Do you value life?

Question

I am constantly amazed and saddened at the way most people don't seem to value their own life, not to mention the lives of others, and this morning I passed the scene of an accident where a car hit someone in a crosswalk. If the person lived at all, they had to have been seriously injured. And why were they hit? The road is straight and wide at that spot, there are no corners nearby, and the crosswalk is clearly marked. Judging by how people usually drive around here (I live in New England); I can only assume that the driver simply was not paying attention.

Do you value life? How often do you stop and think about how what you’re doing effects your own life and the lives of others around you?

Answer 1

I value life.

I do stop and think about whether my actions affect others, but I suppose I could do that more often.

Thanks for asking this question.

Answer 2

I am an atheist, so I might be slightly biased. However, I most definitely think we do.. This is everything we will ever have, so we've got to seize the days and enjoy them for what they are. Most of us atheists seem to do just that! Also, we don't have nonsensical concepts such as "sin", and we don't have to obey the supposed words of a supernatural deity. Therefore our lives are far less restricted than those of theists.. Theists, on the other hand, are convinced that there is something afterwards, and many of them live accordingly. They tend to view everything in a different way, and for them this is just some sort of trial before the afterlife. It is not the main purpose for their existence in any way.. Or at least those are my thoughts.

Answer 3

I do! And I recently brought up this subject to my daughters, who are adults.
They both started smoking cigarettes, which to me is a self destroying habit, and they know my views on that and the effects of smoking.
I told them all the healthy stuff I did before and during my pregnancy and when they were small I gave them good food and took them for their check ups, had them play outside to get fresh country air.
And then when they grew up they threw it all away and ruining everything I did for them. I told them how it disappoints me to see that. I should have smoked, drank, ate junk food, etc, because it done no good and they might as well have been born mentally or physically handicapped.
Now, I don't mean that handicap people are a ruined life or anything like that, it's just that they had the best start to their life possible for nothing.

Now, my mom was another completely different story. She had a stroke at 72 and couldn't talk for 9 years. I had to go over to her house and fix her meals, help her change clothes, take her where she wanted to go. Sure, it would have been so much easier to send her to a nursing home. My brothers mother-in-law has 8 kids and 40 grandkids and she is in a nursing home because no one has time to take care of her. I feel sorry for her, spending her whole life running after all them, going to all their school games, and I mean all of them, they were all in sports, every sport.
Is this what you were looking for ?

In general, I don't think people pay enough attention to what they are doing either, they just don't care. We are not on this earth very long and after you have your grandparents and parents die you know there isn't much time left for you either.
So many people die so young and never even had a chance to prove what they could do.

Answer 4

I have almost been hit several times by cars while crossing the street and all because the driver is either too busy talking on the cell to pay attention or thinks they can "beat" me by turning in front of me - they can't spare two seconds to make sure I'm safe.

I think we're all guilty of being a little complacent in our lives from time to time. I can't think of an exact example now, but I'm sure I've done things and went, holy crap! What could have happened there?

Answer 5

I guess I don't value life... minus the connotations, of course. I value suffering. I think it is worth our attention to pay attention to and alleviate suffering. Life, in my cosmology, doesn't actually exist. It is a useful term to us, but it is not a different set of physics than what is going on in non-life. Life is imaginary.

Furthermore, if everyone instantly ceased to "live" I don't think that would be a bad thing since it would not involve suffering.

Does that mean that a person hit by a car is of no consequence to me? Is there suffering involved? There you go.

Answer 6

I value life, but no one has the right to life. There are 6.6 billion people on this planet, that's about 6.5 billion too many. Instead of all this baloney about global warming we should be focusing on population growth, limiting the number of births, not extending life beyond a reasonable limit, ban fertility drugs so these couple can stop having litters, and really work on getting the population drastically reduced.

Otherwise there will be a global catastrophe and everyone, all 6.6 billion will die and mankind will be extinct.

Answer 7

I think about being alive sort of as a running undercurrent often enough that when maintaining my home, getting my snailmail, talking with neighbors, running necessary errands, I'm checking the sky, glad to be here, taking in the mountains, glad to be where I am, and listening for anyone asking advice, to answer. I see being alive as a serendipitous responsibility, a participation, an opportunity to achieve and produce, and except in rote maintenance of a home and horrible things we see and know, a glorious experience.

Answer 8

Yes, I value my life although it is full of miscarriages, illnesses, corporal abuse, and painful situations. Several times I gathered all my courage to cut my vein but was hindered by the moral principles, which say that suicide doesn't free one from suffering. Furthermore, I don't exist alone and free from responsibilities to my parents, my brothers and sisters, my friends and other people.

I'm conscious of how what I'm doing effects my own life and the lives of others around me, though I'm not always inclined to that.

Answer 9

This is a very important point. Why do these things happen? Accidents happen everyday to many people and that same accident might effect hundreds of other people...be it the families of those involved or people like yourself who witness them. It is like waves on a pond.
Yes, I greatly value my life. God gave me life and I will do all I can to live that life according to His Will. What else is important is where will I spend eternity in case one of those accidents expectantly claims my life on this earth. Happy Holidays!

Answer 10

I value life based on my own value as one human,

If a chicken must die so I can eat I will kill

If someone intends to take my life I will fight them

If I must die so many will live, I would discard my life (grudgingly theyd better make a very good case and have an amazing powerpoint presentation before they ask me)

Answer 11

yes i value life

I deal with a lot of car accident (work in insurance.) and alot of people don't pay attention while driving. Talking on cell phones, eating, putting on makeup, reading, playing with the radio, TEXTING, and yes, I am guilty of these things too!!

I have read cases where criminal charges were pressed, IE manslaughter, where car accidents caused death because people were talking/texting on their cell phones at the time of the accident.

People need to be more careful in their cars.