We grow up to question ourselves endlessly, to stay worried that we might screw something up. The law teaches us that we're always on the edge of being punished. All the years we spend in school teach us to fear mistakes. And unfortunately, many religions teach us that we're always on the verge of falling into sin and damnation.

The truth, however, is that we're not that bad. We just think we are.

We do sometimes screw things up, of course, but not remotely as often as we mistrust ourselves. And a large percentage of those screw-ups occur precisely because we don't trust ourselves!

"Human Nature Has Been Sold Short"
Humans have deeply devalued themselves, and I'm hardly the first person to say so. Here's what psychologist Abraham Maslow wrote:

Human history is a record of the ways in which human nature has been sold short. The highest possibilities of human nature have practically always been underrated.

And here's the Chesterton quote (from The Defendant) that I referred to above:

There runs a strange law through the length of human history—that men are continually tending to undervalue their environment, to undervalue their happiness, to undervalue themselves. The great sin of mankind, the sin typified by the fall of Adam, is the tendency, not towards pride, but towards this weird and horrible humility.

And as long as we're bringing up Adam, it's worth noting that the Bible's 82nd Psalm says something that many people find shockingly un-Biblical:

You are gods.

This statement was repeated, by the way, by none other than Jesus. Interpret that any way you like, but these men were clearly not calling us born and degenerate losers.

The truth is that we are far more and better than we've given ourselves credit for, and it's time to stop treating ourselves like dangerous beasts.

Agents of Creation

Humans are agents of creation in the universe. For example, we've taken the raw materials of the physical universe and turned them into things of much greater utility.

We've turned dirt and rocks into metals, then into vehicles, then used them to generate electricity through invisible forces that we learned how to control. We've built amazingly complex electronic devices, gathered all the information of the world, and made it available to ourselves on devices that we hold in our pockets. We've sent men to the moon and probes outside of our solar system. We travel the oceans and skies on a routine basis… we've unraveled DNA and split the atom… and much, much more.