The poet asked God, “What is man that you are mindful of him?”

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Close your eyes and imagine yourself alone at night, outside the city limits, where nothing separates you from the star-studded sky but an expanse of clear, crisp air. In the quiet stillness, you feel more aware of yourself and begin to ponder your place in the universe.

As far as we know, human beings are the only creatures on earth that possess a brain developed to such an extent that they can ask this question of themselves: What exactly am I—what is a human being? We can hardly imagine a dog reflecting on its “dogness.” But we, as people, are compelled to ask and answer the significant question of humanness, for the way we live our lives comes, in large part, from the answer that we give.

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