Is There Ever Any Good in Man?

Humanism affirms that there is an innate or natural “goodness” in man, that every person has dignity and worth.  However, a number of people — from serious to humorous — have tried to calculate how much a human being is worth, from a merely chemical perspective.

Almost all are agreed about the top seven chemical elements that compose the human body:  65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 1.5% calcium, 1% phosphorus, and 0.35% potassium.  The chemical value placed on these and other elements in the human body varies from $1 to $160  or more [see:  www.datagenetics.com/blog/april12011/ and several other websites under Google search on “chemical worth of man”].

Chemically worth a little under $2,000 at best, man is “cheap.”  And thus a lot of people so regard human life:  cheap and expendable.

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