Human Identity

The Human Identity:


In the world of nature there are four major kingdoms, namely, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the human kingdom. Beginning with the mineral kingdom and progressing through to the human kingdom it can be observed that each is an evolutionary step up the ladder and contains all the qualities of its predecessor but with added new and unique qualities all of its own. The vegetable kingdom contains all the qualities of the mineral kingdom from which it derives its existence but has the added qualities of growth, flexibility, and softness but is still rooted in the soil from which it derives its nourishment. The animal, which feeds on both mineral and vegetable contains both of their qualities but with the added qualities of freedom of movement, the senses of sight, hearing smell and touch, and the ability to vocalize. The human kingdom contains all of the other three kingdoms but with the added qualities of a moral conscience and a sense of shame, a belief in a power outside itself that is responsible for all creation, the power of discovery by which it unearths and unlocks the jealously guarded secrets of nature and then creatively employs them to its own advantage, the intellectual capacity to distinguish between right and wrong and good and evil, and the capacity for compassion whereby it can both empathize and express pity and concern for the plight of all other living organisms.

The human kingdom is the crowning point of creation for it contains all the qualities of nature’s kingdoms and yet possesses qualities of which nature itself is bereft. Where in all of nature, except in the human species, can be found the attributes of justice, mercy, compassion, a belief in God, a belief in an afterlife, altruism, and the ability to discover the secrets of nature and then turn that discovery upon nature itself? Man was created by God but he was created to evolve as are all the kingdoms of nature. Nothing is static but merely has the appearance of being so. All matter in whatever form it is clothed either progresses or regresses, composes or decomposes, advances or retreats, grows or withers. All other species in the animal kingdom are helplessly chained to the environmental dictates and whim of nature. All, that is, except man. It is true and self-evident that his body must conform to the dictates of nature, but only his body, not his conscious, self-aware, intellectually penetrating mind.

The bird must evolve feathers and wings in order to gain flight but man discovers the laws of aeronautics and builds machines outside himself that carry him higher, further, and faster than any bird can hope to achieve. The land animals are superior to man in every physical aspect, that is to say, they are faster, have better sight, more acute hearing, and greater reflexes. Man, however, has no real need of these physical attributes for he has a quality by which he excels any and all of them combined. He builds vehicles that are faster and stronger than any land animal. He constructs weapons that can bring down game at distances unimagined by the cleverest animal. He builds instruments that can see farther and more clearly than the sharpest sighted predatory bird. He constructs ships that float upon the water and penetrate its depths without ever having to change his physical form any further.

He develops a device that can process information at the speed of light and do in seconds what all the brains of the world combined cannot do in months. The physical form of man has evolved only until it reached that point of development whereby those inherent qualities by which it is in the ‘Image and likeness of God’ were finally able to emerge and exert their irresistible impact upon the further direction of his progress. At this point in time, however long that may be, he became aware of a Creator outside of himself, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and right and wrong, and by virtue of these emerging qualities was forever cast out of the Eden of ignorance and was destined to assume dominion over nature.

Whatsoever in nature fails to progress ultimately dies, that is to say, the form dies since the constituent elements that combine to produce that form are indestructible and simply will eventually recombine in some other progressive and evolving form. The human body dies for it is formed from nature, survives in obedience to the dictates of nature, and eventually returns to it as its components decompose, however, those unique and distinct qualities responsible for its form and which are the motivating force that have shaped it so that it best expresses their needs are immortal and indestructible, are not a product of matter and can exist outside of matter and, hence, will survive in some other sphere of existence or, put another way, will transfer from this world of God to some other world of God appropriate to the unabated emerging needs by which it is in the ‘Image and Likeness of God’. God is infinite, the worlds of God are infinite, and the progress of the human soul is equally infinite. Were it not so, the entire universe, all of its wonders and as yet undiscovered miracles, all of the abundance of life forms within it, and humanity itself would be a pointless and useless exercise in futility. We would have life without purpose, a universe without cause, death without meaning, struggle without justice, sacrifice without reward, creation without destiny, intellect without direction, and a God without love, compassion, or forgiveness and a God unable to finish what He started. Such a concept, of course, is ludicrous, preposterous, and flies in the face of all science and religion and the manifest evidence to which they are both privy. The more the human species progresses and evolves the more certain does it become evident that he possesses qualities that extend far beyond the frontiers of nature and that the extent of these qualities show no limitation or boundaries.

It is self-evident and an undeniable fact, which even the most rudimentary human intellect can grasp and cope, that there is only one human species even though it may be clothed in superficial differences that have arisen due to the necessary adaptation to environmental surroundings. They can be tall, short, thin or pudgy. They can have red, blonde, black, or gray hair. They may have blue, brown, gray or green eyes. They may have white, yellow, brown, red, or black skin. They may speak a different language, clothe themselves in different robes, follow a different prophet, abide by a different set of Sacred Scriptures, view the universe and its mysteries from a different point of view, choose a different course in the pursuit of their individual and collective destinies, adhere to the Creationist theory or believe in the Evolutionary theory. They may believe that all life ends with the termination of the human body or they may believe in the infinite nature of the soul and the inevitability of an afterlife. They may be pro-life or they may be pro-choice, but in each and every case, without exception, they are all distinctly human and represent a single species having been created by and evolved from a Single Source.

