What is a human being?

Naturalism

Human beings are complex "machines"; personality is an interrelation of chemical & physical properties we do not yet fully understand.

Atheistic Existentialism

Accepts Naturalism's answer + For human beings alone existence precedes essence; people make themselves who they are. Each person is totally free as regards his or her nature & destiny.

Theistic Existentialism

Accepts Theisms answer + Human beings are personal beings who, when they come to full consciousness, find themselves in an alien universe; whether or not God exists is a tough Q to be solved not by reason but by faith. The personal is the valuable.

Christian Theism

Human beings are created in the image of God & thus possess personality, self-transcendence, intelligence, morality, gregariousness & creativity. Human beings were created good, but through the Fall the image of God became defaced, though not so ruined as not to be capable of restoration...

Deism

Human beings, though personal, are a part of the clockwork of the universe.

Postmodernism

Stories give communities their cohesive character. There is no substantial self. Human beings make themselves who they are by the languages they construct about themselves.

New Age or New Consciousness

Whatever the nature of being (idea or matter, energy or particle), the self is the kingpin. As human beings grow in their awareness & grasp of this fact, the human race is on the verge of a radical change in human nature; even now we see harbingers of transformed humanity & prototypes of the New Age.