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| Human. Special, or just another lifeform?
Posted: 8/17/2007 4:38:44 AM | It's an interesting topic. Personally, I view humanity as "special" in much the same light as we'd assign to special education. Yeah, seems ironics, but it's applicable. It's a matter of "us" being qualitatively (as in a uniqueness in overall qualities -- read: aspects) special, as opposed to being quantitatively so, as in the case of some folks who would like to say that we're somehow "better" than other animals.
Gets into the old "you're special -- just like everybody else" conundrum. Whereas there are plenty of folks I know that think this means "all are special, therefore none are", I don't see it that way. We're all unique. It's a matter of realising our individual talents and qualities and going from there.
With regard to the distinctions between species making us "all special, therefore all the same", it's true. We're all worthy, just in different ways.
I realise this has theological implications, granted. Far too often, in my opinion, folks take the special distinctions of humanity to indicate a special status. "We have souls, animals don't." Or, "we have/deserve dominion over the earth." Whatever. The point is that humans do have the capacity to both massively influence their environment and to realise this and react accordingly. If that enlightened self-interest sets us aside from other species, it does. But, is it not possible that some other species have the same capacity and, realising the sort of ecological carnage and upheaval potentially caused by such, simply made a different choice? | |
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| Human. Special, or just another lifeform?
Posted: 8/17/2007 5:40:44 AM | | We're special to us but to other species? No. Remember for 70 million years, the dinosaurs successfully ruled this planet and they're gone. They were special and now extinct. Our time is coming. | |
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| Just another lifeform.
Posted: 8/17/2007 10:08:32 PM | We have sentience and arbitrary verbal communication like no other I've seen demonstrated. Hippopotami have African river dominance like no other I've seen. Bald eagles have gopher acquiry better than anything!
Our pride leads us to believe the world can't fail us, that we can't pollute it to a point that it will cease to be able to support us. I believe the idea, often indoctrinated at youth, that we were given this realm, as opposed to its being here and us continually needing to adapt to it, is the source of our harmful ways to nature. I believe the idea that it was created for us is the source of our negligence of our real place on it, which is borne of pure luck. | |
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| Just another lifeform.
Posted: 8/18/2007 4:11:41 AM | | Oh, I think humans are special alright. Special and more complex than we can even imagine. The best part of us, the part that is our personality, animates us and gives us the power of reason is invisible to us while on earth; yet it is ever evolving and exists, maintaining our individuality, to eternity. | |
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| Just another lifeform.
Posted: 8/18/2007 5:11:44 AM | | Some of us are special. In each species there are prime specimens who shine brighter than the rest. We are the elite of life, spanning all forms. The best of crocodiles and the best of panda bears are as brothers, while the mediocre of every species likewise are more akin together than with their betters of their own species. The true hierarchy of zoology is not by genus but by genius. You may well be just another life form. I am not. I am the pinnacle of evolution and atop my brightly decorated tree shines the star of conceit. | |
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| Human. Special, or just another lifeform?
Posted: 8/18/2007 1:20:12 PM |
Are humans truly 'special'? (IE: Seperate from other lifeforms)
Or does our being special merely stem from our own Pride?
Our being special, or not special, stems from our own subjective estimation of ourselves.
I personally think that the human race has overcome more than any other creature or lifeform in existence, and the story of our evolution is quite spectacular. In the end however, it's like the Old Norse Rune Rhyme states, "Man is the increase of dust". | |
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| Human. Special, or just another lifeform?
Posted: 8/18/2007 4:00:26 PM | I think you need to define your terms better.
What exactly do you mean by "special"? I realize you wrote out "separate from other life forms", but that doesn't help, either. Separate in what way? | |
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| Human. Special, or just another lifeform?
Posted: 8/7/2009 8:10:08 AM | Humans are not special. It's just that human beings are inherently arrogant & selfish so they want to think they are worth more than what they're really worth.
Just because you will cry or be upset when a loved one dies does not mean that to the universe or the cosmos a human life is worth any more than a Mosquito's life. It is humans who quite selfishly decide that a human life is worth more and then attach divine origins to it when there is NO proof of such nonsense. | |
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