Fatbob, when I said that we weren't special I meant as a species in the context of species that have lived over the ages. As people, yes I'd agree we are all special in our own ways.
It is the arrogance that certain religious institution's belief that we are some how special and set apart from every other life form that I was really referring to. This basically gives us carte blanche to do as we please, which in the long run will probably be our downfall. We've been around for a blink of an eye compared to most species and have a very long way to go before we could be seen as a dominant life form on Earth. I don't think we have a hope in Hell of making it either. Our intelligence has seen us rise to where we are now, I think it will be our downfall.
An interesting way of looking at history
If the history of the universe was condensed into a one year calender, it would look like this:
Some dates:
January 1
Big Bang
May 1
Origin of Milky Way Galaxy
September 9
Origin of the solar system
September 14
Formation of the Earth
~ September 25
Origin of life on Earth
October 2
Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth
October 9
Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae)
~ November 1
Invention of sex (by microorganisms)
November 12
Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants
November 15
Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish
All of this happened on December 31:
Origin of Proconsul and Ramapithecus, probable ancestors of apes and men
~ 1:30 p.m.
First humans
~ 10:30 p.m.
Widespread use of stone tools
11:00 p.m.
Domestication of fire by Peking man
11:46 p.m.
Beginning of most recent glacial period
11:56 p.m.
Seafarers settle Australia
11:58 p.m.
Extensive cave painting in Europe
11:59 p.m.
Invention of agriculture
11:59:20 p.m.
Neolithic civilization; first cities
11:59:35 p.m.
First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy
11:59:50 p.m.
Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire
11:59:51 p.m.
Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt
11:59:52 p.m.
Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture; invention of the compass
11:59:53 p.m.
Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by Phoenicia
11:59:54 p.m.
Asokan India; Ch'in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha
11:59:55 p.m.
Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire; birth of Christ
11:59:56 p.m.
Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Birth of Islam and the Islamic Civilization
11:59:57 p.m.
Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion; Crusades
11:59:58 p.m.
Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China; emergence of the experimental method in science
11:59:59 p.m.