Human beings have virtually no value if they are just machines

[Chad32]

First off, there are two forms of value.  The first type would be the type of value that materialistic things have such as looking at a fancy television or having a fancy shaver.  This type of value, although it is something that can be cherished and appreciated, is virtually nothing in comparison to the higher value that a loved one would have in your life such as your mother.  Your mother is something so much more than just some fancy shaver or television.  But if we as human beings are nothing more than biological machines who have only this one life to live, then that reduces us to nothing more than materialistic things.  Since we are truly insignificant and nothing special in this universe which is something that is often said by skeptics such as the likes of Lawrence Krauss, then this means that the type of value we as human beings have would be reduced to nothing more than the type of value that materialistic things have.  We would be nothing more than insignificant biological machines and that is the lesser value we would have.  There is nothing warranting a higher value attributed to us as human beings if we are just biological machines living this one and only life.  The way I see it, the only thing that can bestow us this higher value would be the very notion of us being special in this universe.  That is, us being eternal souls who get to live on in the afterlife where we greet deceased loved ones, live happy forever after, etc.  If we are just biological machines living this one and only life, then we instead have every reason to treat our family and other people in this world as insignificant, materialistic things such as a shaver, book, bike, computer, etc.

Only having one finite existence makes something more valuable. Not less. Value is dictated by rarity, after all. Yes some things have more value than others, like your one mother over a replaceable shaver. What value to we gain from having an eternal existence. I'd argue that this life means nothing, if we're going to become eternal spirits after this. Life is short, therefor it has value. If you live for eighty years on this world, what difference will is make eighty thousand years from now when you're in the next life?

The thing that you think gives us value, I argue takes away from it. Because something that lasts forever isn't valuable. Something being finite and rare is what gives it value.