Mr joseph vempeny Posted on : 08/02/2008 09:04:35

HUMAN NATURE

Human Nature

“How do you define humanity? What is it that makes humans unique?”

How about this definition? “Humanity is a form of life found on earth, quite distinct from and far superior to all other forms of life.” Biologists broadly classify living things into three kingdoms – microbes, plants and animals. According to them, human beings belong to the animal kingdom, a member of the subgroup of mammals that include monkeys and apes – the primates. Quite an honor, this title of primate but I am not quite comfortable being classified as one of the apes or animals. I wish I belonged to the group that included sparrows and parrots or even that with lilies and roses. So, instead of three kingdoms for the living beings I would list four – microbe, plant, animal and human. Scientists may point out the similarity in physiology, anatomy and life processes between the humans and the apes as excuses not to accept my classification. But the similarity is only applicable to the material, physical body. The physical body is only a small aspect of the human being – the aspect concerned with nutrition and procreation. Other aspects like language and literature, science and technology, arts and philosophy and above all, the knowledge to distinguish between good and evil as well as the freedom to choose between these, are human characteristics not shared by animals. We are distinct from animals because we have something that they do not have – a soul or spirit, and the fact that unlike other animals we are created in the image and likeness of God, as children of God. In this respect I can say that the difference between a chimpanzee and a human being is more pronounced than the difference between a lily and a chimpanzee.

Good and Evil

What makes human nature so unique; humanity so different from the rest of creation? Depending on their areas of interest different people may have different interesting answers to such questions. What affected Buddha was suffering (dukkha). Mother Theresa was moved by the poverty in a similar way. ‘Why is there so much evil?’ is a question we often face in our study classes and discussions. ‘To destroy the evildoers and protect the righteous’ was the goal of Krishna. Speaking of Gandhi, Tagore once said, “He is bound to fail even as Buddha and Christ failed.” Obviously Tagore assumed the mission or goal of Christ to be eradication of evil from the whole world. Is this so? Did Christ or any of the prophets or sages hope or plan to eradicate evil from the world or from the lives of humans? I do not think so. Without evil, the word ‘good’ has no meaning. Without suffering, mercy or compassion cannot blossom. The great virtue of selfless love may not shine so brightly in the absence of hatred or envy. Evil is what distinguishes humanity from the rest of creation. A lion killing a deer for food is not evil. There is nothing wrong in it. It is according to nature’s laws. Lion eating grass is against nature. In the absence of evil we wont be humans. Before evil appeared – in Eden – there were no humans, only animals. Once evil is totally eradicated there will be no humans, only saints or angels. I am not trying to justify or condone evil in any form, nor suggesting that evil is something created by God along with humans. Then, if evil is such an integral part of human life, where and how did it originate? What can we do about it?

Ironic or contradictory as it may seem, it is a fact that evil appeared with goodness, with freedom, with divinity. When we were first created ‘in the image and likeness of God’, as children of God, one of the things that distinguished us from the animals was freedom, freedom to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ when faced with a temptation to do evil, to be mean, or an opportunity to do good, to exercise compassion or mercy. We, exercising our free will, chose to eat of the tree of the ‘knowledge of good and evil’ and thus good as well as evil entered our lives. Nor are we doomed to suffer eternally as the result of the choice of our first ancestors. Even we have the freedom to choose between right and wrong, between good and bad; yes we are free to make heaven or hell for ourselves and for others around us. No leader or redeemer, no movement or organization may ever succeed in turning the earth into heaven, but there is nothing to usurp us of our freedom to make heaven for us and those near us, by the simple exercise of the virtues of selfless love and contentment. Christ has not eradicated evil from the whole world but he did establish the kingdom of heaven here for us. All we have to do to be part of that kingdom is to fulfill the requirements as set out by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

Knowledge of good and evil, consciousness and conscience, wisdom and reasoning power, the capacity to know God and to see God in others, these are some of the things that make us unique, things that make us different from other animals, things that point out quite clearly that we do not belong to the animal kingdom but the Kingdom of God, where we are all children of God and thus brothers and sisters.