What Makes Us Human?

    People say that no matter how hard you try, you can never be someone you just aren’t meant to be. After all, dogs can’t become people, and people can’t fly like birds. But I want you to take a step back, look at everything from a much greater perspective, let your thoughts roam free as they try to comprehend the perplexing vastness of this world, and then zero in on us. What makes us human? By the definition that we have created, with this thing called science, which we use to justify most things that we encounter, humans are a mass of cells, tissues, and organs, that grow, reproduce, and respond to stimuli. Well, that’s a pretty accurate answer isn’t it. So therefore, because what physically makes us is what defines us as human beings, it means that we can never be something else, and something else can never be us. But that’s not the “greater perspective” I was talking about earlier, is it? So instead, let’s change our perception of what makes us human for a second, from tangible to intangible, from physical to mental, from “scientific” to incomprehensible. We humans won’t be humans without emotion, without the freedom of thought, without the desire for knowledge, and without the element of human connections. Am I wrong? Aren’t these what make up a human society? So even if the physical structure of our embodiments change or differ, these bewildering psychological components still justify us as human beings. Considering these varying perspectives, maybe an elephant can be a human, but even in that case, the complexities of our brains would be what differentiates humans from other organisms. This constant clash between science that is based on logic and philosophy that is based on perspectives, both stemming from the same human brain, results in a conflict between the two sides within us. I leave this rant with one last thought. Was this a conflict intentionally placed inside our minds in order to moderate our thinking, limit our understanding, and restrict us from a greater truth? 

- Ven