1. Don’t bring harm to anyone in any shape or form.
2. Help out whenever you can.
3. Respect everyone’s right to life, liberty, and to own property.
4. Fear is only proof that you have a soul; don’t let it stunt your growth.
This is my starting point. I want to talk about humanity. I want to say a few things—well, in this case, write a few things—about where we are, where we were, and where we need to get to. We have to start from the beginning, don’t we? But before we go on, I’d like to be clear: before you continue reading, please understand that you have to leave behind all that your religion has taught you and just take this journey with a blank slate. If you go through this piece with your traditional principles, you might not like what you find—or you might. Nobody knows anymore in this post-modern time.
CREATION:
1. A lotus flower grew from Lord Vishnu’s navel with Brahma sitting on it. Brahma separated the flower into three parts—the heavens, the Earth, and the sky. Out of loneliness, Brahma split himself into two to create a male and a female. From this male and female, all beings were created.
2. The Yoruba believe that a human person consists of a body, which is physical, and a soul, which is spiritual. At creation, Yoruba mythology has it that Olodumare worked in collaboration with some gods to bring the human person into existence.
3. The god, IGWE, and the goddess, ALA, whose domain consisted of the sky and earth, created mankind. ALA and IGWE created eight humans, four males and four females. In creating mankind, IGWE and ALA used four kinds of material: sticks from the Ofo tree as bones, and clay and chalk for flesh.
4. Humans were created with water by the female side of God; the life force came from the male side. There is a pantheon of gods, including Asase, the earth goddess. The earth had been created by Nyame, and humans populated that earth.
5. The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Because God breathed life into Adam, Christians believe that they have a non-physical, spiritual dimension that connects them with God.
I have presented to you five different versions of the story of how humans were created. If you had gotten to this page with your traditional principles, you are probably livid by now, but you have come this far—why not finish the book? Get ready; my next question might sting a bit. Which of these five stories do you think is more ridiculous? Don’t get angry; your programming is in control of your choices right now. I see Christians saying it’s God’s version, even though Moses wrote the Book of Genesis, and he wasn’t even a witness. Uhhhmmm, I wonder where he got the gist from. In my opinion, they are all equally ridiculous, but before you jump into supporting or disregarding evolution (science), I’m willing to say it’s ridiculous too. Though I lean towards scientific research, I still believe that in a proper world, every idea, regardless of its origin, should bear the same amount of value; they should always be part of the conversation. It is not cynical to give value to every notion, every idea, every concept that is a product of the human mind. It isn’t cynical at all. Logical is a strong word, so I will just go with “equitable.” To give similar value and attention to every established notion is equitable. In a world where all these volumes of creation stories bear the same value, it provokes respect for those who carry these beliefs with them, those who identify with these varying stories of the origin of the human race, of our humanity. We must understand that these stories might speak to our beginnings, but we have to disconnect ourselves from these translations we have given to these stories that fuel our stereotypes and prejudices towards one another. These stories shouldn’t govern who we are or who we choose to be. Our humanity should be that compass for us. We don’t need instructions from divinities to be decent human beings; we only need our ability to reason and rationalize. I guess that would mean that we need to define humanity. What does it mean to be human?
Definition:
Too many times we focus on race and not the humanity of who we are. We must leave color in its place before this is taken too far. When there is a crime against another, we always focus on the tone of the skin.
We should treat people like brothers, as our beauty is from deep within. We are all part of the human race; that should matter. We have to learn to share this space so that no more life will shatter. Our color is only skin deep, as we all bleed red inside. No more families should have to weep because of ignorance and pride. Everyone’s life is just too fragile; we need to treat each other fairly. We all should have the inner will to handle humanity with care.
Humanity with Care by Jon M. Nelson.
1. Humans, from a scientific standpoint, are bipedal mammals commonly referred to as “Homo sapiens.”
2. From a theological view, the Christian doctrine of humanity sees the human person as made in God’s image, either a man or a woman by God’s making, fallen through Adam’s historical sin, formed for vocation unto God, and redeemable in and through the God-man, Jesus Christ.
Hinduism assumes the existence of a spiritual soul in human beings, open to transcendence and called to attain spiritual union with the absolute. Hinduism explicitly holds that human beings possess a capacity for moral behavior; it emphasizes moral values such as truthfulness, generosity, and disinterested action.
3. According to Webster’s English Dictionary, humans are simply described as a “person.” I guess we have to define what a person is, but I promise you we will just keep going in circles, so here is my advice: everything that can open its mouth to talk to you, that has feelings, bias, and a soul—these are all fundamental structures of a human being. There is more, of course, but it’s a complex question that gets varying answers every time it comes up in conversation. But the point still remains that if it can talk, walk on two feet, and is conscious, it’s probably a human. Now times are changing, so mad dogs will soon be identifying as humans, but they would need to learn to communicate the way we do.
