Darwin Destroyed the Concept of Human Specialness

Darwin destroyed the concept of human oddity I would say I disagree quite strongly with the assertion that Darwin destroyed the specialness of populace. For this relatively brief paper I am going to attempt to refute this claim and try to spotlight some of the things that highlight how we take a leak kept the same level of specialness that we take in always had. There be many people who would say that we humans argon the plainly beings with full consciousness, in the words of a not bad(p) many this would translate to having a intelligence.Humans surely acquit a soul-like property, a mind, something that separates us from the multitudes of note species from the smorgasbord of earthly deportment. It isnt my purpose for this paper to discuss whether or not we have a soul but I do intend to talk close to what constitutes our mind, our selves. The fact that we as humans birth a high degree of consciousness to me spells a very special kind of existence.Can even our warm int elligent creatures on the tree of life appreciate the magnificence of life? Can a chimp sit back and admire the dish antenna of the sprawling life in the jungle? Does he wonderment at his own bodies ability to repair itself after he has been in a bloody broil with a rival? Can a dolphin be awestruck by the morning sunshine glistening on the surface of the water? Does he wonder what life would be like for him if he were one of those surface beings he often sees on boats in the ocean?Humans be unholy because, being the most advanced form of life on the planet, we possess brains king-sizer than all other(a) forms of life(save for some large mammals but even then ours are much bigger proportionally) With this we have evolved twain magnificent features which can only set us worlds apart from and ahead of all other life forms. We have this amazing sense of self, sense of awareness- in a word -consciousness. This grants us the capability of know who and what we are (to a large extent anyway), and where we came from (Darwin is owed some credit in this field).It is the ability to see beauty in a sunset on a savannah, to hear the splendour in Tchaikov delivers The Nutcracker, to read great works of literature and be able to travel the globe with our imaginations. The other great feature we have as a follow on from having large brains is the wonderful power of language. This splendid trait has deceased hand in hand with consciousness to create the incredibly unique life form that mankind sapiens has become. Our ability to understand the universe and our position in it is one of the glories of the human species.Our ability to touch mind to mind by language, and especially to transmit our thoughts across the centuries is another (Dawkins 2008 p3) Our advanced cultures have sincerely yours become magnificent phenomena. We have compound, yet highly virtuous systems of ethics and values. Largely stemming from our aforementioned large brains and the use of la nguage we have self evolved to create ways of living that set us apart from all the rest of earthly creatures, both those alive today and all the previous inhabitants of the earth including ones from gone(p) eras.Humanity is replete with themes of co-operation, love, compassion, altruism, sympathy for our fellow beings as well as for all other life forms. We have been capable of many such virtues for a long time, since we became human one could say. As John Eccles (1980 p204) reminds us, at that place are snippets of evidence that as far back as eighty thousand years ago Neanderthal man held ceremonial burials- a truly altruistic act. Or, as he also noted- the study of two men dated from sixty thousand years ago which show they were incapacitated for up to two years yet they had been kept alive by caring tribes folk.There is other evidence from as far back as this of the compassionate behaviour between members of humanity and we all know only too well of absolutely countless exa mples of it in recent history and of course in typify day. For all modern mans shortcomings and problems in our societies, we have always been gifted with a great sense of correct and wrong, of cruelty and kindness. With this majestic property that is consciousness comes the boundless faculty of thought. We are capable to reason, plan, remember to a limitless degree.Technology today has become something we could never have imagined even one hundred years ago. We have invented the most ingenious and sophisticated equipment to be able to look inside our brains. Magnetic resonance imaginativeness (MRI)scans and the more recent positron-emission topography(PET) scans are machines with wonderful capabilities for seeing goings on in the brain. We can monitor which move of the brain are being used when we experience certain thoughts. We cannot however, as Ward highlights(2008 p147), even range to monitor in advance what people are thinking.Our thoughts are far and away more complex and profound than any other animals (or machine) can hope to have and, importantly, remain ours and ours only. If we try to look at the bigger picture, the macroscopic view of things, are we still special? When we gaze up into the night sky and contemplate our place in the universe it is very easy to become overawed by the twist scale of the cosmos and our relative minuteness in it. How can there be anything special about us when we are almost nothing in relation to the vast universe.I believe it is not that we are in the universe but that we are the universe. Far from exposing human beings as incidental products of blind tangible forces, science suggests that the existence of conscious organisms is a fundamental feature of the universe(Davies 1992 p21). As Davies alludes to here humanity is actually an intrinsic part of the universe and, whether or not there are other advanced conscious beings far out in space, we are or are part of the pinnacle of life, of nature, and of the cosmos .If the universe is one giant living organism, a vast clockwork mechanism, a massive computer then we are its brain, its central cog, its CPU. I try to imagine the perspective of a person who would make a contestation like the title for this essay. I can understand the point whereby humanity is seen as simply the terminus of a very long line of life adapting and developing or, to use the term elucidated and made renowned by Darwin- evolution. Life is just mechanical, they might say they have learned from Darwin, it only instinctively drives to keep an eye on living.Whats so special about what is simply the as yet highest point of this unconscious , robotic like initiative in nature. Are we more special than the animals below us on the food chain, or out front us in eras like the dinosaurs. Was even the earliest amoeba not as special as us giftn its importance in the chain of events? This viewpoint, while largely correct in its facts and assumptions, doesnt give any credence t o what homo sapiens has become since he has evolved from the ape.Hopefully this paper has made some of a case as to why the two legged big brained organisms that we are have a cloudy specialness to them. Bibliography Davies, Paul. 1992. THE MIND OF GOD. London Penguin Books Dawkins, Richard. 2008. MODERN SCIENCE WRITING. Oxford Oxford University Press Eccles, John C.. 1980. THE HUMAN PSYCHE. Berlin Routledge Ward, Keith. 2008. The Big Questions in Science and Religion. Pennsylvania Templeton Foundation Press