Your opinion: Is everyone special?

[ICantCreateACoolUsername]

What is your opinion, do you think everyone is special? What is your reason for believing so?

Personally, I think it really depends on how you compare things to us.
If I think about us compared to the universe, we are worth nothing.
If I think about us compared to animals, we are unique in the sense that we have deep complexity in emotions, consciousness, and applying our basic intellect.
If I think about people just compared to other people, then I don't believe everyone is special... I think you are special if you have an unusually high level of talent, intellectual capacity, understanding, or you have done something remarkable.
I believe that if you dress the way everyone else does, you talk the way everyone else does, and you have a boring (aka normal) personality then you obviously aren't special. At that point you're just background scenery.

Contrarily, just looking at us as a species,
I think that you aren't a "special snowflake" and Barney was wrong because we are all the same rotting bag of flesh and organs.

[John 6:29]

I think mankind is unique, but not necessarily special as in deserving anything.

[Anthropomorphic]

Everyone has certain stories of personal tragedy and triumph, and each person holds a certain level of pride (or passiveness) in personal accomplishments and trials.

I myself have a rather colorful history for being almost twenty years old. Vast medical problems, personal accounts and experiences of violence to myself and others, being witness to some rather awful things. And as unique of a person as this has shaped me in to, there are thousands of other people who have experienced the same or similar trials as I have, even if the circumstances or results are varied.

So yes. We are all special. But this "specialness" isn't necessarily important or relevant in our everyday lives.

[Sythan]

Every story is different, we are all special in many ways.

[the.real]

Nobody is "special". We all function as part of a whole. It makes us necessary, but not special.

[Cosmo]

None of us are special. Take China. If you get flat A*'s across the board while studying Medicine there, you are the same as something like 5000 other people.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by ICantCreateACoolUsername

If I think about us compared to the universe, we are worth nothing.

We are not even a speck of dust in the universe but what we're worth depends on what you're comparing humanity to. The universe is filled with other life, I do believe other life is out there and to compare humanity as a living society, I feel you have to compare it to some other living society but we don't know of another such society. Otherwise, it's like comparing humanity to a specific rock in a mudslide without being able to say which rock.

Originally Posted by ICantCreateACoolUsername

If I think about us compared to animals, we are unique in the sense that we have deep complexity in emotions, consciousness, and applying our basic intellect.

I agree with all of this although what is your definition of consciousness?

Originally Posted by ICantCreateACoolUsername

If I think about people just compared to other people, then I don't believe everyone is special... I think you are special if you have an unusually high level of talent, intellectual capacity, understanding, or you have done something remarkable.

Agreed although I'd add in a few more things, such as survived something catastrophic (i.e. Phineas Gage and others) or have normal behaviour but suffer from something so debilitating, doing something normal is special as others with it cannot do it. For example, if someone has microcephaly, doing behaviours that "normal" people can is something to be quite proud of and special.

Originally Posted by ICantCreateACoolUsername

I believe that if you dress the way everyone else does, you talk the way everyone else does, and you have a boring (aka normal) personality then you obviously aren't special. At that point you're just background scenery.

Agreed, we each have different experiences but unless it's something along the lines of what's listed above, it's background scenery.

Originally Posted by Sythan

Every story is different, we are all special in many ways.

The definition of special commonly is something extraordinary that others cannot do at all, cannot do as well as or can achieve the same result but not with the same method. We're all different, have different stories, experiences, etc... but if it's nothing unusual or as listed above, it's not special. If you say we're all special, then it begs the question of what you consider a 12-year old who is mentally able to challenge Einstein? You cant say they're special, otherwise it's specialer, which puts us back onto a gradient.

[01love]

My definition of "special" is uniqueness. Everyone is unique - no 2 people are the same, even genetically identical twins are different. So yes, I think everyone is special. Not the "you're so special, here, have a cookie" special, but the "every life is worth something" special (:

[Brandon]

As far as an individual human being is concerned, unless you have superhuman capabilities, then you're not special. As far as human beings in general, we're special just like every other living thing on the planet. We may be the dominate species, but what are we without plants? We'd be dead. You may think you're special until you're getting chased by a rhino, komodo dragon, a lion, an elephant, etc. You are special, not because of your biological characteristics or what you do in this world; you're special because you belong to a species (and all species are special).

[Tara.]

Everyone has the potential to be special.

[thebigmole]

To quote the movie "The Incredibles"
"Everyone's special."
"That's just another way of saying nobody is."

[QuantumModulus]

Physiologically: No way. Most of us are pretty much the same in terms of our bodily functions and processes, and in general, there is little variation in most processes.

Psychologically: Undeniably, but only when you come to personal thoughts. A lot of basic thoughts require only basic logic; that which can be applied by most people and the same conclusion can come about. But, I think that when it comes to a very personal level, our thoughts begin to differentiate themselves. I don't think there's much merit whatsoever in evaluating intellectual ability, because it's not a constant quantity for any individual and it's completely circumstantial. I'm great at math and science, but horrible at memorizing dates and events in history class and not very good at writing literature based essays. There are tons of people like me, many who are completely opposite of me in that regard, and a lot who are right in between -- which is why the uniqueness lies on a much deeper level.

Compared to other terrestrial life forms: I suppose a bit, if at all. Most people would bring up the argument of consciousness that exists in humans, but our knowledge of the nature and mechanisms of consciousness is extremely small and I don't think that anyone can conclusively say that other life forms definitely do not have consciousness. We might just have the ability to communicate signs of our consciousness to each other unlike other creatures; not necessarily indicative of a lack on their part.

Compared to our position in the universe: Hell no. We're an insignificant hiccup in terms of the trends we see now in our universe, and there's more evidence practically every day to indicate that in fact, we might be far less unique than we suspect even now. It'd be extremely arrogant and naive to suggest that there is definitely no other form of life but that which exists on Earth.