Blog
The illusion and danger of seeing ourselves as exceptional
Thursday 25th September 2025
Mike Mullins
“The idea that there’s something unique about us, that species membership is a magical boundary, is becoming increasingly hard to justify.”
The time has come to challenge human exceptionalism and relearn a spiritual humility.
From earliest times human belief systems have asserted that we, homo sapiens, are somehow “special”. By special I mean different from the usual, or ordinary, in a way that’s better, unique, or important. That we stand out from the rest of nature. For thousands of years, we have lived as if we are not animals and sought ways to assert our exceptionalism.
In this blog I’d like to examine if this is true and perhaps more importantly what are the psychological and spiritual consequences of this deeply ingrained belief. I wonder whether this deeply held worldview sits at the heart of the current ecological crisis. If it does then what is the antidote to this arrogance?
Why are we as a species so obsessed with proving and reproving the idea that we are unique and special? What’s driving that? I’m no biologist but my guess is that it’s an evolutionary response and that other animals feel the same way about themselves ! Let’s face it we all think we're special and unique, especially when we’re kids, I know I did ! Maybe though its time to challenge that and cultivate a spiritual humility and recognise that we belong to mother earth and have more in common with our animal siblings than we care to admit?
The long history of human exceptionalism
History is littered with examples of human exceptionalist thinking. Here are just a few. Early hunter gatherers saw humans as having a unique relationship with spirits, ancestors and nature. Their myths gave human beings a central role, the children of creators, mediators between worlds, or the very reason why the world exists. In Sumerian, Egyptian, Indus and Chinese civilisation humans were made to serve gods and were often fashioned from divine materials. During the Axial age (800-200 BC) Plato and Aristotle claimed humans were unique because of their capacity for reason and morality. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism all claimed humans were unique because of our capacity for enlightenment, or liberation. Confucianism claimed humanity was unique because we had a moral duty to develop moral virtue. The Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam, went one step further with the strongest claim to “specialness,” teaching that man was created in the image of God, imago dei, and was given stewardship over creation. During the renaissance and enlightenment humans were celebrated for their uniqueness on account of our creativity, reason and dignity. Universal human rights were emphasised on the basis of mans rational nature.
Modern science may have challenged the idea of humans being biologically separate but some science still pushes exceptionalism, noting supposed unique traits in man like: language, abstract thought, culture, cumulative knowledge, our capacity for symbolic reasoning, transcendence, spiritual intelligence, technology and collaboration as unparalleled. Secular creeds like humanism make much of their liberation from superstition, yet still rely on species membership like some magical boundary.
This is not to say there are not clear differences between us and other animals. But the idea that there’s something unique about us, that species membership is a magical boundary, is becoming increasingly hard to justify. We have a split in the human condition. We see the human world as the highest good, human flourishing as all important. We have a deeply uneasy relationship with being animal.
Whilst asserting the specialness and dignity of human beings, their being made in the image of God, has had tremendous benefits in promoting compassion and human rights, the belief in human exceptionalism can also have harmful, unforeseen consequences.
Latest biological arguments against human exceptionalism
Let's first explore the latest biological arguments against the idea of humans being inherently special, or unique, then explore the psychological and spiritual consequence of such a belief, finally ending with some tentative suggestions about what the way forward might look like.
Despite what many believe evolution doesn’t involve a direction. It can progress from single cell to multicellular or back. From an evolutionary, atheistic, standpoint, humans are one species among millions, the result of the same natural processes—random mutation, natural selection, genetic drift and adaptation that shape all life. So, the idea of humans being a “pinnacle” or purpose of evolution is a teleological fallacy (projecting purpose onto a purposeless process).
Many theologians and scientists Teilhard de Chardin, Kenneth Miller and Stephen Barr would dispute that, arguing that the divine works through evolution and her purpose is to express her joy through the act of creation. An eternal becoming, by emptying herself (kenosis) into becoming all beings. So, all being, all life, are the divine’s purpose.
Homo sapiens appeared very late in the story of life on this earth, 300,000 years ago (at 23.58, two minutes to midnight, if the life of the 4.5-billion-year-old earth was compressed into 24 hours). So, claiming that we are the central and sole purpose of creation is rather like asserting that the actor who only appears in the end credits of a film is the central character.
