Just Human?

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Human Identity

Introduction

What does it mean to be human?  People have discussed and argued about this for a long time.  It is of general interest, but it also plays a significant part in shaping your understanding of the Christian faith.

The question resolves into two inter-related parts: 'What does it mean to be human?' and 'What does it mean to be me?'

What does it mean to be human?

In Western thought, there are two basic ways of understanding what it means to be human.  They are associated with the philosophical traditions we find in the Greek and Hebrew cultures.  This does not mean, of course, that every Greek person had one understanding and every Hebrew person had the other; neither does it mean that these two understandings were always clearly distinguished.  But for all the borrowings and overlaps we can find in particular individuals and groups, the basic concept which subsequent generations and cultures gained from these two traditions can be clearly distinguished.

According to the Greek tradition, a human is a soul trapped in a body - an enfleshed soul, if you like.  We can ignore the question of the difference between soul and spirit here: the issue is purely about the relationship between the material aspect of the human and the non-material aspect.  And the point is that what is truly human is our soul; the flesh is what we have in common with the other animals.  The soul is distinct from the body, so there is an important question about what happens to the soul when the body dies - which is why there are so many inventive Greek stories about what happens to people in the afterlife, especially the ones who anger the gods.

According to the Hebrew tradition, a human is an animated body.  Again, the distinction between soul and spirit is essentially unimportant: what matters is that, for a period of time, something turns a chunk of matter into a living being.  Humans, like the other animals, are animated matter; they are like the other animals in many ways, but unlike the other animals in having a different relationship with the creator God.  Humans are chosen by God, but being chosen does not mean we are better or superior, it means we have been given a task - to take care of the rest of creation, and to show the rest of creation what God is like.  There are no stories about what happens to people after they die, because people who die lie in the grave and don't do anything.  But there is a small occasional hint in the Hebrew writings that people who are remembered by God have not completely disappeared (just as many people say today of those who have died: they live on in our memory), and maybe through God's creative power they might be given life again.

What does it mean to be me?

To be continued ...

One key point is that I am not just my brain: the brain is deeply connected with the rest of the body.  Increasingly, scientists are understanding that a large part of what makes me 'me' is tied up with the functioning of the ecosystem in my guts.  As this New Scientis article explains, Consciousness isn't just the brain.