I Think I Am

“What is man that you are mindful of him?” Whether or not you believe in the existence of a divine being, the question begs for an answer. If, as some say, self-awareness is nothing more than a biochemical reaction across a chance arrangement of neural connections, why does it happen at all. What’s the point? Why be sentient only to die and vanish away with the cessation of biological function?

Thoughtlessness may be something we playfully accuse others of, but the reality of it is not a state we can accept for ourselves. To cease to exist; to be without thought, emotion or senses is beyond the capacity of imagination. We may say life ends with biological function, but we don’t believe it. The notion that the essential us; our thought or our soul whichever you prefer, transcends death is deeply rooted in our make-up.

We need not experience our own death to know it is not the end. I’ve watched  complete strangers “shuffle off” the mortal coil and in their passing found evidence enough to persuade me of a continuing existence of the individual. So, if death is not the end, what lies beyond?

For me the simplest solution is that God lies beyond. God blew into Man the breath of life and Man became a living soul is the way Genesis tells it. Inherent in the breath of God is life. His essence created an everlasting existence; the spark that will not die; the soul of Man.

God gave Man, and among the Creation, Man alone, the breath of life. He gave it for a purpose. That purpose is fellowship between Creator and creation. Man’s refusal to accept the existence of God or His purpose does not diminish the truth of it. Neither does it remove from the hand of God the right to reward fidelity and punish rejection.

Reaching for the right to decide good and evil left Man cursed, but did not take from us the everlasting life bestowed by creation. Man is cursed and everlasting; a pitiable combination. However, it is only in light of this fallen state of Man that Christianity makes sense. Christianity is based on Man’s need for a savior. If there is nothing to be saved from or saved for, what is the point of self-awareness? Moreover, what is the sense of claiming we are anything less than perfect?