Question:

Do you think the human race is still evolving?

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A large part of evolution is the "weeding out" of inferior individuals, but with all the technology and medicines of the modern world more and more people are surviving when they wouldn't have just a few hundred years ago.

Yes, I believe in evolution, and I don't want to hear about how God created everything and how there's a purpose for everything.

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  1. yes


  2. We continually evolve, perhaps we also devolve but life is change

  3. I believe you are staring at the next step in human evolution. Technology has the potential of replacing a lot of the functions we used to do by our own hands. We are using computers for interacting, controlling our factory machines and even in some cases controlling our vital functions (like heart).

    Biologically humans are getting weaker, but there is no need for us to be stronger as we have killed our natural predators a long time ago.

  4. evolution always happens.

  5. You say, "A large part of evolution is the "weeding out" of inferior individuals.  

    How simplistic. "Inferior" is a word up for interpretation.   Using your statement,  Dr. Stephen Hawking would have died at an early age.

    Technology is advancing at an exponential rate. As society is able to control more of the things that used to be cast in stone, it is offering hope and a normal life to individuals that had, in years past, been doomed to an early death.

    I think it is part of the "Master Plan" of a higher being that earth's inhabitants evolve, just as we have for the past million years or so.

  6. An excellent question!

    I think we are but in a far more subtle way than most people think of it. People say man from came from apes but really we came through homo-erectus (no smirking at the back), home neanderthalis etc to homo-sapiens and there's no reason to believe that progression has stopped.

    I don't expect that we'll evolve significantly in a physical way, although I believe the human race is getting taller all the time. I think the evolution is more a mental one, going from homo sapiens to homo-ubersapiens as the ever increasing complexity of society and technology forces this upon us.

    Another interesting "evolutionary" option presents itself if mankind were to start getting seriously into cybernetics - who know's what would happen then.

  7. You are wrong. Evolution doesn’t care about categories like inferior or superior. It’s the change which occurs to a species by means of hereditarity. If an individual succeeds in passing on his genes to the next generation, he is biologically fit. It is not important to this process if we humans think his traits are good or bad. So yes, evolution will always take place, but it is not restricted to the survival of the fittest. It’s also chance and other mechanism.

  8. Survival of the fittest has been altered by technological innovation, population growth, industrialization, post-industrialization, the information-based society, mass media and other cultural institutions.  One's destiny is connected to the future of one's culture, but in individualistic societies, it is also connected to personal decison-making and the status of the family.  So as for evolution, Western society is de-evolutionizing while evolutionizing at the same time, creating conflicts, social stratification and struggle.  However, it is the most adaptive society in the world.

    I worry for indigenous people, ancient civilizations and traditional societies.  As for the cultural-political hegemony of both Islamic and Western civilizations, it has brought us to this point and what both sides have done isn't working, so fixing this will be a challenge in the new century.  

    I suspect that Islamic civilization will collapse because it is maladaptive, but I am not talking about the followers of Islam and their right to practice their culture and religion but pan-Arabist nationalism combined with anti-Western, anti-Zionist sentiment, support for terrorism and bad governance, something of a more political nature but not exclusive to the Arab fundamentalist leadership (e.g. Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan).  This will put moderate countries such as Morocco, Dubai, U.A.E. and Jordan in better positions economically and politically but they run subject to the risks of instability and disconnection from the larger Arab world.  

    Turkey, as well, will benefit from this and is at the epicenter of European, Russian, Asian, Hebrew and Arab civilizations, making it the future of the Near East and Middle East, but what they choose to do with their power will influence the entire region.  Turkey's economic and political successes will benefit from a Western-European alliance and it is our chance to help out a moderate Muslim country with a real future ahead of it.

    The Arab world's leadership needs to allow for the right to self-determination of their own peoples, including Palestinians, without allowing for outside interference or putting up obstacles in the way of their success.  This means acceptance of various nation-states, especially Lebanon, because Iran and Syria interfere far too much and our governments in Europe and North America keep offering aid to a corrupt, pro-Western government, which has encouraged sympathy for anti-government activities (not democratic in nature).  I believe that the Syrian leadership will need to be taken out at some point, but not right now, because it could lead to a war between Israel and Iran as well as the destruction of Lebanon, so time will have to pass before then.  Syria is a major cause of instability, terror, human rights violations, anti-Zionism and Palestinian destabilization.  I am sure history will show that their influence somehow factored into the near-civil war in Gaza and the election results of 2006.

  9. I think you are right.  There are many MANY people who 100 or a 1000 years ago would not have survived to pass down their genes, but today are allowed to do so because of advances in technology and medicine and culture.

    Is that a bad thing?  I don't know.  Sometimes it seems like it could be, but maybe not.

    If you consider sickle-cell animia--a condition that most people see as disease, but it has (or had) real importance in combating malaria.

    When we have these thoughts we risk entering the world of "Social Darwinism."  And that has lead humans into dark parts of history:  (like n***s).

    However, People are still evolving it seems.

    There are african prostitutes that some believe might have developed some sort of protection against HIV-AIDS (although real reasearch has yet to be done).  

    Humans constantly get taller, stronger, faster, (and despite what others might have you believe) smarter.  Most people today learn (or begin to learn) algebra in middle school.  When in the past, it was learned in college or high school.

    We are definetly adapting to our environment.  But there are so many of us here on Earth.  That it would be difficult to evolve into something unrecognizable because a mutation would take centuries to spread across the enitre world.  

    Perhaps if a small portion of humans were stranded somewhere (like mars) for a couple of generations there might be a more obvious evolutional change.

  10. If evolution were fact instead of theory, wouldn't it there be a rational explanation for all of the idiots that are alive today. This is proof positive of God, otherwise some families would have been wiped out hundreds if not thousands of years ago. Also, what makes you think that evolution is not part of Gods plan. If you check with the greatest Physicists that are alive today, they believe that the only way to come up with a working theory of everything is to include God. Another proof, although God cannot give us definite proof or you would not need faith, which is the only way to salvation through Jesus. Yes, I said what you didn't want to hear, but what did you expect? Also, if you want to read other articles with similar ideas, go to

    http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/80...

    and read some of my articles, you will be sure to hate me after that. I even have an article on "Behind the Scenes at a Billy Graham Crusade" where I used to work. Faith is the answer to all of your questions. Thanks Zgrinch.....

  11. Absolutely.  Species specialization is all about survival.  It's important for all of us to accept though, that the characteristic that separates us from most species is our intelligence.  There are animal species that aid, nurture, and provide for members that are not able to be independent.  However, there  is a signal exchanged between the victim and the capable, that transmits the message of the futility of aid.  The victim is caressed and then left to die.

  12. Yes gene drift (mutation) happens regardless of what natural selection does.  Now, due to more of those with genetic problems living to reprodutive ages & reproducing, we are not be weeding out those nature would have destroyed.  Recent developments have been selecting against those with superior intelligence as those with an IQ above 125 are only 1/4 as likely to produce offspring as those with an IQ below 90. How this will play out in the long run is anybody's guess.

    I suspect some sort of natural selection will soon kick in & it may be more cultural or social than environmental.

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