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Thursday, February 28, 2019

Darwin Destroyed the Concept of Human Specialness

Darwin destroyed the concept of human beings supernumeraryness I would say I disagree quite strongly with the assertion that Darwin destroyed the specialness of existence. For this comparatively brief paper I am going to attempt to refute this claim and try to highlight more or less of the things that highlight how we puddle unbroken the same level of specialness that we baffle always had. There argon numerous people who would say that we humans are the only beings with full informedness, in the words of a great many this would translate to having a soul.Humans sure have a soul- the like property, a disposition, whateverthing that separates us from the multitudes of lower species from the smorgasbord of earthlike deportment. It isnt my purpose for this paper to discuss whether or not we have a soul but I do intend to talk approximately what constitutes our mind, our selves. The fact that we as humans possess a high detail of consciousness to me spells a very specia l kind of existence.Can even our near intelligent creatures on the tree of life appreciate the magnificence of life? Can a chimpanzee sit back and admire the violator of the sprawling life in the jungle? Does he marvel at his own bodies ability to repair itself after he has been in a bloody brawl with a rival? Can a mahimahi be awestruck by the morning sun glistening on the surface of the water? Does he wonder what life would be like for him if he were unmatch equal to(p) of those surface beings he often sees on boats in the ocean?Humans are extraordinary because, being the most pass on form of life on the planet, we possess brains larger than all some other forms of life(save for some large mammals but even then ours are a good deal monolithicger proportionally) With this we have evolved two magnificent features which can only check off 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 knowing 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 Tchaikovskys The Nutcracker, to need great works of literature and be able to travel the reality with our imaginations. The other great feature we have as a companion on from having large brains is the wonderful power of lecture. This splendid trait has d one(a) for(p) hand in hand with consciousness to create the incredibly grotesque life form that homo sapiens has become. Our ability to understand the man and our position in it is one of the glories of the human species.Our ability to link mind to mind by language, and especially to transmit our thoughts across the centuries is another (Dawkins 2008 p3) Our move cultures have truly become magnificent phenomena. We have intricate, yet exceedingly virtuous systems of ethics and values. Lar gely stemming from our aforementioned large brains and the use of language we have self evolved to create ways of living that set us apart from all the rest of earthly creatures, both those alive nowadays and all the previous inhabitants of the earth including ones from bygone eras.Humanity is replete with themes of co-operation, love, compassion, altruism, sympathy for our fellow worker 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, in that respect are snippets of certify that as off the beaten track(predicate) back as eighty 1000 eld ago swinish man held ceremonial burials- a truly altruistic act. Or, as he also noted- the bones 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 compassio nate behaviour in the midst of members of humanity and we all know only too well of absolutely countless examples of it in youthful history and of course in symbolise day. For all modern mans shortcomings and problems in our societies, we have always been gifted with a great sense of right 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 illimitable degree.Technology today has become something we could never have imagined even one nose candy years ago. We have invented the most ingenious and sophisticated equipment to be able to look inside our brains. Magnetic resonance imaging (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 proctor which parts of the brain are being used when we experience authentic thoughts. We cannot however, as Ward highlights(200 8 p147), even begin to monitor in nurture 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, cover 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 watch our place in the universe it is very easy to become awe by the sheer 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 physical 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 cons cious 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 estimator then we are its brain, its central cog, its CPU. I try to imagine the spatial relation of a person who would make a statement like the cognomen for this essay. I can understand the indicate whereby humanity is seen as evidently the result of a very long line of life adapting and growing or, to use the term elucidated and made famous by Darwin- evolution. Life is full mechanical, they might say they have learned from Darwin, it only instinctively drives to declare living.Whats so special about what is simply the as yet highest point of this unconscious , robotic like endeavour in nature. Are we more special than the animals below us on the food ambit, or before us in eras like the dinosaurs. Was even the earliest amoeba not as special as us given its importance in the chain of eve nts? This viewpoint, while largely correct in its facts and assumptions, doesnt give any faith to 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 deep specialness to them. Bibliography Davies, Paul. 1992. THE MIND OF GOD. capital of the United Kingdom 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

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