Re: At last! An end to the evolution/creation debate.

Posted by bobbapink on Feb 03, 2002 at 10:22
207-172-211-85.s85.tnt3.nrf.va.dialup.rcn.com (207.172.211.85)

Re: At last! An end to the evolution/creation debate. (Dale)

Similar processes led to the evolution of mankind, but this has now stopped because virtually everybody's genes are making it to the next generation, not only those who are best adapted to their environments.

Well, assuming Dan is right and we can "save civilization" from the inevitable doom of global warming and everything remains exactly the same, maybe there is some logic in it, but I’m doubtful. The article assumes much that it should not and does not assume things it should, IMO. It doesn’t take the next ice-age into account (due next September by my reckoning) nor the next asteroid impact (also scheduled for September because you are too skeptical to build something to divert it :-) ), or about a million other things bound to befall mankind in the next millennia.

One thing struck me as odd

For example, brain size has decreased over the past 10,000 years. A similar reduction has also affected our physiques. We are punier and smaller-brained compared with our ancestors only a few millennia ago.

I thought just the opposite was true, not as a function of evolution but instead diet and a healthier environment.

Also, the lead in paragraph was just silly:

For those who dream of a better life, science has bad news: this is the best it is going to get. Our species has reached its biological pinnacle and is no longer capable of changing.

What a silly assertion! For one thing, what does a “dream of a better life” have to do with evolution? Sometimes I wonder if the Guardian is really like the Onion only a little more tongue in cheek. Clearly the term “biological pinnacle” has no meaning. Besides, even if we were at an evolutionary dead-end, species wise, we are only so in terms of natural selection. With the ability to directly manipulate genes, our species should change and progress from this point forward at about a million times that of natural selection, in pretty much any direction we want. Screw Mother Nature, she ain’t gotta clue anyway.


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