What Makes us Human

Charles Pasternak's "What Makes us Human" (2007) examines the distinctive features of human nature through a comprehensive biological and cultural lens, addressing fundamental questions about human uniqueness that bear significantly on debates about consciousness, purpose, and transcendence. The monograph employs a descriptive-analytical methodology that synthesizes findings from evolutionary biology, neuroscience, anthropology, and cultural studies to construct a multifaceted portrait of human distinctiveness.

Pasternak approaches the question of human uniqueness by systematically analyzing various proposed markers of humanity, including language, tool use, artistic expression, moral reasoning, and religious belief. Rather than advocating for a single defining characteristic, he develops a cumulative case that human distinctiveness emerges from the complex interaction of multiple traits, particularly our capacity for symbolic thought, cultural transmission, and conscious reflection on our own existence. His analysis engages directly with consciousness arguments in the God debate by examining how human self-awareness and metacognition relate to religious and philosophical inquiry.

The work situates itself within ongoing dialogues between scientific naturalism and various philosophical traditions concerning human nature. Pasternak carefully navigates between reductionist accounts that minimize human distinctiveness and exceptionalist positions that separate humans entirely from the natural world. He demonstrates how evolutionary processes have produced genuinely novel capacities in humans without requiring appeals to supernatural intervention, while remaining open to the philosophical implications of human consciousness and creativity.

Particularly significant for the God debate is Pasternak's treatment of religious belief as a universal human phenomenon requiring scientific explanation. He explores how the human capacity for transcendent thinking, symbolic representation, and meaning-making naturally gives rise to religious and philosophical systems. This analysis provides important context for understanding why questions about God persist across cultures and historical periods, treating them as expressions of distinctive human cognitive and social capacities rather than dismissing them as mere illusions or affirming them as divine revelations.

The monograph's contribution lies in its balanced synthesis of scientific findings with philosophical sensitivity, offering resources for both naturalistic and theistic interpretations of human uniqueness. By maintaining a descriptive stance while engaging substantive questions about consciousness and transcendence, Pasternak provides a framework for understanding how scientific and religious perspectives on human nature might be brought into productive dialogue rather than inevitable conflict.