Francis Schaeffer in an Age of Fragmentation (Part IV): Whatever Happened to the Human Race? — Human Dignity, Bioethics, and the Value of Life
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
In our previous articles, we have followed Francis Schaeffer's diagnosis of the modern crisis.
We have seen how Western culture abandoned the belief that truth exists, how this shift affected philosophy and theology, and how the resulting fragmentation appeared in art, music, and culture.
Now Schaeffer asks an even more unsettling question:
What happens when a society loses not only truth, but also its understanding of what it means to be human?
This question became the focus of one of Schaeffer's most influential works, Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, written with Dr. C. Everett Koop, who later served as Surgeon General of the United States.
For Schaeffer, the issue was never merely political. It was spiritual, philosophical, and profoundly human. If human beings are not created by God, then on what basis can we claim that any human life possesses inherent dignity or value?
The question remains as urgent today as when Schaeffer first raised it.
The Christian View of Human Life
The Bible begins with a declaration unlike anything found in the ancient world.
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:27)
Human beings are not accidents of nature.
We are not merely advanced animals.
We are not valuable because of intelligence, productivity, wealth, health, or usefulness.
We possess dignity because we bear the image of God.
This truth lies at the foundation of Christian civilization. It explains why Christians have historically founded hospitals, cared for the poor, rescued abandoned infants, and defended those society considered weak or unwanted.
Every person matters because every person reflects something of the Creator.
The unborn child.
The disabled adult.
The elderly patient.
The refugee.
The prisoner.
The successful executive.
The forgotten homeless man.
Each bears the image of God.
Remove that foundation, Schaeffer argued, and human dignity becomes increasingly difficult to defend.
From Human Beings to Biological Machines
One of Schaeffer's greatest concerns was the rise of a purely materialistic understanding of humanity.
If the universe is nothing more than matter in motion, then human beings become biological machines.
Thought becomes chemistry.
Love becomes biology.
Morality becomes social preference.
Human value becomes negotiable.
Schaeffer observed that modern society often continued speaking the language of human rights while simultaneously abandoning the worldview that had produced those rights.
The result was a contradiction.
We want human dignity.
We want human rights.
We want equality.
We want justice.
Yet if humanity is merely the accidental product of impersonal forces, why should any of those things exist?
The modern world frequently borrows Christian moral conclusions while rejecting Christian foundations.
Schaeffer believed that eventually the contradiction becomes impossible to maintain.
The Question of the Unborn
Much of Whatever Happened to the Human Race? focused on the value of unborn life.
Schaeffer and Koop argued that once society accepts the idea that some human lives are less valuable than others, it becomes difficult to draw consistent boundaries.
The issue, they argued, was not simply whether a child is wanted.
The deeper question is:
What makes a human life valuable?
If value depends on size, development, intelligence, independence, or usefulness, then many born individuals would fail the same test.
The Christian answer is different.
Human life possesses worth because God gives it worth.
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee." (Jeremiah 1:5)
The biblical worldview begins not with human preference but with divine creation.
Beyond Abortion: The Expanding Question
Schaeffer warned that the debate would not stop with abortion.
Once society begins measuring human worth according to utility, other questions inevitably arise.
What about the severely disabled?
What about those suffering from dementia?
What about those who require expensive medical care?
What about those who are no longer productive?
History demonstrates how dangerous such thinking can become.
The twentieth century witnessed regimes that classified certain lives as less worthy of protection.
Whenever society grants itself authority to determine which humans possess value, the weakest people become vulnerable.
For Schaeffer, this was not alarmism.
It was history.
And history offered sobering lessons.
Jesus and the Value of the Individual
One of the most remarkable features of the Gospels is the attention Jesus gives to individuals who were overlooked by society.
Children.
The poor.
The sick.
The blind.
The leper.
The widow.
The outcast.
The sinner.
The disabled.
Again and again, Jesus moves toward those whom others dismiss.
He touches lepers.
He welcomes children.
He heals the blind.
He speaks with the marginalized.
He seeks the lost.
The value He places upon human beings is not based on usefulness but on love.
When we see how Jesus treats people, we see how God values people.
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10)
Christian concern for human dignity is ultimately rooted not in philosophy but in Christ Himself.
The Challenge of Modern Bioethics
The twenty-first century presents questions Schaeffer could only partially foresee.
Genetic engineering.
Artificial reproduction.
Human enhancement technologies.
End-of-life decisions.
Artificial intelligence.
Biotechnology capable of altering future generations.
These developments bring remarkable possibilities for healing and care.
Yet they also raise profound moral questions.
Can technological ability become its own justification?
Should everything that can be done be done?
Who decides?
According to Schaeffer, these questions cannot be answered adequately without first answering a more fundamental question:
What is a human being?
If humanity is merely biological material, then technological power becomes the highest authority.
But if humanity bears the image of God, then ethical limits exist because human life possesses sacred value.
Technology can tell us what is possible.
It cannot tell us what is right.
The Church's Responsibility
Schaeffer did not believe Christians should respond to cultural challenges with fear.
Nor should believers retreat from difficult conversations.
Instead, Christians are called to bear witness to truth with compassion and courage.
The Church must defend human dignity not only in words but also in actions.
By caring for the vulnerable.
By supporting mothers and families.
By serving the disabled.
By honoring the elderly.
By loving the forgotten.
By welcoming those whom society overlooks.
The Christian defense of life is most persuasive when it is accompanied by Christian love.
Truth and compassion belong together.
A Human Race Worth Defending
The title Whatever Happened to the Human Race? remains haunting because it forces us to confront a deeper question.
What happens when a culture forgets what humanity is?
Francis Schaeffer believed that every cultural crisis ultimately points back to a spiritual crisis.
When we lose God, we eventually lose ourselves.
When we forget our Creator, we struggle to understand our own worth.
But the Christian message offers hope.
Human beings are not cosmic accidents.
We are created.
Known.
Loved.
And called into relationship with the God who made us.
The value of human life does not rest upon intelligence, strength, health, age, or usefulness.
It rests upon the God whose image we bear and whose Son gave His life to redeem us.
That truth remains the strongest foundation for human dignity the world has ever known.
*******************************************
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for loving me and other insignificant, needy perople like me. Put Your love in my heart so that I will love thos no one else does. I ask in Your name. Amen.
***************************************
COME UNTO ME
Hear the blessèd Savior calling the oppressed,
“O ye heavy laden, come to Me and rest.
Come, no longer tarry, I your load will bear,
Bring Me every burden, bring Me every care.”
Refrain
Come unto Me, I will give you rest;
Take My yoke upon you, hear Me and be blessed.
I am meek and lowly, come and trust My might.
Come, My yoke is easy, and My burden’s light.
Are you disappointed, wandering here and there,
Dragging chains of doubt and loaded down with care?
Do unholy feelings struggle in your breast?
Bring your case to Jesus—He will give you rest.
Refrain
Charles P. Jones (1865-1949
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
Next Week: Francis Schaeffer in an Age of Fragmentation (Part V): Can Truth Survive? — Christianity, Postmodernism, and the Search for Meaning in a World of Competing Narratives.
Comments