Misconceptions about Natural Selection

[alphabet]

Hello,

I'm trying to find an easy way to explain to someone that Natural Selection isn't related to human stupidity.

"How this thing about Darwin Awards is Natural Selection, because an individual does something stupid and dies from it."

[JorgeLobo]

and how do you know it doesn't?

[alextemplet]

I am of the opinion that most human stupidity has more to do with not using the intelligence we have, rather than lacking it in the first place.

[Darby]

The critical question is whether the stupidity / poor judgment is heritable or not.

[David George]

That can be answered if the "stupidity gene" is expressed or not.
my ans is very hypothetical.

[AstusAleator]

Well I would say there's not much "natural" selection left in humans. We've completely changed our environment to a degree that there's nothing "natural" left about it. Take all of humanity and dump them out in a wilderness and see how many of them last.
We are still affected by limited resources, population growth and competition, and disease; however, we use technology and accumulated knowledge to tackle these problems and diminish their negative effects.

[charles brough]

Hello,I'm trying to find an easy way to explain to someone that Natural Selection isn't related to human stupidity."How this thing about Darwin Awards is Natural Selection, because an individual does something stupid and dies from it."

Having a lower I.Q. can be an asset. Higher I.Q. people have fewer children. Doctors kill themselves more than in any other profession. In other animals, horses survive quite well, but not because of intelligence! Your pet dog is smarter. The human brain case has actually shrunk a little during the last 100,000 years. Biological natural selection has had nothing to do with human progress in the last 40,000 years. It has been social evolution that explains it (see: "Destiny & Civilization, the Evolutionary Explanation of Religion and History")---even to the rise and fall of civilizations. . .

charles
http://atheistic-science.com

[alextemplet]

Wow Charles, you actually said something that I agree with.

[charles brough]

How could that have happened? Was it that religion was not involved?

charles
http://atheistic-science.com