Many in the life sciences attack human exceptionalism as necessarily predicated on religion — It can be, but isn’t necessarily so — and as reflecting an unwarranted hubris. To many of these scientists, we are just another animal in the forest, while others see us as a vermin species destroying Gaia.

That’s why it was refreshing to see a theoretical physicist remark on our exceptional natures in a NY Times op-ed otherwise about the importance of the detection of gravitational waves. Better yet, the physicist in question is Lawrence M. Krauss, known for pushing an aggressive atheism that would seem to negate the idea that there is something special about humankind. See more on him here, here, and here.
From “Finding Beauty in the Darkness“:

Every child has wondered at some time where we came from and how we got here. That we can try and answer such questions by building devises like [the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory] to peer out into the cosmos stands as a testament to the persistent curiosity and ingenuity of humankind-the qualities that we should most celebrate about being human.

So rare to hear a call for “celebrating” being human these days, and in the chronically anti-human exceptionalist New York Times, and from Lawrence Krauss, no less! It’s a trifecta.

Image: Lawrence Krauss, by Jvangiel (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Cross-posted at Human Exceptionalism.