RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE

Nwanyanwu Chris

Life is the ability of a thing to breathe, grow, reproduce, etc before it dies or go out of existence. Human life is a person’s ability to carry out those activities that characterize a living thing. Simply put life is the ability or capability to live or exist. The question of the origin of human life is not a new one. Although there different views about the origin of human life, they all ultimately lead to the fact that human life originated from God. Even if others may not accept the name “God” as the creator of life, it still boils down to the fact that the maker/creator of human life is one who is not only superior to human life but also makes or creates himself. And this is the attribute of that person we all take as God. Hence human life belongs to God for He not only causes it to be but also sustains it.

Human life is sacred because it carries within itself the image and likeness of the creator. That is, every human being is inherently an image of God. That is why the life of a human being is sacred and must be regarded as such. Hence, human life must be respected no matter the person. This respect must be accorded every human life from its beginning to its end. That is the natural and mandatory task every human being has. This respect is in the form of protecting the human life in any stage be it in the earliest stage when it is most vulnerable or its later stage. Therefore, we human beings are called naturally to protect human life by the very fact that we possess human life which is similar to that of others and comes from the same creator.

Ordinarily as human beings and images of God, one will think that this natural task of protecting human life will guide us in our daily lives and activities in the human society. However, the reverse became the case even shortly after creation. Biblically, after the sin of the first couple, their human nature became very weak. Hence, their first son Cain killed his younger brother Abel out of envy. From then on, replicas of such event and activities more grievous than that first act of wickedness on human life began taking place in our human society. In fact considering the way human beings treat human life today, it is best characterized as a mockery not only to humanity but to God Himself who alone owns all lives.

Today, abortion is legalized in some societies and people pool their resources to fund it. In fact people seriously campaigned for it with some threats of various kind. Human beings no longer value human life. That is why a young girl will carry out an abortion and feels she is not indulging in evil. What about the doctors who carry out the operations or the parents and friends who will encourage that. The human life in form an embryo is no longer respected because it is vulnerable. If it were the case that the embryo is powerful, who will ever abort it? The most annoying part of it is that it is no longer called its real name “abortion” but “Interruption of pregnancy”. Human beings have lost the sense of the sacred inherent in human life no matter the stage.

What about human cloning? Today, cloning is used to produce human beings. That is, biological  scientists now has a technology that can produce a human being without going through the natural process of the sexual act of a couple. No matter the reasons given for such activity, it is ridicule to human life and traceably to God. What this people do is to go into their scientific laboratories and produce a human being. Hence, the human being with a human life is now a commodity that can be produced from a laboratory like any other thing. Even the stem cell research, and other biological scientific activities that reduces the human being to a thing, are also insults on human life and God the creator of it.

Another common insult to human life is wars and conflicts. The act of wars is the most common and ever present insult on human life. In the words of late Pope John Paul 11, “Every act of war and conflict directed to the indiscriminate destruction of human lives and property is a crime against God and humanity”. Today we hear of wars be it revolutions which are bloody and various acts of mayhem being carried out in different societies. On daily basis a huge number of human beings are put to death during these activities. Do we not have our own story about these activities? Have we not seen human beings burnt to death during Jos crises? Or do we not remember the event of the crushing of passengers by the luxury bus some time ago along Benin –Ore road and Abuja Okene road respectively? Do we not remember the event of some young teenage girls that were raped to death, also during the Jos crises? Or do we claim that we have not heard of the recent 2go visit where a young girl was ruthlessly and continuously raped by five devil-incarnated young boys even by the very guy she was a friend to and on whose reason the girl came? Which one are we to talk about?

This same insult to humanity is manifested in the activities of ritualists who use human beings for money-making. My brothers especially those of us from the east can remember the event of one Prophet Edinanog in Enugu State who pounded babies in a mortal as an aspect of the sacrifice for money-making. What about those persons that used their dear ones for money rituals? What about Sani Abacha’s Crocodile pond?

The litany of activities which are just mockery and lack of respect to God and humanity is long. Suicide, Euthanasia, Kidnapping, assassinations, bombings, rape etc. are all insults to God and human life. For all those who in any way carried these activities out, human life meant nothing to them. Hence they can melt on it any treatment at any time and in any place. They regard human life as just any other type of life. That is why they treat their fellow human beings as animals. That is why a human being will have the heart and mind to pound a baby full of life in a mortal as if it is a cooking poundable ingredient. Well, by that very act it has become an ingredient for making money.

