evolution’s a strange theory. how an educated, wealthy white british subject could possibly think to be descended from apes is beyond me. of course, he was right, but how he could have gotten to the root of evolutionary theory from his perspective is the most amazing thing sbout darwin’s work.
evolution, and its opponents – though to say someone is an opponent of evolution sounds like i am suggesting they don’t want to breed – are a particular passion of mine. those people who feel threatened by what, after all is said and done, is only a theory, make no sense at all in their assertions that evolution does not, cannot, will not ever happen.
they think it discounts their belief in god, or whatever diety they personally believe in, to think that the world is a changeable place. in a logical sense, no, evolution does not imply that there is no god. logic has plenty of proofs of that without bringing up evolution. of course, if people could think logically for themselves, then they wouldn’t be so vocal about their religious beliefs.
i put it to them this way: does a son resemble his father? does a child inherit traits from his parents that are not learned?
if the mother had chosen another man over the child’s father with whom to copulate, then the child would be different, right? more like the father that the mother chose?
so, if a man has some trait that women find undesirable, and he never fathers shildren, then that trait will not get passed on, where the attractive man will have more children, and so his traits will be passed on.
repeat that a million times, for a million generations, and you have a species that is made up of only attractive traits, and unattractive, unsuccessful traits will have disappeared. the human race of today.
except it’s not that easy with humans. intelligence evolved in humans because monkeys needed to be smarter than the tigers that would otherwise eat them. smart monkeys lived long enough to have smart babies. but what do we do now that there are no tigers?
intelligence is more of a burden to us, in evolutionary terms anyway, then a boon. since it seems that the intelligent ones among us have fewer children. in fact, the trend seems to be toward the poorer, less intelligent, less evolutionarily sound individuals that have more children.
whole litters sometimes. and why? because they can. it takes no money and little effort to get a woman pregnant who is fertile and willing. and any 12 year old boy can father a child – it was an advantage for men when the average lifespan was 30. since of the invention of contraception, though, women have been able to pick which of their mates even has the possibility of impregnating them. but then, that’s only the women that are smart enough to use contraception, who can afford it, and who know, and can anticipate the consequences of having a child.
those that don’t see the consequences, or just don’t care, are the ones forcing the trand of our evolution away from breeding for intelligence.
next time: enforced contraception and the plow