Posted on 02/07/2003 8:18:03 PM PST by Ethan Clive Osgoode
I see you are attempting distraction by being the example for both of your erroneously used Latin terms.
First, my conversation was not with Dawkins and second, I was not appealing to authority in pointing out the consequences of the statements of others.
Now, your use of a reference to me was Ad Hominem and your use of the Latin terms was an appeal to authority.
There should also be noted a second level of evolution is at play here. Instead of genes fighting for survival it is a survival of memes or ideas instead. Call it "progress" instead of "evolution". An environment of cooperation is highly benefical to the propagation of ideas so any idea which helps ideas themselves propagate , such as "lets cooperate on this" naturally propagates itself better than a "let's not trade anything." kind of idea.
Genes or Memes, either way its self replicating self adjusting information and the outcome,evolution or progress, is quite similar.
IF DARWIN'S THEORY of evolution were true, there would be in every species a constant and ruthless competition to survive: a competition in which only a few in any generation can be winners. But it is perfectly obvious that human life is not like that, however it may be with other species.
It is good for the survival of mankind both for individual men to cooperate together, and for groups of men to live in the presence of other species that help provide such things as food, fur, etc. Therefore, Darwinism would favor the survival of men who cooperate and conserve other species. Those are the kinds of men that would tend to survive and reproduce. Therefore, the article begins with a complete and utter fallacy as its opening point. It's not worth reading further.
Oh? So why aren't we all tree-hugging communists?
With his first sentence, the author reveals an ignorance of natural selection, and thus of evolution, which is so profound that he rivals some of the hard-core creos on FreeRepublic. Having raised up a false idea (or strawman), he then devotes his diminished intellectual resources to demolishing that false idea. A peaceful occupation for someone who quite likely is -- or should be -- confined to his bed in a psycho ward. The article should have been posted in blue.
I will ping only a few people, not my entire list.
The sad thing is that you probably really believe that.
Yeesh, this is a stretch, particularly since the *jury* is still out on homo sapiens as a successful species. We may have been able to temporarily circumvent natural selection with advanced medical care and sanitation, but in the end our tinkering with biology alone may cause us to be selected for extinction. Many individuals with hertitable disorders now live long enough to breed...and pass on the traits. Our love-affair with antibiotics has accelerated advantageous mutations within pathogens beyond our capability to adapt. AIDS and other emergent diseases are burning across cultural and social divides. I fear the future for our species is not a rosy as this author wants to think.
Because being responsible capitalists works so much better, silly!Therefore, Darwinism would favor the survival of men who cooperate and conserve other species. Those are the kinds of men that would tend to survive and reproduce.
Oh? So why aren't we all tree-hugging communists?
Well you got me there.
I see. You are what David Stove would call a Darwinian "Hard Man", or rather, Hard Woman. As such, you might enjoy reading part II: Darwinism's Dilemma (part II: Hard Man).
Total absolute nonsense. First of all, intelligence is useful in numerous things in life, not just in war. Second of all, even amongst animals there is war - war between species and war between those in the same species for mates. So intelligence is useful in numerous situations as anyone with half a brain should understand.
Evolutionists often cite this as supporting their theory but there are a couple of problems with it:
1. If the whole poulation had the trait then it would reproduce 1/4 less than other populations of the same species. (check out genetics 101).
2. Even bigger problem is that we have never found a population with as much as 50% of it carrying this trait. ( I think 25% or so is the highest). Now the question is, how does the rest of the population manage to survive malaria? If this mutation was the only way to survive it then it would exist in 100% of the population in malarial areas. Clearly there are other reasons why people survive malaria so this is not the reason for it. Let's note that the black death, one of the worst illnesses known, killed between 1/4 and 1/3 of Europe's population by all accounts, yet there was no 'immunity' to it in this fashion. Clearly, human beings have the ability to fight many diseases and survive, this is part of the inherent strenght of the genome pool of a species.
That's a pretty silly statement. Even evolutionists admit that we are at the top of the 'evolutionary tree'. We are the masters of the beasts - as the Bible said many millenia ago.
BTW - who is this *jury*?????
That's a straw man argument. I didn't say intelligence is only useful for war, only that war is the evolutionary reason we are intelligent. Those of us alive today are the living offspring of the winning warmakers. You attack me in a warlike anger because you are the product of war. It's both our nature, and we are naturally very good at it.
We are about to go to war with Iraq. They will lose because they are not as advanced at war as you and I. This is human evolution in action. We aren't going to kill all the Iraqis, but if they tick us off enough, at the press of a few buttons we can turn Iraq into a radioactive sheet of glass. Recent history shows it's not totally beyond us to do that.
This debate was hashed out in 1882. If you would like a better explanation you can read it in Darwin's own words at http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin/texts/descent/descent05.html
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