Value

Premiss

I heard an argument in the field of philosophical ethics. The question was: Is it better to have a smaller population of people who were happier and more fulfilled or a larger population of people that lived less happy lives just barely worth living. I listened as the person posing this fictional scenario explained that it is a paradox because it cannot be balanced and equalized through a mathematical formula. Now, I’m not a mathematical superstar, but I think that numbers aside a biblical worldview can and does answer the problem.

The way our biblical worldview will address this problem is by adjusting the assumptions of the argument. While I have not listed the argument in it’s full form you can watch the youtube video with this problem here. I would like to demonstrate that there are 2 particular flaws in the assumptions according to a Christian, Biblical worldview.

The First Flaw

The first flaw is in the assumption that people are valuable or important because of how happy or fulfilled they are. While of course we want people to find inexpressible joy in Jesus, peace beyond understanding with God, and true fulfillment with the Holy Spirit; the assumption is that sad or struggling people are not valuable or dignified as people. From a materialistic and naturalistic perspective this is exactly correct. In that philosophical framework you can only value life in regards to the qualitative or productive aspects. The utility is hindered by the scope of seeing people as less than inherently valuable.

For us as believers we cannot assume this kind of naturalistic understanding because our Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-28). As His image bearers, both believers or unbelievers, there is inherent value that stems from the image of God. Because He is valuable, that which bears His image (even if poorly) is also valuable. Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which bore Caesar’s image and unto God that which bears God’s image (Luke 22:19-26). So we value people as important because they are people.

The Fatal Flaw

The argument assumes that some level of life is not worth living. That some humans have such bad circumstances that not living would be better. But this cannot be true because the relative ease of our lives is not the factor that makes our lives worth experiencing. The difference between this flaw and the earlier flaw is that the first flaw was about the value or importance of the human being. This flaw is about the value or importance of the human experience. This is highly influenced by subjective standards.

We must understand that the current state of affairs in our world, while fallen, is still as it was intended to be. God has purposes in our experiences in this life and in this world. The Apostle Paul intends for us to live with our eyes focused on the glory to come (Romans 8:18) and on the weight of glory that is won through our trials (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).  When as human beings we minimize the scale of what God is doing to just the variants and factors that we can know and quantify then it is impossible for us to accurately judge the importance and purpose of a single human experience and even more so all of the human experience.

The Final Flaw

It missed the point of people all together. This philosophical exercise is crippled by the fact that there cannot be in a materialistic, humanistic worldview any purposeful transcendent meaning to the universe or any creature in it.  The reality is that all of creation and every creature, especially humans, exist for God’s own glory. No matter how desperate, disoriented, depressed, or despondent every life and life experience is important because the Lord is worthy of the glory of that life! God’s goodness, grace, and glory are all magnified by every life and this purpose is greater than any mathematical, philosophical, or psychological purpose that mankind could ever imagine. So let us live! And live for God’s glory! 

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