The human mind is an amazing thing. It processes billions and billions of sensory data points, regulates the functions of the body, and through its capacity for rigorous logic and creative innovation, allows us to understand our world. This creative capacity alone is what sets us apart from the other animals. Our intuition allows us to glimpse the patterns that form the universe, and our reason allows us to gather and arrange these snapshots of insight into a collage of understanding. From this understand comes knowledge, which allows us to evolve from passive observers affected by the world around us, to active workers who can shape it as we see fit.
The accumulated knowledge of mankind gives us access to the powers of the gods. We can split the atom, explore the cosmos, invent the world's wonders, heal the sick, and instantaneously interact with anyone, anywhere on the planet. Science rejects miracles, but it is the tool that allows us to perform them every day.
But even with all this power and potential, the world is place of immense and terrible suffering. The greatest wonders of mankind are easily exceeded by the horrors he inflicts upon himself and others. We have the power of gods, but lacking their wisdom, we are all to frequently blinded by our animal nature. This deficiency is not insurmountable, but overcoming it is no trivial task. The fate of humanity is caught up in this eternal struggle between godliness and beastliness.
The dual nature of man has it's flaws, but it also has its merits. We live in a material world, not a divine one, and our animal nature is what gives us the drive to assure our survival. We eat, work, sleep, and procreate, all because these are the daily necessities of creating and sustaining life. If we devoted all of our time to the pursuit of knowledge and the divine, and ignored the callings of our earthly nature, we would die. We may have access to the power of gods, but we are still mortal and our ability to live comes at a cost. If we do not pay those costs, death is the only possible outcome.
We must accept our limitations as human beings, and accept the reality of our animal nature. But in doing this, we can not forget that we are also partly divine. Our problems come when we give ourselves over to beast hood and the pleasures that come from satisfying our earthly callings, and abandon the heavenly callings that are the reason for our existence.
