We come from a blue planet light-years away
Where everything multiplies at an amazing rate
We're out here in the universe buying real estate
Hope we haven't gotten here too late
[chorus:]
We're humans from earth
We're humans from earth
You have nothing at all to fear
I think we're gonna like it here
We're looking for a planet with atmosphere
Where the air is fresh and the water clear
With lots of sun like you have here
Three or four hundred days a year
[chorus]
Bought Manhattan for a string of beads
Brought along some gadgets for you to see
Here's a crazy little thing we call TV
Do you have electricity?
[chorus]
I know we may seem pretty strange to you
But we got know-how and a golden rule
We're here to see manifest destiny through
Ain't nothing we can't get used to
We're humans from earth
We're humans from earth
You have nothing at all to fear...
"Humans from Earth" by T-Bone Burnett
on the album The Criminal Under My Own Hat (Sony Music Entertainment: 1992)
What does it mean to be human? If we ever encounter other life forms in our exploration of space (as imagined in this song, or in the recent film Avatar) then we would need to define ourselves in respect to those life forms, identifying ways in which we are alike and ways in which we are different. We do define ourselves in respect to other life forms on our own planet; this field of study is called Biological Anthropology. Most often, Biological Anthropology compares humans to the "higher primates" with which we share the most in common biologically, to determine what sets us apart. Erect posture, a high level of cooperation, control over our impulses, the ability to predict what another human is thinking, and the ability of two human beings to focus on one subject at the same time (and know that the other is focusing on it, as in teaching a lesson) are some of the qualities Biological Anthropology identifies as setting us apart from animals, including higher primates such as gorillas and chimpanzees.
Other branches of Anthropology give other answers as to what it means to be human. Linguistic anthropology focuses on our use of language, the complexity and similarities that all human languages share, the way we develop more specific words for things we experience a lot (like the many Eskimo words for "snow"), and they way we "switch" the way we speak when changing contexts (e.g. using more slang or profanity with peers than with parents). Cultural Anthropology studies different human cultures to understand the diversity of cultural expressions, but also identify specific practices that all human cultures share (such as family groupings, religious practices, and having some system of arbitrating differences between members of the tribe). Archaeological Anthropology looks at uniquely human practices such as farming or city-building and traces how they have developed over the centuries and millenia.
Christian anthropology, while it may touch on some of these same issues, focuses primarily on how humans are related to God, and how that impacts our relationships with other creatures--human and non-human. Genesis 1 and 2 tell us that, like the animals, we were created "out of the ground," we were made "male and female," and we were commanded to "Be fruitful and multiply." Unlike the animals, we are told God created us "in his image" and "after his likeness," God breathed into the first human's nostrils the breath of life and he became "a living soul," and humans were given "dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
That "dominion," to some degree, seems to have been lost in the Fall (the fruitful ground now bears thorns and thistles, and enmity now exists between humans and some animals), as was the "likeness" (if, with Irenaeus and others, we interpret that to mean the moral qualities of God). But the image remained intact. When Jesus is asked about paying taxes, he says, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" (i.e., the coins which bear his image) "and to God the things which are God's" (meaning YOURSELVES, as you bear God's image).
What precisely is meant by "the image of God" is not explicitly stated in scripture. The Psalmist himself seems somewhat baffled; compared to the moon, the stars, and all of the heavens, he asks, "what is man that you are mindful of him/and the son of man that you care for him?" (Ps. 8:4). It somehow seems absurd after looking at a tree, a mountain, a sunset, or the gas giant Jupiter to say that humans are the "crowning achievement" of God's creation! "Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [angels, or--as some commentators say--God himself]/and crowned him with glory and honor./You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;/you have put all things under his feet" (Ps. 8:5-6). It is only after the creation of man and woman that God says his creation is "very good" (Genesis 1:31). Whatever the reason (and, as with any love relationship, the reasons are not always clear), God thinks rather highly of us.
Primarily, it seems, we are created in God's image so that we can have a relationship with him. If you love someone, it is your chief desire that that person will love you back, and do so out of his or her own free will. So, we were given the ability to love, and the ability to choose. And if we are free to choose the right thing, we are also free to choose the wrong thing...
And that is what happened in the Fall. What the fruit was we don't know--nor do we need to know--but it was forbidden, and it was the one thing that was. Why did God put it there, in the middle of the garden? So every day Adam and Eve walked past it, they could show their faithfulness to God. But one day they stopped, listened to the snake, and chose to go against God's command. And all the tragedies known to humankind are the fruit of that initial act of rebellion.
Paul, quoting from various Old Testament writers, sums up the human condition post-fall like this:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
--Romans 3:10-18
Our only hope at this stage is in the love of God and the power of God to create us anew. And this is the Gospel: the "seed of the woman" (promised in Gen. 3:15) has come to bruise the serpent's head and set us free from the power of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2), and he has made us "new creatures" (2 Cor. 5:17).
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