When we look at the universe and try to understand it’s vastness, we can seem to be very small and insignificant. But when we look in the other direction, to the microscopic world and the tiny world of the sub-atomic we are in turn quite vast. On a logarithmic scale we are somewhere near the middle between the diameter of an electron and the diameter of the known universe.
A human being is by far the most complex thing in the entire cosmos. Whether we believe in a creator or whether we believe in evolutionary development, (or even both), mankind is simply the peak of creation or the zenith of development. No animal, machine, or feature of the natural world comes any where near the intelligence, beauty or complexity of a single one of us.
More than DNA
It has become popular to consider us as merely advanced apes. Biologists like to say that we share 98.5% of our DNA with chimpanzees, (though there are still 40 million differences in the nucleotides that make up our DNA). We also share 60% of our DNA with a banana plant but I am not sure what that proves!
It is my contention that we are more than our DNA which only defines us biologically. We are spiritual beings with the capacity to know our creator and understand the creation and how it works.
Differences
Some of the differences between humans and animals:
- We have language to express not just our needs, but abstract ideas such as love, justice and truth.
- We have the ability to understand the world, the cosmos and the microscopically small.
- We can ask questions such as “Who am I” and “What am I here for”.
- We can be creative in sport, art and music.
- We can appreciate beauty.
- We can know what the difference between what is right and what is wrong, morally and ethically.
- We can make laws to control a just society.
- We can know the reality of a creator God who loves us and then to love God in return, love other people, ourselves and the creation which God has made.
In the image of God
In the book of Genesis chapter one, God created the world, the animals and as a separate act he created mankind in his own image. In chapter two he breathed into man, and the man became a living being. There is something very special about human beings which is not true about animals. We were told to subdue the earth and rule over every other living creature. That is not to say that we should exploit the earth but we were made to rule the planet with care and wisdom and respect the creatures that God has made.
The future of the Universe!
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21 NIV)
God, the creator of everything, loves us and calls us his sons and daughters. This passage reveals the purpose that God has for us , his children. The future of the universe depends on us, human beings, created in his image. If we grasp the full meaning of this passage we can never think that human beings are insignificant again! We cannot overstate the amazing future of mankind and our place in the future of the entire Cosmos.
Compassion and Justice 