by ProfDave, ©2022
(Jan. 20, 2022) — What is a human being? First, he/she is a creature. Someone or something made him/her. Think about it. You did not make yourself or pop into existence spontaneously in the big bang – or a little pop. Or did you? Are you a self-made man or woman – a monument to unskilled labor?
You are a creature. Created. By biological forces certainly. But is there something more? An intelligence? A will? Where did the chain of those forces come from and what set it in motion? What forged and guided it? Is the world of things all there is, all we are?
Move from the cosmic to the personal. What makes you who you are? Are you a creature of biological forces alone? Or is there something more? Are we just things? Is there a consciousness beyond the synapsis? Is there a will beyond the hormones?
The great divide in our culture right now is over whose creature? A creature of ourselves or of some Higher Power? With an Intelligent Designer comes a design and a purpose for all things. We can assume there is an order behind the chaos and there are answers for our questions. We can deduce a sense of belonging in the cosmos. With design, purpose, and belonging comes a sense of responsibility, of ought-ness, that we call conscience.
Human value is intrinsic in the character of this Higher Power. Judeo-Christian revelation teaches the equal sacredness and autonomy of each human being. All spirits are God’s and morally answerable to Him. This is the unacknowledged foundation of the Western democratic idea.
There are downsides in acknowledging that we are not our own creations and that there is order and purpose in the universe. Going on that assumption, science has learned many things. But we still don’t know the purpose of everything, and at times, our lives are anything but orderly. Does this mean anything? Or is it all “the tale of an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?”
Then there is the matter of responsibility. If there is a Creator, then are we responsible to Him? Our desires are often in conflict with the “right way.” Are we out of order or is the universe out of order? Yes? Are we wrong or is nothing right? Which hypothesis yields the best results?
If we deny the thesis that each person is a creature of an Intelligent Creator, we are left with the alternative: we are creatures of impersonal, unintelligent forces. The force be with you! The Cosmos only looks orderly because our minds work that way, or we believe it to be (why?). There is no meaning or purpose in the universe or our lives except what we superimpose on it and ourselves. There is no right or wrong except as we choose it. We have no responsibility except to ourselves. We are free to rearrange society, morality and even biology to suit ourselves. We may do what we like. But there is no destiny and no hope. In the end, death wins.
In fact, persons, as anything beyond complex organisms, do not exist. The only exception is the omnipotent self. In Nietzsche’s words, “We have erased the horizon.”
What is a human being? Second, having become a creature, he/she is a moral agent. Human behavior is not healthily instinctual like other species, or even random, but voluntary. Good and healthy behavior is optional. We make choices that are not just correct and incorrect, fortunate and unfortunate, but good and evil.
There is a built-in hypocrisy in the human condition: we all know better than we do. In English we have the words “should” and “ought.” There is no equivalent in cat or dog language. We deliberately touch the wet paint. We choose the wrong thing, then try to justify ourselves. We lie to ourselves. The wise among us know this and keep saying, “I should have” or “I shouldn’t have.” There are two ways to live, our way and the right way. The Judeo-Christian tradition has a story (Eden) and a word (fallen) for it. It explains a lot!
David W. Heughins (“ProfDave”) is Adjunct Professor of History at Nazarene Bible College. He holds a BA from Eastern Nazarene College and a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Holiness in 12 Steps (2020). He is a Vietnam veteran and is retired, living with his daughter and three grandchildren in Connecticut.