What makes us human? What underlying characteristic differentiates humans from animals or Gods? Where does the essence of humanity lie? Initially the answer may seem simple. One might say when comparing animals to humans that they are cruder than humans; they live their life by instinct, they don’t love, they don’t strive to educate themselves and each other - their overriding goal is to survive and make it through the day. Yet, human history and the scientific evidence tracing our human linage back to some ape-like predecessor proves that humans (well, their ancestors) most likely lived that same existence - scavenging for food and looking for a safe and warm place to sleep - subsistence. Hence, it must be something else that separates us from the animals. The case contrasting Gods and humans is a more difficult one. There are the endless arguments for Gods’ immortality and omnipotence as the reason humans and Gods are not one. But, unlike animals Gods’ behavior cannot be observed by first hand account, one either believes or doesn’t believe in them. For the purpose of argument and to present the most factual material possible Gods, in this paper, will be viewed as a human creation, an ideal to aspire to -immortality, perfection, power; all qualities humans admire. Look at the Greek gods, they all had human forms and were supposed to have been very beautiful, to a human a God symbolizes perfection something all humans what to achieve. It was when humans started to conglomerate together, the first signs of society, that the idea of Gods first arose, hence it is our society, our relationship with each other that makes us human. Of course there are many other characteristics that are considered human traits, like love, faith, our obsession with time, but these are byproducts of society.Society is the key to our humanity. Looking back in history 1,500 years before Homer, in societies we might consid...