The differences, out of which arise, racism, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, war and bloodshed, cruelty and hatred, have no basis in reality and are nothing more than the vain and superstitious attempts by the individual or special groups to elevate their own status and advance the conviction, either in their own eyes or in the estimation of others, that they are a unique and distinct breed and are superior to all others from whom they intellectually, politically, or ethnically differ. And yet, even this perverse group, out of which so much pain and suffering, division and segregation, slavery and poverty have ensued cannot, even with the combined weight of their most eminent and scholarly proponents, argue either with scientific evidence or cogent reasoning that those they most consider vile and beneath their contempt are not in fact members of the human species. The pitiful and mean spirited attempts to advance their own cause at the expense of others is, without doubt, the most ill-fated, reprehensible, and shameful activity to which the noble human mind and spirit can be addressed and serves only to advertise how little they have allowed themselves to rise out of the Eden of ignorance.

To be human does not mean to clothe ourselves in the attributes and imitate the activities of the lower order of animals to which we are inherently superior by virtue of our intellectual and spiritual gifts. To be human means to cultivate and till the human soul so that in the fertile soil of the human spirit the seeds planted there by which we are in the ‘Image and Likeness’ of our Creator may successfully germinate and eventually blossom into tall, straight, and healthy trees from which the fruit and flowers, it is our destiny to bring forth, may populate the earth and the universe and express the very finest qualities by which we are distinguished as human.

The purpose and destiny of the human soul is to journey through the infinite worlds of God, ever ascending and expanding until it has attained its full potential and, in that sanctified condition, to rejoin with and to take its place at the feet of its Creator in a state of self-effacement that most befittingly expresses its unconditional adoration. This condition and state cannot in this lifetime be either imagined or comprehended due to the limitations imposed upon it by this earthly existence, nonetheless, this sphere of existence is replete with overwhelming evidence that attests to this journey not the least of which is the human intellect and its insatiable appetite for knowledge and its relentless drive to penetrate and unlock the secrets of both the known universe and whatever lies beyond.

Every act of racism, every thought of discrimination, every gesture of bigotry, every sign of prejudice, every manifestation of hatred, every expression of cruelty, every example of abuse, every display of unkindness, every intent to injure, every impulse of greed, every show of contempt, every look of mockery, every moment of scorn, every denial of justice, every suppression of equity, every refusal of fairness, every wish for tragedy, every desire for grief, every nudge to despair, every step that crushes, every attempt to humiliate, every urge to shame, and every lust that rapes, rises like an unassailable obstacle that impedes the progress and retards the advance of the soul on its journey to the destiny for which it was created.

This world is neither the beginning nor the end but is simply one stage in an infinity of stages through which the soul must pass on its journey. God does not make mistakes nor does He fail to reward praiseworthy conduct and punish the froward. Retribution is built into the system He created which is perfect because He created it and it is without need of His direct intervention. We see inequity because we view all actions as if they begin and end exclusively in this world which is but one in an infinite sea of worlds. Retribution is built into the system and is inherent in the makeup of the soul, which by its very nature will, if not in this world, exact its own punishment upon itself in one or several of those to follow. This is truly the law of karma. This is the process of re-incarnation by which a soul is born into another world after it leaves its present one in a state and condition appropriate to its conduct and subject to the rewards or punishments it has earned. The soul does not return to the world it has left but continually advances through all the worlds of God but, let there be no mistake, retribution is certain and unavoidable and there can be no escaping the consequences of actions in a preceding world. Good begets good and evil begets evil and this is a universal spiritual law from which there is no escape and which expresses itself throughout the infinite worlds of God.

What greater or more precious gift could God possible extend to man than that He should create humankind in His own ‘Image and likeness’, confer upon him this inestimable honor and endow him with such incalculable treasures. To fail to employ these abilities and to refuse to act in accordance with their promptings is an act of betrayal and ingratitude of the highest order that will activate a form of retribution fitted to the degree of the transgression. Whether that retribution is enacted in this world or the next is not the issue. What is without doubt and without exception is that retribution will be forthcoming and the soul will bemoan its plight, wail at its neglect and intransigence, and weep at the loss that its reprehensible behaviour has cost. To fail to recognize and to act upon these self-evident truths and follow only the sordid and self-serving promptings of one’s base animal instincts is to condemn oneself to the recoil of spiritual laws that can be bent only so far before enacting a payment in return. This is a universal truth inherent in the design that assures that the soul arrives at its inevitable destination in a state and condition appropriate to the presence of its Creator.