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 today’s males don’t 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. It’s a good thing we are not competing against ancient people in the Olympics. McAllister says Greek rowers in their trireme ships could outperform today’s 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. Today’s 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). It’s understandably hard to live optimally with today’s 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 McAllister’s 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. It’s 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 that’s intelligent design, not evolution. We’d better take care of what we have left.
They don't call a shovel the "ignert spoon" for nuthin'.
“What if the contestants had to make their own weapons?”
I know how to make a cannon out of duct tape. Thank you Mythbusters.
“It has only been during the past thirty years or so, I swear, that there have been so many fat people.”
I saw an article a while back on the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland. It was built for the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair, then moved to Disneyland in California where it’s been ever since. The ride works by moving the guests in boats along a water-filled trough (like a logging flume). The boats have had to be redesigned and rebuilt recently because they weren’t holding up. They worked fine in 1964 but the passengers have gotten so much heavier since then...
I can remember reading that Chinese Coolies ran all day with 300 pounds balanced on the bar on their shoulders, and that stevedores used to carry 300 pound hogsheads up rickety gangplanks...
It’s been posted two or three times already, which suggests we work too hard around here, so, *not* wimps. ;’)
Why can’t anyone makeout my clever keyboard face? It’s a hoodrat with a sideways cap sticking his tongue out at you!
Hope you know I’m just joshing you :o)
All the best—GGG
It took me long enough to figure out what this thing was :o) and you come up with something new.
Of course, and by now you know I’m testy but not THAT thin skinned. Cheers!
“It has only been during the past thirty years or so, I swear, that there have been so many fat people.”
...I started noticing it about then myself...another thing I began to see was men’s clothing makers started making bigger sizes....calling them ‘relaxed fit”....sounds better than saying Fat Boy pants.
Average heights by year of birth, men (cm)
1950–1955 1956-1960 1961–1965 1966–1970 1971–1975 1976–1980
Denmark 180.3 179.7 181.0 181.7 181.3 183.7
Sweden 179.6 179.4 180.9 180.5 180.4 181.2
Austria 176.3 177.0 179.2 178.5 178.7 179.6
Belgium 176.2 177.3 177.2 179.4 179.2 179.5
Finland 177.8 179.0 179.6 177.9 178.0 178.7
Greece 174.7 175.4 176.6 177.0 178.4 178.6
Ireland 174.9 176.3 176.1 176.9 177.0 177.4
Italy 172.5 174.3 174.9 174.7 175.4 177.1
Spain 171.3 171.7 173.3 174.7 175.7 176.1
Portugal 168.8 170.0 170.0 169.8 172.1 172.9
Average heights by year of birth, women (cm)
1950–1955 1956–1960 1961–1965 1966–1970 1971–1975 1976–1980
Denmark 167.2 166.6 167.5 168.5 168.1 168.6
Belgium 163.4 164.9 165.0 166.4 166.2 167.8
Sweden 165.4 166.4 166.7 166.9 166.7 167.2
Austria 165.6 166.2 166.7 166.3 167.7 167.1
Italy 161.4 162.3 163.0 163.9 164.4 166.5
Finland 164.3 164.9 165.5 165.5 165.2 165.9
Greece 163.3 164.1 164.8 165.5 166.4 165.9
Spain 160.4 161.0 161.3 162.8 164.4 165.5
Ireland 162.7 162.7 163.2 164.1 164.7 164.4
Portugal 158.9 159.3 160.5 160.8 162.5 162.5
You have something to say?
Didn’t think so.
...and to think that only the fittest survive is LUDICROUS...
Thanks for the ping!
You have heard the saying: Only in America are poor people fat. Blame it on food stamps? They go to the store and stock up on junk food.
I'm not sure if you know who Dick Proenneke is, but your post reminded me of him. Granted, he didn't sleep in the open when building his cabin, but I think you'll be surprised by the similarities. PBS did adocumentary about him called "Alone in the Wilderness." I've seen it numerous times and I never tire of it.
Google if you're interested.
You have something to say? Didn't think so.
And to think that what exists actually supports evolution is LUDICROUS.
Unless you engage in logical fallacy...
The comparison insults faux science.
Sooooooooo...........you believe that one assumed timeline is better than another?
Aren’t we taller and bigger than ever? Don’t we live a lot longer?
“Evolution has no meaning. Natural selection has no meaning. Survival of the survivors has no meaning.”
—You’d have a point if Natural Selection was a theory about who survives – but it’s not. It’s a theory that says that survival and reproductive success are not completely random (something that even most YECs agree with) and what occurs as a result of that differential reproductive success (the part they disagree with).
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