...There are many concepts that are associated with the true meaning of being human. This is a topic that that is very susceptible to debate because most people will have their own opinions on what it means, to them, to be human. When asked this question I try to think of universal concepts or factors in which everyone can agree on. It is hard not to involve religion and science when determining an answer for this topic but, in my opinion, there are mutual concepts that can be used to describe humanity from a religious or scientific point of view. The Bible tells of how God created Adam and Eve and that they were the first humans on Earth. The Bible basically states that God created humans and that humans are simply a product of God. At least, that’s the religious aspect of humanity. Then there is science which explains how humans evolved from ape-like creatures which was all part of evolution that was caused by the “Big Bang” 13.7 billion years ago. Whatever the case may be, the Bible or the “Big Bang”, there are still many concepts that can be used to define humans. Being born from your human mother does not mean you are in fact human. One concept cannot explain humanity because being human is more complex than just one simple notion. I believe the three most important concepts that define what it means to be human are knowledge, ethics, and history. Knowledge is an essential characteristic of the human race because it is the reason why humanity is advanced as it is today...
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...WHAT IS A HUMAN BEING? WHAT IS OUR REASON FOR BEING? What is a human being? What is our reason for being? One can have various answers to the question of what humans are depending on what aspect of a human is being referred. Science has categorized us as primates, same class as the Apes. Our differentiating characteristics are our erect feature and our highly functioning brain resulting in our ability to express what we feel using articulate speech and to provide logical reason for everything that we encounter. Charles Darwin had theorized how we evolved from apes, shedding our ape-liked appearance gradually, simultaneous with further development of our brain. Are we really just another living thing in this planet who is a product of evolution as most creatures are, except for a few like cockroach? As we have observed, all animals have the capability to adapt to the environment where they belong. This is a robust evidence that all animals, within the capacity of their brain, can think of ways to survive. They can group themselves to form a community, where they developed a way of life unique to their species, such as taking care of their young. If this can be considered culture, then we are no difference from other animals except for a bigger brain. I think that the spiritual aspect of a human being is what make us distinct from the rest. I do not believe in the theory of evolution. To date, all discoveries point to the fact that man had existed even at the earliest time. ...
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...mankind starts from pre150k until 8000 years and there is a big change on human population, culture and lifestyle within these years. Based on the view of Stephen Oppenheimer in the ‘journey of mankind’, we know that the modern human who recognizes as Homosapien, live in Africa over 160000 years ago. The archeological evidence has showed that our mtDNA and Ychromosome ancestors are found in East Africa.[1] From 160000 to 135000 years, there were four groups of traveller who known as hunter-gatherer carried the first generation of mtDNA gene types ‘L1’by started their routes from south to the Cape of Good Hope, south-west to Congo Basin and west to Ivory Coast.[2] There was a creature could adapt well with the environmental changes is prehistoric man. They lived in the grasslands of Africa, the tropical rainforest of South-East Asia and the more temperate areas of southern Europe. The changing in climate, amount of free water and rainfall had affected the amount of lands that used by prehistoric man for feeding the herds and growing the plants. Climatic changes had lead to the evolution of prehistoric man himself such as development of stone tools, site organization, the building of shelter and the use of clothing. From 135000 to 115000 years, a group traveller across a green Sahara via the open of northern gate, up the Nile to the Levant.[3] According to The 1st Exit written by Stephen Oppenheimer, humans had moved out from Africa in the end. The timing and routes were determined...
