In old times, Nature was God, like the Gods of the Greeks based on the sun and sea. Now, nature only speaks Gods words. In our daily lives, if something unexpected and positive happens, its a mircle and no doubt the hand of god was behind it. When something doesnt play out like we wanted, we reassure ourselves that god never wanted it to be.
After reading this article I realized that God (or Nature) is trying to tell us something about how we value human life. We have built our judicial, economic, political and health care systems on one premise that no one questions. Human life is sacred. Again and again, our systems collapse, or are collapsing, because of this one premise. For example, global warming is a result of our belief that human life is sacred. Indeed, even quality of life is sacred. Planet be damned. We are reaching 6 billion because each of the 6 billion is sacred. Another example is health care. As the article explains, health care systems must put a price on human life or they are doomed to breakdown.
The answer seems clear. Human life is not sacred, ie, priceless. God reminds us that it is not so by destroying the systems we have built on this premise alone.
The problem, as I see it, is one of self reference. We can be objective economists, putting a dollar figure on someones life when it comes to life and death questions of some imagined person. But must shed this objectivity when the person who's life is on the line is us or someone close to us.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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