If you rewound the evolutionary clock, humans—at least homo sapiens as we know them—might never have evolved. Many evolutionary biologists (e.g., Stephen Jay Gould) emphasise the role of chance and contingency in evolution. This questions the notion of humans as inevitable, or being a privileged outcome. It also suggests that in the act of creation the divine limited itself and joyfully embraced uncertainty and a degree of powerlessness. As the great German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer said:
“God is weak and powerless in the world and that is the way the only way in which he can be with us and help us”
This presents a very unsettling challenge to our traditional Abrahamic notion of an all-powerful, all-knowing God. There are parallels with the Christian notion of kenosis and the Jewish Kabbalistic idea of Tzimtzum, “Withdrawal”. The 16th century mystic Isaac Luria taught that the Ein Sof (God the infinite) withdrew to allow space for creation, placing limits on herself. Perhaps like Meister Eckhart the 14th Century Dominican mystic who once prayed “I pray to God to rid me of my concept of God” we are being gently invited to question our notion of the Godhead amidst the ecological crisis?
Genetically, we share 98.8% of our DNA with chimpanzees. Many behaviours (tool use, empathy, grief, cooperation, self awareness, reflection, spirituality) once thought uniquely human are now seen in other species. Our intelligence is quantitatively different but not necessarily qualitatively distinct.
Before Homo sapiens, several other hominin species (members of the human lineage after the split from our last common ancestor with chimpanzees) played key roles in human evolution. The most important ones were Australopithecus afarensis, 3.9–2.9 million years ago. Homo habilis 2.4–1.4 million years ago. Homo erectus 1.9 million–110,000 years ago. Homo neanderthalensis 400,000–40,000 years ago. Neanderthals were 99.7% genetically similar to us. Homo erectus and earlier Homo species likely to have a 97–99% similarity. Whilst Australopithecus is estimated to be 95–97% similar based on morphology and evolutionary distance. So, on what basis do we assume we’re special, set apart, compared to these hominins? Especially when the evidence suggests we may have lived alongside some of them, bred with them and maybe even killed them. Perhaps they are just our older sisters and brothers in the divine family? Equally loved and special to the divine.
Elephants have been observed engaging in what looks like mourning rituals; touching bones, revisiting death sites and even standing vigil over dead companions. Jane Goodall and others report chimpanzees performing rain dances during storms and meditating before waterfalls in seemingly ecstatic spiritual displays without an obvious survival utility. These examples suggest spiritual ritualistic responses to nature may not be uniquely human
Dolphins and elephants engage in play with no survival function which some ethologists interpret as expressions of curiosity and wonder. Animals across species; cats, reindeer, even Jaguars are known to deliberately ingest psychoactive plants, possibly indicating a search for altered states
Studies suggest great apes, corvids and octopus show theory of mind and can predict others‘ perspectives or intentions. These capacities suggest non-human animals can also engage in meaning making at some level. Tomasello (2020) “Becoming human” argues that humans extended these abilities culturally but the building blocks exist in other animals
Most mainstream biologists don’t see humans as a discontinuity in evolution but rather a continuity. Human capacities are extensions of abilities found in other animals. Historical biological studies forced our own human biases onto animals defining intelligence, consciousness and spirituality in human terms so consistently underestimating their presence in animals.
The psychological consequences of believing we’re unique and special
So even if the belief that we’re unique in the animal world is based on flimsy, biased, evidence even more crucial is the question of what the psychological and spiritual consequences are of us telling ourselves we are different from, unique and special. We all know the dangers of telling our children they are special, unique, with the implication that they are better than other kids.
Lets start with some of the positive psychological consequences of seeing ourselves as special. Clearly if we see ourselves as special and having a unique place in the life of the earth that will do wonders for our self-esteem ! It will also add depth and meaning to our sense of purpose and protect us against despair when life becomes tough. All great things!
There are though psychological difficulties associated with believing we’re special and unique. The first is that it might foster a fragile sense of self-worth based around external validation rather than what we are or have achieved. It might also encourage narcissistic tendencies, a sense of entitlement, superiority and difficulty empathising with other humans and animals. I think we can see some of this in how we currently treat wild and domesticated animals. Pressure to live up to our sense of “specialness” our calling might lead to perfectionism, anxiety, or paralysis when facing challenges. If being “special” is internalised as being different from others, it may create disconnection, a lack of curiosity about the gifts and experiences of other sentient beings and ultimately feelings of loneliness, and difficulty forming intimate, equal relationships. All things that characterise the ecological crisis were currently facing. It’s no wonder many biologists now call the age we’re living in, with the sixth mass extinction and catastrophic loss of life, the Eremocene, the “age of loneliness”, rather than the Anthropocene .
