“I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning of the foundation of all ethics.”
–Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer was a great humanitarian and medical missionary. He was also a brilliant philosopher and writer on theology. As a child, he felt a great compassion for animals and couldn’t understand why, during bedtime prayers, his mother prayed only for human beings. After his mother kissed him goodnight Schweitzer recited another prayer that he had composed himself. He prayed, “Dear God, protect and bless all living beings. Keep them from evil and let them sleep in peace.”
For years Schweitzer pondered the question, “Does our civilization truly possess the ethical character and energy essential to its complete fulfillment?” He studied the writings about civilization and ethics written during the previous 50 years, and continued to feel that something was missing. It was during a boat trip up an African river in 1915 that the answers Schweitzer had been searching for so long seemed to suddenly appear to him. He described the revelation as follows:
“At sunset of the third day…we moved along an island set in the middle of the wide river. On a sandbank to our left, four hippopotamuses and their young plodded along in our same direction. Just then, in my great tiredness and discouragement, the phrase, ‘Reverence for Life,’ struck me like a flash. As far as I knew, it was a phrase I had never heard nor ever read. I realized at once that it carried within itself the solution to the problem that had been torturing me. Now I knew that a system of values which concerns itself only with our relationship to other people is incomplete and therefore lacking in power for good. Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and, within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid whenever they need us.”
Unfortunately, this great contribution to the philosophy of ethics and civilization by Albert Schweitzer has not been universally accepted. Today there are many organizations, and millions of people, working to prevent cruelty to animals, but the mistreatment of animals is still widespread throughout the world. Although most of us have a high regard and respect for “human life,” the respect for other forms of life is lacking in far too many people. I believe that God views cruelty to animals in much the same way that He views cruelty to human beings. Cruelty is cruelty, and there is no place for it in a loving world. People who abuse animals are also capable of abusing people. If we truly have respect for life, we will respect all living creatures, not just our fellow human beings.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2025
Allen W. Smith
