Human nature: philosophical perspectives and definitions

¶ … Genesis story is perhaps the most important story of the Bible, it details the creation of the world and the specifically the creation of human beings. In Genesis, God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness, to have dominion overall wild animals" (Genesis 1:26). Human nature as represented by Genesis is that we as human beings are made in the "likeness" of God and therefore, human nature dictates that we are different from animals because of our ability to rationalize. Human nature therefore, is also the nature of God Himself, we as human beings have a special place and role in the world compared to the rest of creation.

There are two basic elements to our humanity as described by Genesis. The first is that we have the ability to rationalize and think for ourselves. Genesis argues that human beings were created in God's image in order for us to be able to choose and conceive of the notion of freedom. Human beings by nature have the ability to conceive of theoretical concepts and therefore formulate decisions. We were given this understanding in order to allow us to conceive choices specific to obedience of God's will. All humans have the ability to choose to accept or reject God, thus choice can be conceived as obedience to God's will or disobedience. However, our ability to rationalize and our understanding of God and his plans are incomplete. Genesis explains that we were made to be imperfect and therefore cannot expect our conclusions to be accurate. Our ability to rationalize and choose is understood within Hebrew text as our ability to choose to follow the yetzer tov or the yetzer ra, or between our good impulse and our evil impulse.

Another aspect of human nature is that we were created to be special within this world and have dominion over the rest of creation. Genesis explains that God gave us a special degree of power over nature itself. Thus, we would have the ability to manipulate our environment unique to human beings. However, just like animals we are all made the same as any other creature, the first human was made of "dust from the ground" (Genesis 2:7). Rather the only thing that separates us from other creatures is that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Thus we are separated from the rest of the world, but at the same time we are made of the same base materials as other beings. Genesis's basic point is that human beings are very different from the rest of creation in our higher ability for thought. God made us to have fellowship with Him, and therefore we were created in order to ultimately be able to sit within his presence. This is the fundamental difference between humans and animals that God has created us in order to live within his domain and share in his fellowship.