Humanity
Human dignity
quick ideas on human dignity. Foundation and consequences. Losses of dignity due to utilization.
Español1. What does Dignity mean?
Dignity is greatness, excellence; it’s a superior beauty or quality that something or someone has and so has a special value.
2. What is human dignity based on?
Man has great dignity mainly due to spiritual reasons (that is why an atheist has less reasons to respect a Human Being):
- We have been given a spiritual and immortal soul. We have been created in the image and likeness of God. We have understanding and will.
- God was incarnate as a Human Being: the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity has taken our human nature.
- God loves us.
- Grace grants us the special dignity of being children of God. That’s why mortal sin is what hurts man the most and his dignity as it makes you lose the gift of grace and Divine Filiation.
3. Effects of this dignity in respect to our soul
Above all, it is key to avoid falling into sin. If you have committed a sin, it is convenient to go to Confession soon to recover grace and, with it, the dignity of being a child of God. Generally, it is about looking after other people’s souls as well as one’s own. Examples:
- Respect both one’s own intelligence and that of others by seeking and telling the truth.
- Live charity with those around you, rejecting hatred, mockery, and gossip. Love other people’s freedom and avoid fanaticism.
- Care for all spiritual life. For example, by giving catechism lessons.
4. Consequences of this dignity on the human body
The human body participates in the dignity of the whole person and should be treated with respect and care. Examples:
- Respecting another person’s property. Helping countries and people in need. Solidarity. Caring for one’s own health as well as that of others. Rejecting abortion and euthanasia. Avoiding drugs.
- Adorning and dressing the human body correctly, using dignified fashion.
- Respect for one’s own body as well as that of others. Being moderate when eating and drinking and using sex correctly.
5. What is the correct and dignified way of sex?
The dignity of man in this case demands several things:
- The human body should not be an object of use or barter (with one person today, and another tomorrow). You should only offer yourself to another person in this way after you have made a firm commitment - with witnesses (Wedding) – to love each other forever.
- The generating faculties of the human being have the hugely great mission of bringing new human beings into the world. Using it merely to get pleasure out of it degrades its dignity massively.
6. Another example?
When you obtain sexual pleasures before marriage as it usually leads to thinking that the other is silly:
- When a girl lets herself be kissed, boys think: she’s silly.
- However, similarly, girls think the same in respect to the boys as it only takes some gestures to force the boys to kiss them: they are also silly.
Why do we call them silly? Because they allow themselves to be used in return for pleasure.
1. What is it to use?
To use something is to employ it to fulfill a purpose. You could use a hammer to drive in a nail. You use a dog to guard a house, etc.
2. Who can use something?
Only intelligent and free beings can use something as only they can find a purpose in each thing. A horse uses grass to eat, however, it is the Creator who has thought things out like that, and the horse does not decide.
3. Does the Lord use Man?
The Creator arranged a purpose that would make us happy (being in Heaven with Him). However, He also made us intelligent and free, and so desired that man could direct himself toward that purpose. This freedom forms an important part of human dignity.
4. How can a person lose his/her dignity through utilization?
The loss of dignity in a person can be through two channels:
- To impose a purpose acts against the dignity of a free person.
- Using things in an inferior way to what they deserve in respect to the natural dignity they have been attributed by the Creator. That’s how a human quality is misused.
5. Examples of loss of dignity due to the imposition of a purpose?
Let us look for examples where human beings are deprived of life, something no one desires. In such cases, the imposition of a purpose upon that person becomes very clear:
- Slavery: the servant lacks rights and is completely subject to the will and purpose that his owner desires.
- Nazism: Jews were massacred with the imposed purpose of improving the race.
- Abortion: human embryos are destroyed to fulfill a purpose completely secondary to the actual embryo.
- Terrorism: human beings are killed for a political purpose that they do not desire.
6. Examples of loss of dignity due to misuse?
It is trickier to recognize these cases, since it is oneself who decides to do it. For example:
- Using your intelligence to steal or hurt others is a loss of dignity for that ability to understand which you possess.
- This also includes what was mentioned above about sex. Using it solely to obtain pleasure greatly degrades the dignity of sexuality, despising the great gift of bringing children into the world.
- Using time mainly for entertainment deteriorates the operative dignity of a human being, since he ceases to do good deeds. The human capacity to do good is despised.
7. Do these consequences agree with the Ten Commandments?
It makes sense that they do indeed agree as God desires our good and our dignity. Attacks against our dignity offend the Creator. You are hurting your own or another person’s dignity when sinning as well as the divine dignity.