If someone kills a man to save a child, he is called a hero. However, nowadays, if he kills a gorilla to save a child, he’s harshly criticized. CBS News wrote: “The killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo in order to save a child who fell in its enclosure has sparked nationwide outrage.”

Human life has been so cheapened in contemporary Western society many would choose an animal’s life over a person’s life. Why? There are many reasons:

• Our constant exposure to killing and gore in both media news and media entertainment;
• Our continual brainwashing that a prenatal human life is nothing more than tissue and is disposable at the choice of her/his mother.
• The justification and glorification of war that saturates our culture.
• The brainwashing that declares evolution to be a fact and humans to be nothing more than a mere product of natural selection.
• Racism, nationalism, and other isms that (even subtly) declare other human beings to be inferior to us.
• Our culture’s almost complete ignoring (and or denying) of the living God and of the value He places on every, individual human life.
• Our society’s focus on self-interest and insufficient focus on passionate, self-sacrificing love for others.

Because of this, we have lost sight of the fact that people are not just a manatee named Hugh. We are not just large mammals with personal names and ID cards. We humans are priceless — more precious and valuable than anything on earth. Why? Because:

• We are not just physical beings, but also spiritual beings.
• We each have a soul that will exist forever.
• We are made in the likeness of the Creator of the Universe.
• We are passionately loved by God even though every one of us has rebelled against Him.
• God has demonstrated His love for every human by becoming a man in Jesus Christ and dying a cruel death on a cross in order to make a way for each of us to return to Him and enjoy Him forever.