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| "The 1792 Silver Center Cent. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions." |
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| "The 1792 Birch Cent. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions." |
The number of people on the planet, like the number of United States pennies, although not as many, are numerous. There are "somewhere between 200,000,000,000 and 250,000,000,000 pennies in circulation." [4] "As of March 2016, [the world's population] was estimated at 7.4 billion, an all-time record high," [5] about 33 times less than there are pennies.
It would take a stretch of the imagination to draw parallels between coins and people, but then many of the entries in this blog had been written with the imagination stretched to its limits, sometimes even beyond, if that is possible.
A coin may be rare, but it is usually never the only coin produced. Michael Phelps' athletic abilities are rare, but there could conceivably be someone, at some point in time, who could match or break his impressive record thus far, even though it may take another 2,168 years [6], or more, to happen. Such rarity is prized, and is often measured by dollars, as in the case of two rare pennies, fetching a combined sum of US$869,500. [7] Likewise, Phelps' abilities can also be expressed in dollars. "Phelps' eight gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics launched an array of endorsements. His net worth is estimated at $55 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth." [8] It would likely be a whole lot more after his record breaking event this year at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. [9]
Olympic swimmers of every nation, unlike some professional athletes [10] are not traded like rare coins that are being bought and sold in the marketplace [11] or (for comparison purposes only) sold like the slaves in the present age [12], but after their Olympic careers are over, they too, would be like everyone else who has to find a way to earn a living [13]. Humans, like their rare coins that can fetch money in the marketplace, can resort to their youth, beauty, talents, intellect, knowledge, abilities (to do good things and bad), skills [14] and so on to make money.
A person is not a commodity, and is not "rare" as if there exists a few more of the same one. Every single person ever existed is unique. Even identical twins are not identical. [15] That uniqueness spans across time, from the beginning of time, if time even has a beginning.
Uniqueness is the fingerprint of Divine Creation. Each person created is unique even though each person is created in the image of God, although not identical to God. Each snow flake that falls from Heaven is also unique, given the almost-zero possibility that two would be identical. [16], [17].
Granted that there could be non-divinely created mass-made items, and not-so-mass-made items such as the rare coins mentioned above, when examined under a microscope, because of imperfections, in which no two are alike, but then from where do these man-made items come from, something entirely man-made, or God-created? Is there anything on earth that does not originate from earth's non-duplicable natural resources given to man by God so that he may have life? This blogger cannot think of any. Even man is from dust [18], with trace minerals [19] appearing in the living body.
Earth's natural elements can be found in the dust and in mines around the world, but the supply is finite. As they are being continually exploited and consumed, each element will dwindle and become increasingly rare. If rarity can command a high value, then uniqueness ought to be priceless. Perhaps the rare coins that were auctioned off recently were mispriced. Perhaps they ought to be priceless just like anything that is made out of the earth's resources, including the billions of common one-cent pennies that are in circulation.
Anything, however plentiful, that has been made with unreplenishable raw materials, ought to be revered, put to good use for the good of mankind, and not be transformed chemically or biologically, so as to make unnatural what is natural, or exploited for the sole purpose of profit. That, of course, is only something to be imagined, for not in this age, at least not in this blogger's lifetime, will Divine Creation be respected, let alone adored, for it is continually being secularized, monetized and traded, just like the very gift of life that has been taken for granted, cheapened by money, measured penny by penny, as if it is even worth that much in the eyes of some, especially those who are in accord with Satan's view that all humans are worthless (with the exception of themselves in their minds--not in Satan's), even though in God's eyes, each life that has been created from Adam onward is special, unique, loved and irreplaceable.
[1] https://news.artnet.com/market/heritage-auctions-sells-two-18th-century-pennies-870k-603899
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://www.gotcents.org/pennyfacts.html
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
[6] http://www.sbnation.com/2016/8/9/12419516/michael-phelps-gold-medal-record-leonidas-of-rhodes
[7] https://news.artnet.com/market/heritage-auctions-sells-two-18th-century-pennies-870k-603899
[8] http://heavy.com/sports/2016/08/michael-phelps-net-worth-salary-endorsements-house-sponsorship-deals-medals-career-stats-olympics-rio-how-much-money/
[9] http://www.sbnation.com/2016/8/9/12419516/michael-phelps-gold-medal-record-leonidas-of-rhodes and http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/sports/olympics/michael-phelps-200-im-ryan-lochte-leonidas.html
[10] http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2108800-athletes-who-were-traded-for-absurd-things
[11] https://www.blanchardgold.com/market-news/the-longview/rare-coin-market-looks-strong-in-2016-and-beyond-heres-what-to-collect/
[12] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-sex-trafficking-slaves-torture-crucifix-table-lebanon-a7167576.html
[13] http://www.sportsmanagementdegreehub.com/olympic-athletes-salaries/
[14] https://www.hrbartender.com/2013/recruiting/the-difference-between-knowledge-skills-and-abilities/
[15] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/identical-twins-genes-are-not-identical/
[16] https://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/alike/alike.htm
[17] Quoted from the article cited above in [15]: "Some things in Nature are exactly alike. For example, our understanding of elementary particles indicates that all electrons are exactly, precisely the same. This is one of the cornerstones of quantum physics, and if you think for a bit you will see that this is a profound statement. Electrons are true elementary particles, in that they have no component parts; thus they are all exactly alike." That is a conclusion, not a direct observation and as such, it is not identical to a fact which is an inalterable truth. This blogger has never studied quantum physics, and has never seen a electron, and probably nor has anyone seen it with precision to come to any definitive conclusion that all electrons are identical. Indeed, they could have infinitesimal differences that make each of them unique. "We can never see the subatomic particles directly, but can only infer from observation of such indirect effects like tracks. If there are many of them and they are emitting some radiation, and also if we shine some radiation on the[m] and receive back the response this will also constitute a kind of seeing." See
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_possible_to_view_any_sub-atomic_particles_like_electron_proton_or_neutron Such kind of "seeing" is seeing what one thinks one ought to be seeing but not actually observing a fact and seeing its truth. In other words, one can "see" anything the brain wants one to see, including identical electrons, identical neutrons and identical protons without absolute proof that any of them are, in their respective group, truly identical.
[18] https://.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2:7, and http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/story.php?id=32254
[19] http://www.traceminerals.com/trace-minerals/why-you-need-ionic-minerals
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