These definitions are not conflicting in any way. If anything, they are closer to overlapping than conflicting. They exclude no one based on race, religion, or nationality, which is another thing that worries me about how we relate to each other because our traditional institutions and principles programmed us to. If the Bible doesn’t divide people based on race or ethnicities, were the Europeans reading a separate Bible? If the Quran did not divide people based on religion, ethnicity, or culture, where did “infidels” crawl out from? If Hinduism takes pride in the human race, why persecute Muslims in India? Bottom line, either these religions, gods, and deities aren’t real, playing some sort of sociopathic game, or we are just interpreting their words as we see fit, to fit our needs. We are all collective members of the human race; we all eat, sleep, struggle, fight, and consume space. Male or female, we are more than rays of light bouncing through the space-time continuum. We are humans with a soul, with fear, anger, joy, and so on… "WE ARE ALL HUMANS."
Where we were, are, and need to get to:
Dark is white, white is dark
Dark white, white dark
Oh no, I'm so confused
Among you, whom to choose
Ain't choosing white
Ain't choosing dark
Wanna choose the reflection of inner spark
It ain't dark
It ain't white
It's human
It's human
Human by Juhi Vaishnav.
At the very beginning, I gave a list of rules that, in my opinion, are adequate to govern human society. These aren’t rules governed or instituted by divinity but born of the human ability to reason. Now, 3000 years ago, killing and pillaging was pretty normal. The idea of liberty wasn't alive back then, but the idea of property was. The right to life was young and iffy. The idea of humanity or the definition of humanity was still a bit crude as powerful people tended to segregate slaves as inhuman. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that there was a time when a different value was placed on human life. Even with the scope of security that empires like the Romans and Greeks provided, one could easily get away with murder, in the sense that people didn't really give two fucks. When Alexander the Great's army met that of Darius on the battlefield, the sight would have been of over 120,000 men with the sole purpose of ending each other's lives. I'm not sure if that can happen again today—to have 80,000 soldiers on one side and another 80,000 on the other and have them come at each other with M16s. I really doubt if that will happen in post-modern times. This is where we were: a bunch of savage, war-ravaged animals that thought the only way to be rich and powerful was to kill and take. There are laws to protect one's individual right to property, liberty, and life. This isn't to say those rights aren't violated from time to time, but it speaks to our social evolution, though we might not be evolving fast enough—at least not at the rate we This isn't to say those rights aren't violated from time to time, but it speaks to our social evolution, though we might not be evolving fast enough—at least not at the rate we should. This brings us to where we are: The best phrase to describe the state of the world today is "a colossal fucking disaster," in the absence of a heavier phrase. The world has never been more divided. We keep coming up with new tags, new forms of identity, and then start to form derogatory terms towards these new tags. Every individual is completely different from the next, and for some unknown reasons, we have decided to lean into our differences, allowing them to build up negative, crude, and unevolved notions towards each other. Different could mean diverse, could mean colorful, could mean change or starting afresh, but human society seems to always find itself afraid of change, diversity, or cultural richness, even though it makes life beautiful.
Where we need to be:
I'm baffled that most of us are content with the way the world is today. I'm worried that the idea of being human, the idea of recognizing another person's humanity, though new, might quickly fade away. It is only within the parameters of our modern history that slavery was abolished, that women's rights became part of the conversation. It was within this century that we fought two terrible wars, and as we speak, there are at least 40 separately but intertwined conflicts going on in the world. Our evolution is slow, at least socially, as I mentioned before. Where we need to get to is away from all of these—impromptu wars, racial discrimination, gender inequality, sexual designations, tribal conflicts, and so on. Where we need to get to is ahead. Maybe Elon Musk needs to look to space for the survival of the human race because everyone else has decided to let either God, Allah, or Shiva blow up the world. The fact that this is a generally accepted doom baffles me; hence where we need to be is a collective push for the survival of the human race.
Our African ancestors said it best: "Ubuntu." I am because you are—humanity to others as it is done unto us. "I'm what I am because we are who we are." Let's remember that none of us is bigger than our society.
Kwabena.
The Artwork:
The art pieces displayed here come from various creators, featuring a blend of AI-generated images and works uploaded by incredible artists I discovered on Pinterest. Yes, I said Pinterest! I hope you see this as a sign of respect for your work, and I trust that my thoughts expressed herein portray your art in the right light. Thank you all!
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