When God Is Small People Are Too

My friend Denny Burk’s post on whether embryonic stem cell research is murder prompted me to ponder this situation. Why should we be concerned about the destruction of these embryonic stem cells? After all, don’t women miscarry fertilized eggs all the time? 

They do: often fertilized eggs do not implant in the lining of the womb. It happens so early that women won’t even know they have “miscarried,” since they didn’t realize they were pregnant. So what’s the big deal with some well meaning folks wanting to try to do some good for the rest of humanity with embryos that no one wants and that are otherwise useless? 

Well, if you don’t believe in God, this probably isn’t a big deal to you. 

If you do believe in God, but the god you believe in isn’t directly involved in day to day life very much, this probably isn’t a big deal to you. 

If the god you believe in isn’t the only source of life, this probably isn’t a big deal to you. 

If the god you believe in isn’t the one to whom all moral agents will give account for their actions, this probably isn’t a big deal to you. 

If the god you believe in doesn’t take sin very seriously, just kind of lets things go, this probably isn’t a big deal to you. 

The destruction of embryonic stem cells will probably only be a big deal to you if you believe in the God of the Bible, who made the world, gave life, and therefore is the only one with the right to take life. 

The destruction of embryonic stem cells is a big deal to people who believe in the God of the Bible because we believe that God made human beings in his image. Therefore, it is no small thing to be a human being.

Human life is significant only because God is significant. To the degree that God is perceived as he is, human life will be perceived as weighty. Our light view of human life grows directly out of our light view of God.