jamesg1213
bitman
We are actually but dust.
Psalm 103:14 NSB: For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.
We're mostly water.
However, most dust is made up of dead skin.
Amen to that brother James
The
really fascinating thing is that most of all (detectable) matter in the universe is stardust.
Homo sapiens are not some special category of things that are made of the stuff. So is your dog, your computer, your coffee cup and your planet. In fact, anything made of any elements other than primordial hydrogen and helium is made of stardust (for example, the very first generation of stars formed after the big bang were not literally made of stardust). These first stars were made of hydrogen, plus a tiny amount of helium. The amount of helium increased during the lifetime of these stars as the fusion process which causes a star to 'shine' converted hydrogen to this element.
Even the intense pressures and temperatures at the core of these early stars were not sufficient to create heavier elements by the process of fusion. The conditions required to fuse heavier elements from lighter ones only exist when dying stars explode and become supernovae.
It's rather incredible to think that until these 'new' heavy elements had been formed by the cataclysmic deaths of some of the first generation of stars, life as we know it (certainly carbon-based organisms) would not have been possible in the universe.
So there you are - if you're made of anything other than pre-stellar-phase hydrogen or helium, you are made of the 'ashes' of long dead stars. Somehow I find that a much more spellbinding and satisfying an explanation than the 2000 year old scrawlings of some desert-dwelling illiterate. But there you go.