Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
The Only Creatures Made for Our Own Selves

The Only Creatures Made for Our Own Selves

Last updated on: December 29, 2014 at 10:35 am by Rebecca Hamilton

7 Comments

The Only Creatures Made for Our Own Selves 2014-12-29T10:35:29-07:00 Rebecca Hamilton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Anthropologists keep trying to come up with a definition of human beings that applies to something about us that is totally, absolutely unique.

We are the toolmakers, they said. Then, Jane Goodall discovered that chimps poke sticks into termite holes to pull them out and eat them.

We have language. That was a poor choice from the start, since anyone who’s been around animals knows they have a sort of language of their own.

So what about us is unique? Are we just a function of our opposable thumbs?

My answer, which I know would not fit into any anthropologist’s toolkit for categorizing, is that we are the only creatures on this earth who were made for our own selves.

Every other creature here has a purpose and, somehow or other, that purpose ultimately pertains to us. We alone are made with such absolute and radical free will that we can both know and reject our own Maker.

We can imagine things that don’t exist and find ways to create them. We can unravel the secrets of our own creation and teach ourselves a bit of the mechanisms God used when He made us and all that is. We can glimpse, albeit in an incomplete way that is filled with longing, the eternity that lies beyond our finite and mortal coil.

We have a touch of the divine within us that resides, not in our big brains, but in our almighty will. We are free. Stars exist within the laws of physics. Planets rotate on their orbits. All of creation occurs within predictable, learnable mathematical certainties.

The only real surprise is us. We are free, in the way that God is free. We can, with knowledge of what we are doing, and understanding of its implications, chose. We can create. And we can also destroy. This means that we alone of all the creatures around us have the capacity for good and evil. We are moral creatures by virtue of our free will and understanding.

We are not the God of the universe, but we can actually convince ourselves that we are because we have the God-given ability to chose. All our days, we hunger for something more, for that eternity we glimpse but can’t quite see.

There is something majestic and powerfully beautiful about our compulsion to push past the limits of what we are and dip our toes into what we are not. We are slower than a horse and much less powerful. But a long-distance runner can literally run a horse to death. We are not fish, but we venture into the deeps with our ships and tanks and diving bells. We extend our reach far past where any single animal can go. Not satisfied with that, we push our lungs and bodies to dive deep without devices.

Unlike any other creature, we push ourselves past what our species can do and into torturous endurance for not reason except to see if we can do it.

We are made for ourselves alone. Which means that we alone can give ourselves away — totally, freely and with full consent. Of all the things and creatures God has made, we stand alone on this earth as the only one who He gave as a gift to themselves. He gave us, from the first breath, our own selves. We were made to love Him.

Or not.

And we were made to be free to live, love, work, explore, learn, teach and push ourselves past what we think we can do.

There is no horizon to human existence, not even death. We are living souls, made for an eternity of love.

This is a video of William Trubridge’s record-setting free dive into Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas. He dove — on one breath and without assistance — 101 meters, which is just a little more than 331 feet. Watch and be awed.

