Why You May Never Comprehend Human Evolution



The characteristic that is most prominent about the
peanut gallery here in this NG (and which has been
vividly displayed here recently by Macfarlane,
Eshleman, and, especially, Clark [surreal!]) is an
almost complete inablility to converse in some of
the more complex (and controversial) aspects of
evolutionary theory. You idiots have been sold a
cartoon version of NS and you are too lazy-minded
to realize it.

Talking to anthropologists about evolutionary
theory is like talking to your dog about auto
mechanics. For me to have asked Ross to explain
why he thinks Dawkins supposedly put forth some
kind of selfish gene theory is like asking your
dog whether he thinks your car needs a tune-up.
Predictably, I got no response from Ross.

Maybe the most difficult thing for many people
when it comes to evolutionary theory is to defeat
the natural tendency for the human mind to assume
absolutistic assumptions. The fact that Dawkins
can construct an explanation of evolution from
the perspective of genes as 'the unit of
selection' does not mean that selection does not
ALSO happen to individuals, groups, species, etc.
More to the point (and at the risk of speaking
over the heads of all who might read this) the
solution to the "unit of selection problem" is
the realization that is that the level (not unit)
of adaptation is dictated not by theoretical
absolutes (like selfish genes) but by situational
factors. And these situational factors will vary.

Human evolution began when our chimpanzee-like
ancestors found themselves in situational factors
in which they faced extinction if they did not
develop some kind of strategy to survive the dry
season of their new monsoon habitat, which began
in east Africa about 8.1 mya. That these are the
situational factors is obvious. Human evolution
is not that difficult to discern. The real
difficulties of human evolution have almost
nothing to do with the evidence of human
evolution and almost everything to do with the
fact that most people understand evolution about
as well as your dog understands internal
combustion.


Jim McGinn

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cladistics and the place of australopithecines
    ... ancestral to gorillas and that gracile forms may have been ancestral ... Human Evolution 5, 295-297. ... ancestors of the African apes? ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Re: James Watson, Evolutionist & Racist Dirtbag
    ... happens when God is rejected as Creator and Africa is considered the ... to see that man was also a product of evolution. ... Prove that claim Dishonest Ray, or accept you are a liar once more. ... Darwin originally based human evolution on: ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: James Watson, Evolutionist & Racist Dirtbag
    ... happens when God is rejected as Creator and Africa is considered the ... Cops think they are above the law and their racism ... Evolution and its orgins in Darwin's racist mind is ... Darwin originally based human evolution on: ...
    (talk.origins)
  • A survey of human evolution
    ... SURVEY: HUMAN EVOLUTION ... population of one species, known to modern science as Homo sapiens, ... understanding of humanity's past. ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)
  • Re: Natural Selection on Drugs
    ... schizophrenia. ... The scientists said they found evidence of positive selection, ... product of other adaptive changes during human evolution. ...
    (talk.origins)