God, they are opening the door for a god by a different name.

I say to bring non-denominational prayer back into our schools, then our homes, municipalities and back into our country. Return the bibles, Koran and religious texts of all faiths. Return to us the faith of our founders and maybe them a sense of value for human life will return.