To: bondserv
My question to you Patrick is does Darwinian evolution necessitate the evidence of superior (intellectually) races? The existence of human individuals necessitates the existence of intellectually superior individuals. This is because we're not identical. Any trait you can name will be present to varying degrees in different people. The issue of "superior races" is probably more a question about statistics than anything else. That's because a race doesn't have intelligence; individuals do. Murray's book, The Bell Curve, attempted to deal with this issue; but it's something I'm not qualified to evaluate. I'm not ducking; I really don't know the answers. I don't know what purpose is served by doing statistical studies of groups of people. Is my zip code intellectually superior to yours? My hair color? My race? And if it is, so what?
Again, does evolution lead us to natures inevitable result of "favored races"? Yes or no?
Not necessarily with humans. We're not exactly scrambling for scarce resources. We have loads of people who are far less fit than we are, yet they're surviving and thriving. So the answer to your question is "no," because we're so good at what we do that we can afford to be generous.
As for your remark about my "troop," I'm sure that, upon reflection, you will realize it was inappropriate. You might even acknowledge this.
181 posted on
02/12/2004 10:42:28 AM PST by
PatrickHenry
(Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.)
To: PatrickHenry; bondserv
I am unsure if this relates to evolution or not.
The difference in intellect between individuals is obvious; that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with evolution though, does it?
The view of superior vs. inferior races has a certain dubious intellectual importance, perhaps it is fodder for the social sciences and selling books like The Bell Curve. It's not surprising, though, given the penchant for collectivist ideology of the last century-and-a-half.
More interesting to me is the question of cultures; are some superior to others? Why did the Egyptian culture last for thirty centuries and the Roman Empire last so long and why did they become "extinct" (to borrow a term)?
Ben Franklin gave us about two hundred years from the adoption of the Constitution. American culture is dissolving in the cheap acid of multiculturalism which is really more of an idea ABOUT culture, rather than a culture in itself.
I believe that all tradition, culture and religion seems to suffer under the omnivorous tyranny of ideology which has come to dominate all dialogue since Descartes.
I have come to recognize ideology as Original Sin writ large across the pages of history.
182 posted on
02/13/2004 6:32:59 AM PST by
TradicalRC
(While the wicked stand confounded, Call me, with thy saints surrounded. -The Boondock Saints)
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