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...Dillan Middlebrooks English 848 Chris Dowling 09/29/2014 Part of being human If there’s one thing that we all could use more of it would be self-control. Look at the least successful people you know and the most successful. The one thing that makes these two types of people different is their ability to do the right actions and do them continuously. Recently I read The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.it first explains that willpower is an instinct, like stress, that protects us from ourselves. Then the book goes through ways we sabotage our own willpower and she also gives strategies to improve your willpower. One thing that The Willpower Instinct made crystal clear was that everyone struggles in some way; it could be addiction, distractions, temptations, and procrastinating. Motivation is key to resist our short-term pleasures. “When you find your biggest want power…bring it to mind whenever you find yourself most tempted to give in or give up.”(75) Whenever you are on the verge of giving up you need to just remember where you want to be and it will help you get to your overall goal. The beginning of my senior year of high school I was 80 credits behind so I had to take seven classes the first semester, but I only passed half of those and then I had ten classes the final semester in order to graduate with three credits over the requirement. Along the way I had people telling me that I “could” and “couldn’t” graduate. I definitely wanted to just give...
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...Why are we called human beings? davinci human being We don’t say tiger beings, cockroach beings, or cow beings. It’s not even related to self-aware ‘beings’ because we don’t refer to dolphins or elephants or apes as beings. Googling the question is unsatisfying. The answers range from: “All living things are beings, we happen to be human beings” to “When the term “being” came into use during the 14th century, the church had decided that God and angels were self-aware “beings” of the highest order. Genesis said that humans had been made in the image of God, so they were also accorded the title of “being.” Sadly, there is no attribution for this explanation, and these answers don’t quench. At least not me. A Clue to Who We Are as Creators...
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...John Ebert’s main point in the chapter “Robots, Drones and the Disappearance of the Human Being” is that the advancement of computers and machines will be at the expense of humans. We are being removed from so many processes that take place every day that we will disappear from many activities in our daily lives because we are building computers and machines to make more and more decisions and his observations are accurate. Ebert’s theory about technology advances in our military are also legitimate as it will become much easier to make tough decisions in war when it comes to taking the life of the enemy because it is done from such a great distance with a video game controller so it dehumanizes killing someone as an example when using a...
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...Danielle Copley Professor REL2300 4/7/13 What does it mean to be Human? There are many religions in the world each one is unique. I have often wondered what it means to be human in other religions other than Christianity. We will explore what it means in both the Hindu and Buddhist religions. We will start off with Hinduism. The Upanishads, perceived the individual self or atman as the immortal pure essence of each being. Hindus believe that everything has a soul. The atman is not the body; the body is not eternal. The body houses the atman until the body dies. Atman is immortal and eternal. All human beings are positioned in the all- embracing Brahman or the absolute. The Upanishads describe the Brahman as the eternal, conscious, irreducible, spiritual source of the universe of finiteness and change. Brahman is impersonal being in itself but it can be known through the many gods and goddesses that are manifestations of Brahman. We will look at atman first. . Moksha is the spiritual release from the cycle of life. In moksha the individual soul joins the atman. Atman is the eternal self, refers to the self beyond ego or false self. It is often referred to as spirit or soul and indicates the true self and underlies our existence. The individual soul becoming part of the larger soul of the universe. Achieving Moksha can span over many lifetimes. This process requires loss of attachment to life and the things in life. It also requires a balance of karma by a person’s duty...
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...moral duty not to procreate; and a fetus in its earlier stage should be aborted. It results that the existence of one person should counted as overpopulation, and it is good for human to extinct. In the introduction, Benatar first claims that his argument can be applied to all sentient beings, but his focus will be on humans. In the part subtitled “Who is so lucky”, Freud's claim that there is no good or best for the non-existent people elicits the 'non-identity' problem, which will later be solved. By speaking about the 'never-existent' which refers to nothing, Benatar is using this expression as a convenient term to mean those possible but non-actual beings. In Chapter 2, Benatar firstly claims that the expression 'a life worth living' should be specified as either 'a life worth starting' or 'a life worth continuing'. Then he tries to explain why coming into existence is always a harm by the asymmetry of pleasure and pain: (1) the presence of pain is bad, (2) the presence of pleasure is good, (3) the absence of pain is good, (4) the absence of pleasure is not bad unless it implies a deprivation. The first two points are evident, but (3) and (4) are controversial. The 'non-identity' problem can be raised against (3), since (3) can be interpreted as the absence of pain is good for the nonexistent being. Benatar replies that (3) claims that “this absence is good when judged in terms of the interests of the person who would otherwise have existed” (2006: 31). However, this reply...
