Asymmetric Religion and Philosophy

Just following the logic of her beliefs

In Chapter 13, Ambush, of Tim O'Brien's Vietnam novel, The Things They Carried, O'Brien's daughter asks him if he ever killed anybody. He replies "no" even though, in the previous chapter, he describes how he did. Obviously, O'Brien felt bad about killing somebody when he lies to his daughter, but why would O'Brien find such a revelation embarrassing? Does he think that his daughter would think less of him? It seems reasonable to conclude that O'Brien finds something wrong with killing people.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Follow up:

Perfect time for an essay: Is life valuable? Without giving my point of view, I asked them, "why?" and whether a human life would be more valuable than an animal life. The responses can be divided into four points of view. About 20% of my students said that humans do have value, that it has something to do with God (theology varied, but only a few approached John Paulian levels of profundity), and that we're more worthy than animals because God said so. About 40% agreed, but resorted, instead, to that most inspiring fount of secular wisdom, Star Trek: Human life is valuable because people can feel emotions, others care for them, etc. On relative value, the second group was rather utilitarian: Man is more valuable because we can fix things, help people, and [are self aware], all of which is objectively true. The third group, a large 35%, said yes, human life is valuable, but no, not more valuable than animals. The motivation for their inter-species egalitarianism was similar to any Marx-derived, equality fetishistic anti-thought one might hear from our brothers and sisters on the far left. The remainder thought that people didn't, in fact, have worth, but I think some of those just wanted attention.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Complete Series

After reading the papers, I concluded that what many would consider fundamental- that life is dear and that human life is especially esteemed - escapes some and that God may indeed write the Natural law on people's hearts, but for those on whom he used a number 5 pencil, explicit teaching may be required.

Which brings me to Fox News' summary of this article in the Daily Mail:

A British woman who had an abortion 10 years ago and was later sterilized did so because she believes pregnancy is bad for the environment, the London Daily Mail reported Sunday.

Toni Vernelli, 35, hopes her actions would ensure her carbon footprint would be kept to a minimum, the Mail reported. The environmental advocate also sees having children as an egotistical act.

"Having children is selfish. It's all about maintaining your genetic line at the expense of the planet," Vernelli told the Mail, adding she believes bringing new life into the world only adds to the problem.

Another woman, 31-year-old Sara Irving, also underwent sterilization because she felt "a baby would pollute the planet."

Irving became an environmentalist as a teenager when she realized saving the environment was her top and foremost priority in life, the Mail reported. After going through several boyfriends she finally found her now husband Mark Hudson who shares in her ‘no kid’s policy.’

Why wouldn't they think such a thing? It makes perfect sense given the premises:

All living things are equal and need to share the planet equally.
People are taking up more than their fair share of resources.
Therefore it's good to reduce the population.

or

Nature is paramount (more than human fetuses, human progeny in general, national or ethnic survival, especially).
Man is currently encroaching upon nature.
Therefore, it's justified (and good) to reduce the human population.

Substitute a few words around and you have eugenics, racism, Nazism, Communism (China, comes to mind), and nearly every variety of modern evil.**

Final analysis: Without an external, objective, intrinsic, and authoritative estimation of Man's worth, all kinds of nonsense springs up.

**Yes, people have always killed, but the end wasn't to rid the world of people; it usually had something to do with taking land or religious conversion.