What then do we say is ultimately the cause of this man’s inhumanity to fellow man? What actually moves these people to indulge in all these nefarious and inhumane acts? Who or what do we blame for all these? What is really the problem?

The root of these problems is traceable to the mindsets of human beings. That is, how do we see human beings? What do we take human life for? This is the source of these acts. For human beings believe that life is theirs and as such they can do anything with, to and for it. That is why people commit suicide and mercy killing.

However because the effects of these activities are more grievous than the acts themselves, there is this dire need to correct things.  There is a necessary call to respect human life and God.

The first step we must take to reshape the nature of things is to understand the meaning and nature of human life. Human life is sacred and inviolable from conception to its natural end. The right to life is inviolable. This involves a positive choice, a choice for life. The development of a culture of this kind embraces all the circumstances of life and ensures the promotion of human dignity in every situation. Life can never be downgraded to the level of a thing.

Human life is sacred and remains as such in every moment of existence, including the initial phase which precedes birth. All human beings from their mothers’ womb belong to God who knows them wherever they may be. The human life is a gift from God and it must be valued. In fact, our lives do not belong to us for we are only custodians of the lives of which we shall account for to God the giver and creator of life. Hence, we all must avoid all those activities that devalue human life and reduce it to a mere commodity for if the creator does not make it so, why do we just custodians of it treat them as such?

            According to late Pope John Paul 11, he said “There is no true progress, no true civil society, no true human promotion without the respect for human life, especially the life of those who have no voice of their own with which to defend themselves. The life of every child in the womb, or someone who is sick, handicapped or elderly, is a gift for all”

            In Conclusion let us respect human life. For it is by so doing that we recognize the presence /image of God in other human beings. We must all champion the cause for the protection of human life. This we shall do as we encourage all those activities that bring value to human life and discourage in any way those activities that devalue human life. This is because we all should have great respect for human life whether we like it or not. If not, one day we may wake up and find out that one of us has killed all of us. Thus, we should value human life and protect it. This we must do!

 

 

                                                                                              

WELCOMING CHRIST IN THE WORLD

Nwanyanwu Chris

After the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God out of His infinite mercy sought a way to redeem man from eternal damnation. Hence, he decided to send His Son Jesus Christ to carry out the mission of man’s redemption. But before the coming of Christ, God sent so many prophets to the world, so that through their preaching and prophecies, the people may be ready to receive the Son of God who is to come. So many came and few persons listened to them. Others were very hardened in accepting the message of the coming of Christ. Even when  the last prophet John the Baptist preached and prepared the way for the Lord, so many people never got interested in that regard. In fact many prophets of Old had to end their mission sorrowfully as they were all humiliated and mal-treated.

When Christ finally came, the people at that time never took Him seriously especially those arrogant Pharisees and Sadducees. They not only never wanted to accept the truth of the presence of Christ in their midst, but equally discouraged others from doing so. In the end when they thought that they had won Christ by nailing him on the cross, they never knew that he was actually completing his work of salvation after he had taught man how best to relate with God.

Ever since the world became in need of the Savior, the same world had not taken time to prepare for the coming of Christ just as they do when ordinary prominent human beings are coming. The truth is that the first time Christ came into the world his reception was never something to boast about. Biblically, he was nearly killed if not for the intervention of the Angel who directed Joseph to travel to Egypt and instructed the Magi not to go back to Herod. And unfortunately, in the desperate desire to rubbish the coming of Christ numerous children were killed by King Herod. This is the world for us.

In our own time, especially as we enter into the season of Advent, is the world ready to welcome Christ? The season of advent is essentially given for us to prepare for the coming of Christ which starts with his birth subsequently. It not only reminds us of the celebration of the memorial of the nativity of the Lord, but also reminds us of the Parousia the final coming of Christ to the world. Hence we are called to prepare for these two great events.

Given this as the case, is the world ready for any of the two events? That is, is the world ready to welcome the birth of Christ and his Second Coming? The readiness we actually mean here may not be the physical readiness although it is a part of it. The readiness we are talking about here is the spiritual preparation for the Coming of Christ. Of course the spiritual readiness will be manifested in the physical by words and actions. It actually means keeping our spiritual candles burning steadily.

If this is exactly the spiritual readiness we are talking about, can we actually say that with the events of our society there is any sign that the world is indeed preparing for the coming of Christ either in the case of the Christmas celebration or in the case of the Second Coming?

