WHO AM I?

One of the biggest questions of life has to do with human identity: Who am I? Are we merely animals or do we have a unique nature and destiny? What is our value and significance?

John Cottingham in his philosophical essay, IN SEARCH OF THE SOUL, reviews all that has been written about human beings as embodied spirits rather than as merely higher animals. He refutes materialistic scientists such as Sheldon Cooper of the television series The Big Bang Theory or the celebrated astrophysicist and atheist Stephen Hawking who describes the human race as “just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in he outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies.” Instead Cottingham sees us as having a spiritual identity connected with two ideas.

The first idea is that of meaning. He has written more extensively about this in his earlier book, The Meaning of Life. He argues that we have a longing for immortality linked to the hope of eternal significance. Loss of this hope in an eternal dimension of meaning leads to a sense of void and futility in our contemporary secular culture.

The second is the idea of accountability – the idea that all our actions in this life have ultimate moral significance subject to judgment. We are moral agents that can act well or badly. We face an eternal judge of supreme power and love to whom we must render an account of ourselves, and before whom none of the secrets of our souls are hidden. In other words our lives do matter and we cannot escape a final reckoning by denying the existence of our Creator.

There is a transcendent dimension to life which corresponds to our deepest longings. There is a goal to our lifelong striving for meaning and purpose to fulfill what is best in our nature, to realize our true selves. We are on a voyage of self-discovery and search for completion in virtue of our consciousness and the awareness of our subjective minds that acknowledges an objective reality beyond us that is God.

Jesus said, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)