essence of being a human?

Question

We watched the film x-men3 in our philom class.. now I have to make a reaction paper.. could you please share your ideas on what is the essence of being a human.. thanks....

Answer 1

Having a value system and moral judgment, perspective, and having compassion. (Just off the top of my head, it's late.)

Answer 2

essence of being human is mind. Human is an essentially mind, not body so I do not know what about x-men but I can clearly say mutants in there are human too if they have a mind. Body and its functions are not important to be a human. A crippled person is not really a half human if he has a mind, he is fully human.

Answer 3

Share my ideas about being human? Better than that, I'll share Mark Twain's ideas from his essay, What Is Man? (You'll have to excuse the sexist language of these older writings.)

First you might want to reread the two scriptures from the Hebrew Bible that raise the same question:

What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet . . . . (Ps. 8.4-6)

Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath;
my eyes will never see happiness again.
The eye that now sees me will see me no longer;
you will look for me, but I will be no more. . . .
I despise my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
What is man that you make so much of him,
that you give him so much attention,
that you examine him every morning
and test him every moment? (Job 7.7-8, 16-18)

In the first instance (Psalm 8), God is seen as our creator and the human as the height of his creation and supreme ruler of nature. In the second instance (Job 7), God is seen as a harsh judge, and the human on trial as "the accused."

Now notice these excerpts from Twain's response to the same question.

"There are gold men, and tin men, and copper men, and leaden men, and steel men, and so on--and each has the limitations of his nature, his heredities, his training, and his environment. You can build engines out of each of these metals, and they will all perform, but you must not require the weak ones to do equal work with the strong ones. In each case, to get the best results, you must free the metal from its obstructing prejudicial ones by education—smelting, refining, and so forth."

"YOU did not create the materials out of which [the engine] is formed. They are odds and ends of thoughts, impressions, feelings, gathered unconsciously from a thousand books, a thousand conversations, and from streams of thought and feeling which have flowed down into your heart and brain out of the hearts and brains of centuries of ancestors."

"Diligently train your ideals upward and still upward toward a summit where you will find your chiefest pleasure in conduct which, while contenting you, will be sure to confer benefits upon your neighbor and the community."

Twain sees the human potential as heir of the ages and promise for the future.

I'll go with Twain. I think the x-men might too.

Answer 4

As a human, essence it is of survival, and not be controlled by the things that don't make you happy or be on harms way.

Answer 5

First of all, relating to X-Men, I beleive that the mutants could be considered humans, because they all appear to be at least capable of doing the things other humans can do, like speaking, planning, and reasoning. Humans are above all other creatures in terms of concious thought. Our developed minds are what make us human and seperate us from all other living things that we know of.

Answer 6

The knowledge of the passing of time - in other words, knowing we're all gonna die! (And doing everything we can to prevent this happening)

Answer 7

Human being knows what is good and what is bad !!!

Answer 8

We have passion I don't know if any animal has that.

Answer 9

FROM BIBLICAL POINT OF VIEW

The essence of being a human is that we are made in the images and likeness of God. Man did not descended from some lower form." but from a higher form and that is from God.

We were made like God; according to His likeness. Now this cannot be understood as duplication; we are not clones of Deity (see Deut. 4:35). We are like God; we are not God. He made us in His image. We must not attempt to make Him in our image.

Of all God made, He made man unique, like Him. We have the capacity to think, to make choices, to love - unlike plants and animals. We can be good; we can chose good character, do good things, be good people. God never said to a tree, rock or insect, "Be holy, for I am holy," but He says that to us, according to 1 Pet. 1:16. We were made in the image of God.

Biblically, here is the case: "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He crated him; male and female He created them." God created man, in His own image, and the distinction is God's: male and female. Sexual differentiation was not a result of social evolution; it was explicit in divine creation. The suitable partner for man was a woman (Gen. 2:18)!

Romans chapter one is describing the behaviors of a people who have forsaken God. This has always been the context of Romans 1 (long before current discussions that confuse the genders).

"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due." (Rom. 1:26,27).

Paul uses the terms "natural" and "unnatural," reflecting what is explicitly written in Genesis 1:27 - male and female. When men or women choose to ignore the gender distinction God ordained, they go against God, against nature, corrupt themselves, produce victims, contribute to the decay of their society and work against the purposes of Almighty God. And every work against the purposes of God will be defeated.

In the case of the Xmen film, A recreation (cloning) of what has been created which God called "It is good in the scripture."

FROM PSYCHOLOGY POINT OF VIEW

What does it mean to be Human? Well if you reflect on your thoughts and behaviors and those of the individuals around you on this planet since the beginning of our existence here I think you will likely come to the conclusion that to wear the label Human is not exactly endearing or desirable.

The death and destruction that we have brought to ourselves, others and the environment is clearly evident. As you reflect on this how do you feel knowing that you also are one of those Humans? I suspect that some may wish they they could somehow disown their species.

Before you choose to give up on your species however I would like to suggest that your conclusions may need to be reassessed. It is possible that we have all been seduced into "thinking" that all this death and destruction is part of our true nature.

Of course, if it were, we would not be happy or satisfied with ourselves, would we? In fact wouldn't we feel trapped in something that none of us really desires? Isn't that the reason many of us have been on a spiritual path, to try to alter or change this sad state of affairs?

If you follow me so far I think you will recognize that inside each of us there is a Being that recognizes that there is something wrong with our current state. This Being has to have an awareness of what is good for us and what is not good for us.

It has to have a frame of reference from which it can assess whether we are where we want to be or not. If such a Being did not exist, we would not be able to discern whether the destructive behaviors we see emerging from our bodies were in fact destructive. Instead we would just feel it was natural to exhibit destuctive behaviors and therefore would have no desire to change something that feels natural. But it doesn't feel natural, does it?

You can readily feel this from the feelings of sadness or regret you experience after you have noticed yourself exhibiting a destructive behavior. So you see, something, or someone inside you is commenting on the destructive behavior through the language of feelings, namely the sadness or regret.

The behaviours are just that, behaviors. Where do they stem from? Well from the thoughts that we entertain in our minds. These in turn arise from the conditioning that we call our life history. This conditioning is stored as memories and beliefs in our minds and bodies.

In a recent article I wrote entitled "We Are Not Our Personalities" I discussed my experience with a new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) and its ability to "dismantle" the persoanlity. In doing so what emerges is the Being I talked about earlier, The Being who "knows" and has always known what it means to be Human. That to be Human means not to identify with something that you are not i.e. what you call your thoughts, your memories, your behaviors, and your life history.

Nick Arrizza M.D. is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer,Speaker, Researcher, Developer of the Powerful Mind Resonance Process(TM) and is the Author of e-book "Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation" which can be downloaded from his web site at: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/ebook.htm. He holds International Telephone and Teleconferencing sessions on Healing and Spirituality.