We may not answer in the affirmative because we all are guilty of those things that are in great contradiction with the nature of the coming of Christ. The life of the world is a complete contradiction with the nature of Christ. And that is why we cannot say that the world is ready to meet the Lord either at Christmas or the Second Coming. There are so many acts of inhumanity being carried out in the world today. Do we even talk about the growing rate of injustice and social inequality in the world? What about the envy and jealousy among us? These and many other negative attitudes indicate that the world is never ready and in fact does not want to receive Christ. This is because if the world wants to receive Christ, the people would have to prepare the way of the Lord and then make his paths straight. But as it is, no way has been made for Christ and the existing way is already rough and uneven. With these, we can conclusively say that the world is not ready to welcome Christ.

 The question as to whether the world is prepared or not to receive Christ should not be a problem here because whether we are ready or not and whether we want it or not, He must surely come. That is to say that the coming of Christ either at Christmas or the Second Coming is never dependent on our preparedness. In other words, whether we are ready to receive Christ or not he will surely come. In fact our preparedness at the coming of Christ is an advantage to us.

Where the above is the case, it now makes it clear to us that we all have to get prepared to welcome Christ in the world. We all have to come back to ourselves and find out those things we do that are not in consonance with the nature of the person we are expecting to come. We will also continue to prepare for the coming of Christ by explaining to people by words and deeds that they too need to get ready for the coming of Christ. This is a task given to us at baptism and we must carry it out.

In essence, the season of Advent helps us to prepare to welcome Christ in our individual hearts and then to the entire world. Christ will come at the appointed them of which only God knows, and as such this unknown time of the coming should make us ever conscious of that fact and then we shall get ready by words and actions for the coming of Christmas.  Beyond the liturgical celebration of Christmas, it is a reminder that just as Christ came the first time to die for us all, he will come again to judge us all. Thus we all should prepare for the coming of Christ as much as is expected of us Christians. We have to welcome him not just by words but by our actions. The season of Advent will help us to do this, so that having done that, we may be worthy to welcome Christ in the world anytime, any day and anywhere.

 

 

 

 

IS VIOLENCE INHERENT IN HUMAN NATURE?

Nwanyanwu Chris           

Violence is a physical attack of another person. Activities that may legally involve violence include hunting, law enforcement, sports, and war. Crime includes many illegal forms of violence. It can also mean an exertion of physical force so as to harm or abuse. It is also an intense, turbulent or furious and often destructive action or force. And most often this leads to loss of lives and properties as experience has confirmed it.

The question as to whether violence is inherent in human nature may look very odd. But no matter what it may look like, the truth is that the question is a fundamental one indeed. When one seats down and analyze the violent activities taking place daily in the world, he cannot but pose the question as to whether violence is inherent in human nature. Although violence may not only be empirical, the truth is that so much physical acts of violence are taking place daily in world today. Every day we hear about wars, revolutions, bombings, etc; in our immediate society the Nigerian society, we also experience many acts of violence. These include incessant armed Robbery attack, kidnappings, bombings, wars, rape, assassinations, etc. Cases of these issues colour our media and we are very much aware about them. After some of these events, the number of death recorded or injured persons are usually too alarming. Sometimes you hear that about fifty persons died out of such incident or about twenty persons are injured and other cases. The very fact that these events take place almost daily is enough justification why we have to ask if it is actually the case that violence is inherent in human nature. That is we begin to ask: does it mean that man cannot do without violence?

When we look closely and study those acts of violence, we cannot but ask ourselves whether it is the case that violence is the answer to every situation.  When there is a clash of interest among peoples of the same society, the next resort is war and other acts of violence; at least the experience of Jos crises is a clear example. When there is a case of intimidation or injustice, the next corrective measure is violence; at least the case of the Niger Delta crises is an example in this regard. At least their prevalent act of violence is the bombings of petroleum pipelines. Recently the issue of Boko Haram is everywhere in and beyond Nigeria. For them, the only way of gaining their pound of flesh is by violence shown through their recent bombings in several parts of the country where lives and properties are lost. Even between the “common” people, it is as if violence is their last resort. When two marketers are in conflict over an issue, the next thing you see is people gathering to separate them. Go to our motor parks, the people there are very much in love with violence; whereby if they don’t fight over an issue, they destroy properties like vehicles, etc. Go to the universities, cultists through their acts have shown that they cannot do without violence. Even in the secondary schools, the students fight among themselves. All these situations cause the thought-provoking question as to whether violence is inherent in human nature. 

