What does it mean to be human? The immensity of this question can be boiled down to an old principle proposed by the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, which he attributed to fellow philosopher Baruch Spinoza: “Determination is negation.”
But negation of what?
First, of God. In the beginning there was God — the source of infinite action. In the Western tradition, man has no purpose without God. For Christians, man was created in God's image; for Jews, God is a good worker who lends a hand. For atheists (who, let's not forget, are Judeo-Christians in their own way), man's purpose is in part to topple God from his throne. If this isn't a complete negation of God, then it at least limits his power, as humans come to occupy the space formerly reserved for God alone.
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