Posted on 10/27/2009 12:31:30 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Modern Men Are Wimps
Oct 23, 2009 Whatever happened to survival of the fittest? Our ancestors were much stronger, says the author of a new book on anthropology. PhysOrg reported on a book by Peter McAllister that says todays males dont measure up physically to their counterparts even a century ago, let alone those in the Roman empire and earlier.
According to McAllister humans have lost 40 percent of the shafts of the long bones because they are no longer subjected to the kind of muscular loads that were normal before the industrial revolution, the article said. Even our elite athletes are not exposed to anywhere near the challenges and loads that were part of everyday life for pre-industrial people. Cro-Magnon men were taller, more fit and had bigger brains than the average man of today. Neanderthal women could have easily whipped Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle, he claims. Records show that even in recorded history men had better overall fitness on average.
Manthropology: The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male blames our inadequacies on our sedentary lifestyles. Its a good thing we are not competing against ancient people in the Olympics. McAllister says Greek rowers in their trireme ships could outperform todays world-class rowers. He wrote of Roman soldiers who completed the equivalent of one and a half marathons a day, carrying equipment weighing half their body weight, and Australian Aborigines who could throw a spear over 10 meters further than the current javelin world record. Even a century ago Rwandan men and Australian natives could have eclipsed modern track and field records. Todays champions merely outcompete one another in a bad lot. Even our elite athletes are not exposed to anywhere near the challenges and loads that were part of everyday life for pre-industrial people.
McAllister claims modern weaknesses are reversible with the right kind of diet and exercise. The benefits can accrue to individuals as well as populations.
There are still ethnic groups today who show what humans are capable of. Remember the sherpas in the 06/17/2005 entry? (see also 10/31/2007, bullet 4). Its understandably hard to live optimally with todays hectic urban lifestyles that subject both men and women to mental stress in a sitting position (e.g., sitting in traffic hurrying to get somewhere, working at a computer all day). Each individual needs to assess their fitness level and improve as opportunity allows. We suggest vigorous walks in nature, up and down hills, carrying a load when possible. Whatever McAllisters book shows (and it is undoubtedly oversimplified), it is not showing that evolutionary progress is occurring. Read the Old Testament and study ancient civilizations for amazing feats of strength and endurance. Its startling to think of the extreme ancient monuments around the world that were built without petroleum and electromagnetic power.Darwinian anthropology creates a mindset that we are evolving upward from the apes. That runs diametrically opposed to the Biblical worldview that says creation was perfect at the beginning, but was cursed and is running downhill. Old testament people lived for centuries. It is more credible to think that mutational load over millennia of exposure to cosmic rays and other mutagens is taking its toll. Scientific and engineering knowledge can accumulate to counter these trends, but thats intelligent design, not evolution. Wed better take care of what we have left.
LOL!
You are correct. I should’ve wrote 5’9”.
I liked being taller there for a sec.
“More important than diet and exercise is will. As long as little Johnnie just sits and wags his thumbs above the game controller, he ain’t about to develop the will”
However lazy and fat, put Little Johnnie face to face with a neanderthal and Johnnie will prevail. So long as he gets to bring along a gun, that is. Just to be fair, we’ll let Ogg bring his culture’s best weapon. A bone-tipped spear, or whatever. I bet on the gun.
Right.
So which was Adam or Noah?
Cro-Magnon man or Neanderthal?
No fallacy ever is.
"Man arose, not because he was the strongest, or the fastest, or had the sharpest teeth and claws, it was because he was the smartest and that allowed him to adapt to every ecosystem on the planet and dominate in the competition for food and mates."
Fallacy of affirming the consequent noted.
You do know how type is determined, correct?
You do realize it is impossible to determine, correct?
You knew that before you posted, correct?
Does Rampage Jackson or Shogun Rua ring a bell? d:op
And then there's the Obama voters.
I'd even go you one better:
Give Johnnie NOTHING but a one-month time to prepare, and the odds are, Johnnie will have some kind of killing machine ready that will make the Neanderthal either A) die or B) Bow down in worship.
Even a sword would kill a Neanderthal..... and most of us know about saltpeter/sulphur/charcoal. Saltpeter can be harvested from any bat cave, sulphur is abundant around any volcanically active area, and it's a cinch to make charcoal. Not too much after that, you have either a gun or a series of bombs.
Boy, that was illuminating....not. Either bring something to the conversation or sit quietly while the grown-ups talk.
Were they Neanderthals or Cro-Mags or what?
“Simple fallacy. There’s no meaning there. Just self-referencing, circular definitions.”
It can’t be both a fallacy and a tautology at the same time. What it proves may be trivial, but it’s true. And at one point, it was revelatory. As for “meaning,” it may not say much, but that’s not the point. The point is to shoot down fools who write articles about how humans aren’t as strong as they used to be, and imply that somehow evolution isn’t working anymore.
But that’s never what Natural Selection has been about. Organisms aren’t always getting stronger, faster, smarter, more complex, or whatever it is we obsess about. Things do evolve from “lower” to “higher” forms, but lower forms persist, and often are more reproductively successful than their more complex alternatives.
The thing is, evolution is about what makes it through to the next generation. It’s about the genes, not the organism. Whatever genes survive were the best at surviving, for whatever reason. There’s no more “meaning” in this than there needs to be. What sort of meaning are you looking for, anyway, in a world where humans and slugs live side by side, each perpetuating their type about as effectively as the other?
You mean pointing out that you object to fallacy and then immediately engage in fallacy yourself didn't cause any neurons to fire?
"Either bring something to the conversation or sit quietly while the grown-ups talk."
Fallacy of begging the question noted.
could wipe the floor with Jackson or Shogun IMHO.
What if the contestants had to make their own weapons?
I watched him get wooped by a little Japanese dude in Pride. Ya never know what’s gonna happen in MMA.
Fallacy of false dilemma noted.
"Noah was Adam's grandson as I recall. First and third generation."
You are wrong about that too.
Whew! THAT was close.
For a sentence or two I thought he might say that man has EVOLVED to adapt to our changing enviroment.
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