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...Running head: MARITAL INTIMACY SKILLS 1 Defining and Training Marital Intimacy Skills Liberty University MARITAL INTIMACY SKILLS 2 Abstract God created human beings to have intimacy. From the beginning He said it is no good for man to be alone. (Genesis 2:18, NIV) As amazing as this may seem, even though Adam had a close and intimate relationship with God, God knew that Adam needed other types of intimacy; the kind of intimacy another human being can only offer. Not saying that God is not enough or sufficient to fill and satisfy any heart, but God has placed within our hearts the need of intimacy with other human beings. This report will focused on four aspects of intimacy, which include emotional, spiritual, intellectual and sexual intimacy. The report will define each area of intimacy, give examples and practical advice on how to train marital intimacy skills. It is designed to help couples understand the basic needs of their spouse and the different ways they may contribute to their partner’s fulfillment and satisfaction in marriage. MARITAL INTIMACY SKILLS 3 Defining and Training Marital Intimacy Skills Emotional intimacy refers to the emotional closeness two people are able to feel or develop over certain time period. It is the place where a couple is able to share and be transparent about their feelings and emotions. Sadly many couples do not experience this type of intimacy, this lack of intimacy is clearly seen our society...
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...2. Aristotle believed that if individual horses did not exist, there would be no such thing as the form horse. Is this correct? * I believe Aristotle was incorrect by saying there could be no form of a horse if there were no actual physical particular horse with which to base the form on. I justify this based on my understanding of the notion of a form, namely – the form of the object is purely human convention that assigns words to concepts and then judges wheter particular objects conform to our definition. We could conceive if something that we would call a horse even if there was never an object that we could find which conformed to our conception. 4. Can there be essence without existence? * Everything has two principles that explain its being, essence and existence. In all beings except for God, these principles are both required in order for the actually existing individual thing to be. Each is distinct from the other, yet this distinction is a real, not merely logical. 5. What are the two kinds of substance * For Aristotle two kinds of substance is from and essence. The kind of essence or form that Aristotle counts as primary substance is one that is not in any way universal; a form that is as individual as the compound whose form it is. The “individual forms” solution is not to be found in Aristotle, and is unavailable to him. On their view, the primary substance of the Metaphysics is species form - something that is common to different members...
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...philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga and Descartes, defines God as “a being that which nothing greater can be conceived”. In my opinion the argument does not only fail to go beyond this definition, but we cannot be sure than it defines God correctly either. Firstly we cannot argue that the argument goes beyond the definition of God because as Kant points out the argument has a major flaw, the ontological argument is based on an assumption that to exist is a property of perfection. He uses the analogy of money saying that 100___ that existed in reality were no different in value to 100___ that existed hypothetically as both, in theory were worth the same and therefore equal. Bertrand Russell makes a similar point, he claims that the ontological argument uses the word ‘exists’ incorrectly and that existence is not a property of things, but of the idea of those things. Russell uses the example of dragons, saying that if someone says a dragon does not exist what they mean is of all the things that exist the word dragon refers to none of them, however this fact is not part of the definition itself and changes nothing about the description of the features of a dragon, therefore existence is an extension of an intention and not a definition. Alvin Plantinga attempts to redeem the ontological argument with his possible world’s theory, planting argues that if it is coherent to believe that in a possible world a maximally great being could exist then in order for him to have maximal greatness he...
