I'm starting to feel guilty about taking up so much space on this thread, but here goes.
I don't think that life has any intrinsic value. People assign value to the things that they believe to be important, but it doesn't actually create any value in the thing. Value isn't just automatically granted something because it exists.
I think that certain actions or ideas probably do have value, but it doesn't really matter who is performing/expressing them... the ideas and actions in themselves are what's important.
And I definitely don't think that the 'powers that be' deserve to assign value to anything... I'm not 'deferring' to them, because I have my own ideas, and the ideas are more important than me as a person. If you don't believe in things, or you don't think about things, or you don't do things, then you're not even really alive... you're just existing.