Defending human exceptionalism can be a lonely job these days.
So many in the science community, participants in the increasingly radical environmental movement, animal rights ideologues, and even some of the most mainstream writers in the popular media, have become emotionally committed to proving that humans are just another species in the forest.
That is why I was heartened to see an article at the Real Clear Science Website, authored by medical professor S. Joshua Swamidass (discussing a longer presentation embedded on video) declaring that we are “More Than Just Apes:”
First Swamidass notes the same trends I have repeated deconstructed:
Is this really what science tells us? That humans are just intelligent apes, unexceptional in most important ways? Many scientists answer, “yes, we are just apes.”
Even non-religious people reject evolution because of this answer. Any theory that argues “humans are just animals” seems seems dehumanizing, and might even be dangerous. On face value, this feels wrong. This, however, is the instinct and the message of the current scientific world.
Swamidass argues that despite our seeming genetic closeness to apes:
…it is fallacious to argue, therefore, that we are not exceptional. In fact, this leap misrepresents our current understanding of evolution. Remarkably, a mere 2% difference in our genomes, biologically-speaking, is more than enough to explain the “human condition.”
However, according to neutral theory, genome similarity measures the time since we separated from apes (which was quite recently), rather than measuring functional differences or distance. Therefore, we should consider the obvious, as Dr. Ajit Varki puts it, “humans are very very unusual.” We humans, it seems, are more than just apes.
I have presented many attributes and unique capacities that distinguish us from animals of the field (as they were once called), and won’t repeat them here. Swamidass adds a few more attributes and phenomenon to the human exceptionalism list:
Humans are the only known species that has out compete all other sibling species (e.g. Neanderthals and Denisovans) to spread into every habitat across the globe. As far as we know, this has never happened before in the history of the planet.
The human mind is unique, and nothing like it has been encountered in all our planet’s history…
People left Africa 70,000 years ago spread across the planet, acquiring new genetic variation as they went, but still have the same remarkable abilities. “That means that all the mental abilities to do calculus, astrophysics, symphonic music, and philosophy, and theology, and Veritas Forums, was already there.” This is not a normal example of exaptation (reuse of a structure for a new purpose). How can evolution do that?
Human evolution, even from a strictly scientific perspective, reveals that humans truly are exceptional. A “singularity” in our planet’s history has occurred. Nothing like us has ever arisen on the planet before. Something transcendent and special has happened here.
I would have liked to see more meat on the bones of this essay. But, it is good to see a fellow human exceptionalism give voice to what should be a self-evident truth.