Transcript

Edmund: This is a tardigrade. Maybe you recognize their barrel-shaped body from their appearance in National Geographic or a Marvel movie.

But one of the things that makes these strange life forms so amazing is the discovery that these little creatures can survive in extreme environments. They’ve been discovered surviving cold temperatures close to absolute zero like -200 degrees Celsius, or hot temperatures far above boiling like 150 degrees Celsius. They can survive extreme radiation, intense pressure, and recently, we’ve discovered they can even survive in the vacuum of space.

But let’s be honest: as amazing as tardigrades are, they aren’t anything like humans. Despite physical inferiority to many other creatures, humans have become the top species on Earth. Our adaptability and our innovation compensate for our vulnerability and slow reproduction, enabling us to thrive in a variety of environments and overcome challenges. 

Humans have survived and flourished in almost every environment on Earth, developing into the most complex and sophisticated group of creatures on the planet. But what is that unique something, that special “spark,” that makes human life so much more unique than tardigrades?

The historian Yuval Noah Harari tackles this question in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. He proposes several key factors that contributed to the success of Homo sapiens compared to other animals. One of these factors is self-awareness. For example, you are self-aware that you’re watching this video right now as a distinct person and thinking about what you are experiencing. This gives us the unique ability to perceive ourselves as part of a larger narrative involving more than just ourselves or even our close family members. Our ability to cooperate in large-scale societies stems from this ability to have abstract thought, imagination, and a sense of self.

But this goes deeper than just an awareness of ourselves as physical beings moving through the world. Harari explains that our self-awareness is unique because we have this special ability to have “reflective consciousness”. This is the ability to examine our thoughts and feelings and motivations introspectively. If you’ve ever been in a relationship, you know just how important it is to answer the question, “Why did you do that?”

You see, humans have a special ability to choose how they act. When someone chooses to act in a way that is very far outside the norm, we say this person is acting in a way that is “inhumane.”

And this is where we must depart from science and a purely biological, materialist view of the human person if we’re going to seriously question what makes us unique. There is a special spark that sets the human person apart from all other creatures. Another one of those special somethings is our ability to express ourselves. We engage in artistic and creative endeavors that express to others our thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Art, literature, and music provide outlets for expressing our unique personality.. It’s like the artist is saying, “I am unique and unrepeatable, and I want someone else to know my experience and understand me.”

There is this special part of being a human that makes us feel we are not all the same, and it has nothing to do with our physical bodies, but it seems to transcend matter and our biology. We have this sense that we are each a unique, individual, human person. For example, if one nation decided another nation committed a grave wrong against it, and chose a random person from that enemy nation to execute as a scapegoat, we understand that this human is violated as a person. This person is a ‘someone,’ not a ‘something’ that can just stand in place of an entire nation. 

And if you see someone treat a cashier or waiter with disrespect, using them like a servant or a tool and only concerned to get what they want out of the interaction, you might be tempted to say, “Hey, this isn’t just a waiter, this is a person you’re speaking to.” You see, we feel deep down there is something beyond the physical and biological creature in front of us. There is some special spark all humans have that sets them apart and demands they be treated with dignity.

That’s why when hundreds of people named “Josh” all convene at AirPark in Lincoln, Nebraska for the viral internet event called the “Josh fight,”  they may all share the same name, but each Josh is unique and unrepeatable. You are unique and unrepeatable. It’s estimated that over 100 billion people have ever lived on earth so far. And no other person that’s ever lived is quite like you.

If scientists were able to create a perfect biological clone of you at the exact age you are, you would still feel there is something about “you,” something immaterial, that’s missing from this clone. Each human person is gifted with this special spark. And it’s especially seen in our ability to choose to be in relationship with one another. 

The ability to choose to be in these relationships, as unique, unrepeatable persons makes us unlike every other creature on earth. Plato once said “The human soul is a candle lit from a divine flame.” Whether we’re interacting with artificial intelligence or looking for life on other planets, there is this special spark we sense in the human person that sets us apart. This special spark seems too unique, special, and mysterious to fully grasp or define. These unique qualities: our ability to reason, our freedom to choose, our sense of personhood, and our capacity for relationship, all seem unique and outside the realm of the physical world. Those that believe in God believe these unique qualities could only come from something like God.

Why do we have this gift? Where did it come from? And who put it there?