Depends on which people you talk to

Post #184,529 by ben_tilly 11/19/04 2:22:43 PM Reply	Depends on which people you talk to I am personally astounded at how many people I know who are intelligent, have reasonable backgrounds in science, accept that evolution is how we got to be what we are, but believe that somehow civilization has eliminated the process of evolution in humans. Those are the ones that I was talking about. If you want to talk about the ones who lack a basic understanding of science, well, I don't think that "keeping up" is the phrase that comes to mind when it comes to keeping track of them... Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #184,550 by broomberg 11/19/04 9:22:26 PM Reply	Veered off I think it has veered in a different way than if we weren't "civilized". Let's face it: My genes are not meant to be passed on. I'm fragile, weak, and certainly could not compete or provide for offspring in a hunter / gatherer society. The reasons I and my kids exist are due to a combination of a protective society and medical science. And they will continue to breed under the same umbrella. It doesn't mean evolution does not happen, but it does mean that many traits that would have been nipped in the bud early on are allowed to continue living. This might be good, adding diversity to the gene pool, or this might be bad, sucking out vital resources without returning anything back.
Post #184,552 by ben_tilly 11/19/04 9:39:35 PM Reply	And that is evolution in action And it is a nice compensation for the several millenia of evolution that we've had for dealing with nice fast-moving plagues that are able to hit humans now that we live in large population centers. Evolution has always had to deal with unexpected turns in what is best. In fact that is the purpose of sex - to allow quick recombining so that a population can adapt to a new situation far faster than mutation alone would allow. Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)

Welcome to IWETHEY!