There have been quite a few discussions among us humans about what it is that makes us human.
The scientific community liked use of tools, then found monkeys, apes, and even birds that used tools of one sort or another. They liked language, but recorded whale songs and taught a gorilla named Koko sign language. And then we found our human DNA is shared to some degree with every living creature on earth.
There isn't a single religious community, since they tend to fight among themselves a lot. But generally, most religious communities say that every human has an immortal soul. Some say that this soul can be reincarnated into other forms of life, and they don't kill them to eat them. Some say that humans alone have immortal souls, and they don't mind killing things.
Full disclosure: I don't like killing things, but I do like a nice steak, and having looked into a cow's eyes once or twice I feel that cows are to some degree just very large vegetables.
But I have my own opinion. What uniquely makes us human is our amazing imaginations.
We can quite easily travel down from molecules to atoms, inside the atomic nucleus and then inside nuclear particles to envision quarks and gluons and whatever, only to reverse course into outer space above the earth and beyond the solar system to outside the Milky Way galaxy and far beyond to see thousands, millions, billions of galaxies filling the night sky. See how easy that was? Isn't that amazing?
Our ability to dream, to view things that might happen or happened long ago or will happen is what makes us different from other forms of life on Earth. In my opinion, anyway.
Full disclosure: I'm an agnostic, which is a Greek word meaning I don't know if there is a God or not. But I think the Bible has gotten one thing backwards. God did not create man in his own image. Once upon a time, some male tribal patriarch created the Biblical God in HIS own image, probably after getting in a fight with one of his wives or teenage sons.
Our human ability to imagine the future, like most things, is a mixed blessing.
Today, I'm struggling to believe that there is a positive future for this world. Human predators have done enormous damage to the economic and political structure of this great nation, and are unrepentantly seeking to regain power to cause more harm. Critical problems - climate change, energy policy, Orwellian media, insane military spending - are going unaddressed because various powerful interests have corrupted our democracy itself.
So I'm just going to try to escape the nightmare with imagination.
I can imagine a world in which people realize that peace can only be achieved by seeking justice, and that seeking security with violence and weapons is an endless, hopeless road into darkness.
I can imagine a world in which people realize that protecting their own rights and freedoms means tolerance of other people's rights and freedoms, and determined defense of those same rights for every human being.
I can imagine a world better than this one.
And, at the start of a new year, as days lengthen and warm, I can hope that this year is the beginning of a better, brighter future for us all.
