Basal definitions [Taken from Live Spaces Blog, 04 noviembre 2006, 15:12]

I had just taken a shower today, when I looked at the mirror, and thought "I am a being". And then I wondered "What is a being?". I guess it's a thing, an entity, a something, that is, at the present time, "being". (Be-ing, gerund form of the verb "to be"). So if any thing, entity, or something can be truthfully said to "be" in any way or tense (like "am", "is", "are", "was", "were", "will be"), then it qualifies as a "being".

Jack is tall. Jill is a virgin. This window is big. That rock is gray. The sun is big. Love is cool. God is great.

In fact, using the well-known and mostly-accepted mathematical and philosophical axiom which says "Anything is equal to itself", it is quite easy to prove that anything is a being. Every single entity is a being. So "entity" and "being" are synonyms.

This train of thought led to me to think about what a "creature" was. What is a creature? People, animals, plants? Etymologically, the word seems to come from the word "creation". So presumably, a "creature" is an entity which was "created" at some point. This "creation" could have two distinct meanings:

1. The "universal" meaning, which supposes the existence of a mighty entity that at one point "created" all matter and energy, the whole Universe, Earth, and all life forms by its will (which must also suppose forces and powers outside the present laws of Physics), and
2. The "conceptual" meaning, which uses the word "creation" in a lighter context. This kind of "creation" is only the result of the joining, unjoining, mixing, shaping, and mainly transforming of different forms of matter and energy: a product. For example: lifeforms "create" more lifeforms by reproducing (they make them out of DNA and food), the sky "creates" rain and hail (it cools water down and joins it together in clouds), trees "create" flowers, a potter "creates" pots out of clay and heat and his/her hands' work, a cook "creates" meals with raw ingredients, cutting instruments, and heat, a programmer "creates" programs with a computer, electricity, and some thinking, and the list goes ON and ON and ON.

So what is a creature? Supposing the first meaning of creation, and supposing this mighty entity created everything (except perhaps itself), then everything is a creature (except perhaps itself). Every single thing, every being, is a creature. What if we use the second meaning? Then the definition of creature is relative to the context in which it is evaluated. For example, I may see a rock as something that no one ever created, but it is possible for it to have been manufactured (created) a long time ago by an ancient civilization which put value in rocks of that specific type. I don't know... to be a creature, an entity could require its existence to have a meaning, a purpose. If it does not need a purpose, then arguably everything is a creature. If it does, then... are WE PEOPLE creatures? Do we have a purpose? That's much more of a philosophical intrigue than it is linguistical.