From Thomas Hobbes to Sigmund Freud to Konrad Lorenz, the assumption has been that man is an inherently aggressive animal. Lorenz shares the concept of an aggressive instinct and combines it with assumptions about inherited aggressiveness rooted in the evolution of men from animals. According to the psychoanalysts and Lorenz, aggressiveness is spontaneously produced within the nervous system. It grows and accumulates and must be expressed if it is not to explode against or without a person's intention.  Aggressiveness in this view does not need a special stimulus or provocation. It arises by itself and seeks and finds those stimuli which give it a chance to express itself. Although aggression may be channeled into relatively non-destructive activities, like sports, and that eventually it might be balanced by the increasing development of love; these psychoanalysts aver that the essential point remains that aggression is constantly produced as a result of certain chemical processes within the neurophysiologic system and hence that man is confronted with the task of controlling this rising aggressiveness and of finding the most useful and proper outlets for it. Freud's theory concerning the death and life instincts postulates that the destructive tendencies are constantly battling with the life tendencies and, furthermore, that the destructive tendencies are either directed toward oneself, producing illness or eventually death, or toward others.

On the contrary, there are other theories that postulate the contrary views about man. One of these propounded by the French Enlightenment philosophers, asserts that man is good by nature and that he is destructive only because social circumstances corrupt him. A second view, to be found among many psychologists, is that aggressiveness-destructiveness is not an instinct and is not inherent in human nature as such but is, rather, learned. A third view, originally presented by John Dollard and his colleagues, is that aggression is always the result of frustration. This means that if people are not frustrated, they will not become aggressive, or to put it in different words, aggression as such is not inherent in human nature.

But come to think of it, the assumption that man is good by nature and that his destructiveness and hate are only learned or acquired by habit does not seem to take sufficient account of the depth, intensity, and frequency of destructiveness, hate, and violence in the history of man and the present happenings in the world. Can we not say that human destructiveness because it is more frequent and more intense can only be explained as a result of specific conditions of human existence rather than as animal heredity or a neurophysiologic necessity?

Having looked at the various assertions of people, the summary of it all is that while some say that man is naturally violence-oriented without any causal factor, some others say that man is good but becomes violent only because of external/environmental factors or influences.To conclusively answer this question may be problematic. Whatever the case may be, our concern at this juncture is not to conclusively say whether man is inherently violent or not, but to know how we can control the spirit if it is inherent or how we can manage the situations that provoke it if it is not inherent. This is because if there was no violence, the fundamental question will never come up.

 Ordinarily, one will expect that as human beings, the presence of the other person and everything concerning him/her should be a matter of importance such that at every point in time, we may be able to respect him/her and avoid any act of violence towards him/her no matter what he/she has done. But experiences so far have shown that we have lost that spirit of respect for the other as we are only self-preservative.

Where the above has failed, our level of education, experience and maturity should be able to help us manage our emotions no matter the situation. The average young man or woman should know that violence may not be a better option to conflict resolution or management. Hence, they should never allow themselves to be controlled by their emotions instead of the reverse. This is also applicable to all those who fight for just causes through violence. That is those who believe that the only way to fight injustice is through violence. In fact they should be able to know that dialogue and not violence is a better way of resolving conflict situations.

In addition, another thing that can make us shun violence is our religion. No religion is violent in nature and can never be. That the faithful of a particular religion are prone to violence does not in any way suggest that their religion is violent. And so our religious teachings of love, peace and unity should urge us to shun violence and look for other way of solving our conflict situations rather than resorting to violence.

Nevertheless, the government of any society has to ensure a violent-free society at least to a large extent. She should be able to create a just society where justice and fairness is the platform for the sharing of human and natural resources. This is very important because in some places, the non-implementation of the above is a major cause of violence. Violence may not be solely deterred by imposing stronger legal penalties, but only by creating a just society. For according to Erich Fromm violence cannot be controlled by imposing stronger legal penalties, but rather by creating a more just society in which people connect with each other as humans and are able to control their own lives. The only means for changing the general tendency toward violence and destructiveness lies in the humanization of our technological society. By this I mean that our society must serve human ends—the growth and development of man—rather than make means, such as production and consumption, into ends of human action.

On individual bases too, we can also reduce the rate of violence in the society. This is only possible if we can reduce creating situations that can cause violence of any sort and by controlling our emotions with reason. For if only emotions and reason are brought together can man function in a way which makes life interesting and hence creates the possibility of a productive and nonviolent life. To put it briefly, what we need is not increasing control of aggression and violence but reduction of destructiveness and violence by making individual and social life more meaningful and human.

            In conclusion, we all must make our society violent free, so that we may not be faced with the fundamental question as to whether violence is inherent to human nature. For the constituents of its answer will imply so many things which we will never like to know about!