what is a human being

what is man

william trubridge

Previous Post

August 1, 2013

The Jazzed-Up-Zombie Drug and Its Side Affects

Next Post

August 2, 2013 Bleeding Nigeria and Boko Haram

Recent Comments

7 Comments | Leave a Comment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Commandments 2012 Election 2016 Election 2020 Election 2022 Election 2024 Election Abortion Addiction Adult Day Care Advent Africa AI Alcoholism Alex Pretti Renee Good America American Citizenship American Fascism Announcement Anti Semitism Anti-Semitism Apologetics Archbishop Coakley Argentina Armenian Genocide Ash Wednesday Ballot Box Salvation Biden Big Beautiful Bill Bishop Black Mass Blasphemy Boko Haram Book Review Brainwashing Breast Cancer Bribery Calling Evil Good calling good evil Cancer Canonize Caregiving Catholic Catholic Vote Cause for Sainthood Chaos child abuse Child Labor Child Rearing Child Sacrifice Christian Bashers Christian Leadership Christian Persecution Christian Solidarity Christianity Christmas clergy Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal Climate Coakley Common Good Communion Communism Computers concentration camps Conclave Confession Consecration to Our Lady Conversion Coptic Christians Coronavirus Corporatism Corruption COVID Crisis Pregnancy Centers Culture D Day Death Death Penalty Dementia Democracy Designer Baby Destruction of the Family Dictator Dignity of Work Divine Mercy Novena Divine Mercy Sunday Divorce Doubt Drug Addiction easter Ebola Economics Education Egg Harvesting El Salvador Elderly Epiphany Epstein eternal life Eternal Life Eucharist Eugenics Euthanizing Children Euthansia evangelization Excommunicate Biden Extraterrestrial Life Failed Clergy Faith False Gods Family Fascism Fatherhood Feast of the Assumption First Amendment Flood the Zone Following Christ forced conversion Forgiveness Fortnight4Freedom fourth amendment Fr James Altman Fr Stanley Rother free press Freedom Freedom of Conscience freedom of religion Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship vs Religious Freedom Geek Stuff Gender Theory Genocide God the Father Good Friday Gossip GQP Greenland Grief Gun Control Gun Violence Hate Blogs Health Health Care Heart Attack Heaven Hell Herod HHS Mandate History of the Crusades Holy Father Holy Father' Holy Father's Tweets Holy Matrimony Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Thursday Holy Week Home Homeschooling homosexual Hospice Human Dignity Human Rights human trafficking Humor ICE Idolatry Immaculate Conception Immigration Incest Infertility Inspiration Iran War ISIS Islam Islamic Brotherhood Israel JD Vance Jesus Jobs Jordan Judas Judicial and Legislative Murder Judicial Murder July 4 Just War Justice Kavanaugh Ketanji Jackson Brown Laity Latin Mass Leadership Lent Less of Me Lying Lying for Trump Mad King MAGA Magnifica humanitas Mama Marriage Marriage Protection Amendment Martyr Media Bias Medicaid Men and Abortion Mercy Military Dictatorship Misogyny Motherhood Movie Review Murder Music National Catholic Register Nazi Clergy Neo Nazis New Category New Evangelism New Evangelization News Headlines Nigeria No Kings Novena for the Persecuted Church Nuns Obama Oklahoma Oscar Romero Our Lady Our National Embarrassment Pakistan Palm Sunday Papal Conclave Papal G8 Pedophile piano political priests Political Whore Clergy Politics Polygamy Pope Francis Pope Francis Visit United States Pope Leo XIV Pope's Prayer Intentions Pornography Post Christian West Poverty Prayer Prayers for the Persecuted Church Pro Life Prophecy Prostitution Purgatory Putin Quack Medicine Racism Rape Religious Freedom Renee Good Republican Republican priests Rerum Novarum Retirement Risen Lord Roe v Wade Rosary Sacrament Sacred Heart Sacrilege Saints Salvation Same Sex Marriage Sanctity of Human Life Satan Save Our Democracy scandal Scripture Shroud of Turin Sisters Slavery Social Justice Social Security Solidarity Cross St Michael the Archangel stations of the cross Stop Late Term Abortion Stroke Suicide Supreme Court Surrogacy Surveillance State Synod Syria Taliban Tariffs Taxes Technology Thanksgiving The Ascension The Cross The Locust Class The Political Heresy The Resurrection The Tomb The Transfiguration The Trinity The War on Girls Tornado Trauma Trump Trump Coup Trump Destroying America Trump's Coup Trump's War on the Rule of Law Trumpism Ukraine Uncategorized USAID USCCB Vatican Vatican Reform Violence Against Women Violence in America Vocation Voting Rights Wages Walk for Life War Weight Loss White House Why Aren't You a Feminist Too? Woke Women Leaders Women's Rights Worker's Rights World Hunger World War I World War III World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Faith

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How was the New Covenant different from the Old Covenant?

Select your answer to see how you score.

It was only for priests It abolished God’s law It would be written on their hearts It required more sacrifices