"A Man's a Man for all that!" - Rabbie Burns

"Religion? No thanks. I prefer not to outsource my brainwashing."
Trying to get your average Joe creationist to understand the phrase scientific theory is as hard as getting a fish to enjoy mountaineering. Its an unimagined world for them - it requires a complete reversal of their normal modes of thinking and being. The fact that humans could explain the complexities of this world without a creating God is a world view they cannot grasp. It's like asking a tuna if it appreciates the view from the top of Mount Everest.

May 16, 2009

New evidence of Natural Selection in Humans

Evolution can be a very efficient mechanism over the long term in shaping the development of an organism so that it becomes more efficient in its environment.

Take the Crocodile for example. It is a supreme predator and wonderfully adapted to a "wait then pounce" method of hunting. While it has weak muscles to open its jaws it can bite down with incredible force and speed. It couples this with an ability to lunge forward in the blink of an eye.

Humans, who evolved in Africa are, like other African primates, generally wary and scared of the Crocodile. No doubt it feasted in the past on our distant kin and some echo of this lurks within us. Look at a crocodile and you can just tell - that this is a beast built for killing.

As it is for Crocodiles of course then so it is with human beings. Our evolutionary advantages include our ability to think in the abstract and language.

We can use our brains to think things to ourselves like "That beast with the large jaws full off teeth is dangerous. I will keep my distance"

We can communicate these thoughts to others and co-operate in surviving by saying things like "dont go near that crocodile because it is dangerous and might eat you."

Within any species though there are some individuals who are just better fitted at surviving than others. Most humans are intelligent but some humans are dumber than is typical for our species. Nature has its ways of tending to weed out such individuals - a process called natural selection.

It is rare to capture this process in action in our own species. This video though shows the process of natural selection at work in humans and how nature is ruthless at dealing with the less fit.


9 comments:

Looney said...

Beautiful!

Delirious said...

Wow..he's dumb. lol

This is the song that immediately came to my mind while I watched that video. lol (takes a few seconds to get to the songs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNUfk4z0O8g

Delirious said...

Oh, I was just reading that they deleted this song from the original Peter Pan...I guess they thought it was too violent for a G rated cartoon. :)

Looney said...

Delirious, I think Bunc is trying to tell us something. The guy has an American accent.

Delirious said...

lol Looney, that never sunk in until you mentioned it. :)

Bunc, thought you might be interested in this article.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/57333/Dinosaurs-revisited-in-BYU-paleontology-museum.html

Delirious said...

erm...I'm assuming you know that BYU is our church school, and that it was the University I attended. Just thought you would be interested to see that yes, Mormons believe dinosaurs existed. ;)

Bunc said...

Delirious I do belive that there is some hope for you lot yet. A museum full of diincosaur fossils and not one word suggesting that they are only five thousand years old.
I may have to moderate my views about the LDS

Marf said...

That is not natural selection. We are a social species. Since humans have evolved to depend upon each other, it is the natural instincts of everyone present to come to the stupid guy's rescue.

Thus the stupid guy survives and still has a chance to pass on his flawed genetic code.

Unknown said...

yes huamns are social species like Guinea pigs, here is a funny joke about natural selection

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