The spiritual consequences of believing we’re unique and special
There are positive spiritual consequences of seeing ourselves as unique. It can give us a sacred sense of self. Many traditions affirm that each person carries divine worth or a unique calling. Believing you’re special can encourage a reverence for life. A sense of being special or chosen or gifted can inspire service, devotion and a deeper engagement with spiritual practice. It can cultivate faith, trust, that life events unfold with significance, even if they are difficult.
There are though real spiritual challenges with seeing ourselves as unique and special. This belief may morph into spiritual pride, or ego, feeling “more evolved” or “chosen” in ways that disconnect us from humility and compassion for other beings. Life’s hardships may feel like betrayals (“If I’m special, why is this happening to me?”), leading to doubt, despair, or spiritual crises. I love God’s response to Job
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding?”
Job 38:4
Ouch, I bet that brought Job back down to earth, poor chap.
Many spiritual traditions Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity encourage transcending the ego-self. Over-identifying with being “special” may become an obstacle to realising our oneness, our interconnectedness with each other, other creatures and the universe as a whole.
In its most extreme form the madness of human exceptionalism says we are more deserving of the riches of the earth, that the laws that constrain growth on earth don’t apply to us that economic well being is more important than the continuity of life on earth.
When humans are seen as outside or above the web of life, spiritual experience risks becoming abstract rather than embodied, estranged from our bodies, nature and the cosmos. Thinkers such as the Roman Catholic scholar Thomas Berry, the Buddhist activist Joanna Macy and deep ecology philosophers argue that this belief in human specialness fuels ecological exploitation and destruction.
From a spiritual perspective, the belief in human uniqueness is a form of spiritual ego—a barrier to enlightenment, harmony, and reverence for life. Seeing ourselves as “above” other lifeforms feeds the illusion of separation (maya in Buddhist terms) and becomes a mindset easily manipulated to justify the objectification, exploitation and destruction of the natural world.
What might the way forward look like?
Perhaps our challenge is to relearn that we belong to our mother earth, that we are animal in all the loveliness and beauty that entails. This means relearning a spiritual humility. Not a false modesty or an abusive self-abasement but rather a realistic worldview that recognises we are Not above other beings but exist as part of a family.
Many mystics (e.g., Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, Rumi, Laozi) stress humility before the divine mystery. The idea that humans are the universe’s central concern is seen as arrogant. In many ways it is our deep fear of being animal, our fear of suffering, of pain, of anxiety, of loneliness and death that makes us assert our exceptionalism, that we are more than animal. Spiritual maturity involves learning to overcome our fear of being animal and embracing our smallness, our humility, our place in the family of being, not our centrality.
This humility would invite us to get genuinely curious, compassionate and respectful of the experiences of all sentient beings and their and their contribution to the web of life. Over the past two hundred years there have been two major “affective revolutions” where society has woken up to the essential humanity and dignity of black people and women and after much struggle, given them their rights. We are perhaps on the cusp of a third affective revolution where we truly discover the dignity and worth of all animal life.
Letting go of the enlightenment mindset that sees all of nature as a soulless, lifeless, object and instead learning to adopt a participative, animist mindset, will help us re enchant our world with soul and teach us to treat mother earth and all her children with respect.
Humility and a participative mindset will teach us that we’re linked in webs of reciprocity with all other forms of life. That our survival depends on other beings. Rejoicing in our kinship with all living things and taking on the bonds and obligations of family, we can learn to care for each other.
A family model, rather than a patriarchal hierarchy: God, angels, man, woman, animals, plants soil etc is the future. Just because we are not central doesn’t mean we’re not loved, adored by the divine. The last child in a large family isn’t loved any less for being last. Likewise, the world does not revolve round us because were the last child in the family. We’re part of a wider family of all sentient beings in which all are in the image of the divine and loved by the divine. As the Roman Catholic Franciscan and mystic Richard Rohr says, “God love all things by becoming all things”.
Ultimately its about recognising at a much deeper level, hidden behind a veil, that we are all one. The self is not separate from the rest of existence. All beings share the same fundamental essence (e.g., Brahman, Buddha-nature, Tao, or in Christian mysticism the divine spark or “isness”). If I harm another being, a tree, a river then ultimately I harm myself.
With acknowledgements to:
“Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are? By Frans De Waal
“Being Animal” by Melanie Challenger
“Animal Languages” by Eva Meijer
“Ways of being” by James bridle