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This truth that the moral law is natural has other important corollaries.

One of them is that it gives meaning and purpose to life.

In seeking for such meaning and purpose, Albert Schweitzer seized upon the concept of the `` sacredness of life ''.

It is puzzling to the occidental mind ( to mine at least ) to assign `` sacredness '' to animal, insect, and plant life.

These lives are in themselves outside of the moral order and are unburdened with moral responsibility.

There is indeed a moral responsibility on man himself, for his own soul's sake, to respect lower life and to avoid the infliction of suffering, but this viewpoint Schweitzer rejects.