Just Another School Shooting in America

This morning, as I got my son ready for school, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should even send Josh to the high school for fear of his life. What kind of day is it when a parent must wonder if their child is going to get shot simply for going to school?

How is it that in the USA, the attack on a Florida high school is the eighth shooting to have resulted in death or injury during the first seven weeks of 2018 alone? Has this become a thing? Are we going to just complain about it on social media, then forget about it as time goes on until the next one happens? What has become of us?

There lies a foundation of rebellion underneath all this insanity. We rebel against restraints. We want our guns. We want our violent media. We want sexual pleasure at the expense of innocence. We use resources unsustainably. We are on a treadmill running nowhere fast.

At the core of this conversation, I find myself asking a question that no one seems to agree upon: what does it mean to be human?

The question we must answer

From a purely humanist viewpoint, we’re nothing but a bunch of highly evolved apes and our moral structures stem from social pressures and will change because of it (atheism). This view point is the one that is taught in most public-school systems. It bases its view on humanity from a purely scientific perspective which honestly can’t answer the question of what it means to be human.

From a New Age viewpoint, we’re stardust and should attempt to tap into some Cosmic-Consciousness (we are gods – pantheism). As cool as this might sound, you are not a god. I am not a god. To be human is not to be gods.

From a Hindu perspective (polytheism), we could be reincarnated in the next life to have a better one, if we do good things in this life. For those who’ve had it rough, it is believed that is because one did not do well in the previous life and now that person is paying for it. How does this answer what it means to be human… by saying you get a ‘do-over’ again and again until you finally somehow get it right?

From an Islamic point of view, we are children of God only if we believe in Allah (monotheism), but we don’t know for sure if we’ll be saved or not. So, we must pray multiple times per day and hope that our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. These good deeds can include killing others who don’t believe in Allah (granted, not all Muslim sects believe this). This view doesn’t appear to value human life beyond its own belief system.

From a Christian standpoint, we are all God’s children, made in His image, giving each person inherent value. To be saved, one just needs faith in the work of Jesus Christ. If one chooses not to believe, that is the prerogative of the individual because God made people with a free will.

The basis of true Biblical Christianity is that all people have inherent value simply because they are made in God’s image. One doesn’t need to be a Christian to have value. When thoroughly examined, the Christian worldview gives value to all human life, rich or poor, male or female, white, black, or whatever — it doesn’t matter as long as you are human.

Secularists have had their way for the past 50 + years of educating our populace, and what are the results? More violence, more suicide, more divorces, more abortions, more STDs, more indulgence at the expense of others… not such a great moral track record. Yes, we’ve made excellent strides in science and technology, but morally? Absolutely not.

Education should include teaching students critical thinking skills, moral teachings based on the Christian worldview that values ALL human life because we are made in God’s image (not an ape’s image), and classical philosophical thought. I truly believe the mass school shootings stem from a lost moral compass, and a sense of hopelessness rooted in a loss of true meaning in life.

What does it mean to be human? This is a basic question that needs to be answered today.

 

 

 

 

 

5 Comments

  1. Mike Mayfield February 15, 2018
    • LisaQAuthor February 16, 2018
  2. Nancy E. Head February 16, 2018
    • LisaQAuthor February 16, 2018
  3. Mario Quintana February 16, 2018