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...TRANSCENDENTAL PROPERTIES OF BEING By: MBAKWE NICHOLAS CHUKWUNWEIKE Introduction Metaphysics is not just a science in Aristotle’s conception of it, but one that distinguishes itself from all the particular sciences by firstly raising the question of the first and most universal causes and secondly by taking as its subject of consideration ‘being’ simply as ‘being’ in its most universal and in its most concrete sense as present in experience. Implicitly, being must be taken as analogous from the very beginning of the investigation, not in the sense that it would diffuse the unity of this science into a mere difference of differences, but in the sense that it would raise this science to a higher kind of unity according to an order of different degrees of being as they relate to a primary analogate as the one to which all relate more or less distantly. To delve more deeply into this analogous subject of consideration one must further distinguish transcendental properties that follow being in its analogous and transcendental sense. In the end, when the question of a first, universal cause of being as being, or of a summit of being that would be totally transcendent, is finally raised, all of this a priori conception of being as analogous according to different degrees with its corresponding degrees of oneness, activity, truth and goodness must be brought into play in relation to things as they come under sense experience as moved, caused, contingent and exhibiting different degrees...
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...God—proofs that were dependent on reason and observation, not the revealed word of God. 1. Aquinas recognized that for motion to take place, there had to be something that interacts with it to cause it to move. This, in turn must be an infinite being outside of creation and hence is God. 2. Every effect must have a cause, if you eliminate the cause you eliminate the effect. It only posits that a God exists who is the cause of all things and who is the effect of nothing. 3. Aquinas argued that from observation, the things around him had the possibility of being (or existing) or not being. Yet, if that first being exists, he must necessarily not have the possibility of not being. In other words, as non-existence cannot bring about existence, the first being necessarily has to have always existed. And this entity that necessarily exists and cannot not-exist, is God. 4. Note that this is not the suggestion that we get the idea of goodness or hotness from God, but simply that there must always be something that is more good or more hot than that which we are viewing and since there is a gradation, there must always be a top to the gradation that can never be surpassed. Such a top or asymptote, by definition, requires an infinite being, hence it must be God. 5. Fifthly, Aquinas points out that there are entities in creation that have no consciousness at all, yet still act in a regular fashion and in such a way that it is beneficial to their continued existence. Trees, for example...
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...expected and required. * These policies should include conflict of interest and code of ethics section. * Procedures should be updated every year * It is important that employees are taught and trained in the policies so that they learned of their existence and they get a sense of what is expected of them. * It is also important to exercise segregation of duties in the workplace. This means require different parties to perform key parts of the transaction. Specifically, separate the authorization, custody, record keeping and reconciliation duties. In the case, not only is Jessica in charge of the custody and record keeping duty, but there also seems that there isn’t any supervising bank reconciliation activity being performed. There are different controls that this entity could have used to avoid segregation of duties problems experienced that led to the burglary of funds by Jessica. Some of these are: * Implement a bank lockbox system that receives the entity payments. These system would have avoided Jessica or any employee to have to deal with cash by just getting bank notifications of the daily deposits for recording. * If a lockbox system is unavailable/undesirable, two entity’s employees should receive payments, list the payments and generate deposits. * This control could be circumvented by collusion of employees. * Additionally, periodic reconciliations of cash receipts for entities books should be performed...
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...acceptable to clone a human being? Defend your answer against those who would not agree with you. By: Martin Pierce Student Number: 1057404 In cloning for medical-research purposes the development of the embryo is halted as soon as a cluster of stem cells develops. The stem cells are then harvested for research purposes. Due to the fact that no infant is born (in fact the embryo never even gets past the blastocyst stage), it is argued that this type of cloning has nothing to do with human cloning. (Hatch Backs Limited Cloning, 2002). For this reason this paper shall take the statement “to clone a human being” as meaning cloning that results in a fully formed human and not on the cloning of embryos for the purposes of research. The issues around cloning are in the main more ethical than theological and yet most of the objections to cloning come from religious sources, even if those objections are not religious in nature. The first objection is that cloning leaves God out of the process of human creation. This only makes sense though if your definition of God is of a being that plays a role in the birth of each member of our species. Even holding to this view it does not necessarily follow that cloning is comparable to playing God (Brannigan, 2001). How can science prevent a supposedly omnipotent and omnipresent being from doing anything...
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