Article February 26, 2001 Issue

Who do you think you are?

Is your identity tied to your body?

By Mark Swinney

So many of them were missing noses! My family and I were visiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And as we walked through arched halls overflowing with ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman marble statues, we couldn't keep from giggling quietly. Marble is very durable, but many statues had deteriorated over the centuries. Hands and feet, arms and legs—but mostly noses—had disappeared.

Marble sculptures of bodies are much harder than human bodies. But they certainly don't last forever. Looking at those pieces of art in the museum reminded me of something from the Bible: "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more" (Ps. 103:15, 16).

That doesn't sound too encouraging, does it? But are we all destined for eventual deterioration? Is our identity tied to our body? What if you didn't have an identity made of atoms? You may have suspected that there's more to you than just organs, blood, bones. If who you are isn't just physical—and there's an indestructibility to your identity—how can you learn about it?