Re: Evolutionary ethics (Re: What does an evolutionist actually believe?)


"Aardvark J. Bandersnatch, MP, BLT, DOA" <someonelse@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb
im Newsbeitrag news:pKuof.650200$xm3.565268@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Sylvia Knörr" <Sylvia.Knoerr_NoSpam_@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:dnfva8$r3d$03$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> > Hm, since war didn't exactly come as a surprise (given all the
ultimatums
> > preceding it), it's hard to believe that Saddam was unprepared.

> Odd as it sounds, that's just about right. He *was* prepared for an
> invasion, but he was not prepared for the kind of force and tactics that
> would be employed against him. He had also deployed his forces in a way
that
> can only be called backwards: the reserve troops (ill trained, ill
equipped,
> ill fed, ill housed, and so on) were put on the front lines, the main
forces
> were deployed in defensive positions around the Sunni Triangle. There were
> several other oddities that I cannot recall, but Saddam simply was not a
> military man, and he knew nothing about strategy or tactics. Prepared,
yes;
> well prepared, no.

Though I still have a hard time swallowing it, this is the most plausible
explanation I've ever heard about this issue.

> > All that, however, is rather moot, since we are all aware that
> >> Saddam & Sons had used chemical weapons repeatedly against his
> >> neighboring
> >> countries as well as his own people (and I say "his own people" in the
> >> loosest possible manner).

> > I thought the facilities to produce chemical weapones had largely been
> > destroyed in Gulf War I.

> Some of the facilities had been destroyed. However, it doesn't take that
> long to rebuild facilities, and he had about ten years to get it done.

In spite of all the UN inspectors checking the facilities? Hmmm...

> >> Usually it takes hundreds of years for a new idea to take root. Modern
> >> American dissonance over evolution is small potatoes compared to the
> > tumult
> >> over the concept of zero, the heliocentric system, and Newton's gravity
> >> (Action at a distance? Impossible!).

> > Ah, I had forgotten about thes quarrels. Thanks for reminding me! But to
be
> > honest, all these things are hard to swallow when they come as something
> > new, because they revolute the model of the world.

> Very true. Humans are loathe to change and will resist rapid change with
> violence.

Then again it is amazing that the Evolution theory is well accepted in
Europe, and I didn't hear about any kind of protest against it to be a
normal part of the textbooks in Germany. The concept of Intelligent Design
never got popular in Germany, and anyone who promotes it here is considered
as a weirdo or as VERY naive at best case.

> >> >> Thanks, but I can still manage to read a bit of German. I'm rusty,
but
> >> >> still useable.

> >> > Cool! :-)

> >> Oh c'mon, I have to read Husserl and Heidegger on a regular basis.

> > In German?? Wow, that's hard stuff. You must be pretty fluent then.

> >> Actual
> >> conversation, however, would he a horror show of epic proportions!

> > LOL, I wish I could be a witness. :-)
> > You probably exaggerate.

> Oh, I do not exaggerate. I have not spoken a word of German in over twenty
> years. Even my reading knowledge is rusting away. If put in a situation
> where German is being spoken, I would rather remain silent. I was never
> anywhere near fluent, anyhow.

I bet your German is just in a dormant mode, you could probably revive it in
no time if only you had a necessity to do it - which you have actually NOT.
I think German is too complicated for a world language anyway. With a
language like this, how could the nazis ever DREAM about being top of the
world? LOL

> >> > At least the outcome is evidence for the fact that our ancestors
turned
> >> > to stand up on the rear legs. :-)

> >> At some point they did. Establishing when that point was is another
> > question
> >> and the mechanism of and for that standing is the most intriguing of
all.

> > Alas, it seems that Prof. Niemitz remained vague about WHEN and WHERE it
> > happened. But he is quite detailled about the mechanism.

> Some genetic research will eventually help us determine WHEN the mutation
> occurred. That will help us establish likely species.

Now that I checked Niemitz's book again I eventually found some hints for
the "where and when": he suspects the time between 8 and 6 million years
before now, and the Red Sea as the location. There are geological hints that
near the Afar triangle there was a bigger island in the Red Sea (which had
been part of the Mediterrenean Sea before, but later it opened to the Indian
Ocean). This so-called "Denakil Island" had about 2 third the size of Sri
Lanka - big enough to be a habitat for a bigger group of hominids, and it
must have been a rich tropical environment with several types of edible
plants and animals, and - more important - it was isolated long enough to
permit a group of hominids to have their own rapid evolution - with biped
semi-aquatic social beings as a result. When the Danakil Island got
connected with the mainland again, the hominids could no longer interbreed
with their "relatives" in Africa - the human species was born.

> >> > Indeed, it must have happened quickly, and it must have happened to a
> >> > relative small isolated group of hominids (or animals? I think this
could
> >> > also have been the turning point for when we started to be human.)

> >> Hmmmm. That is the quandary... did this happen BEFORE the turn to
> > hominidae
> >> or AFTER?

> > It could be the very same moment in time.

> Exactly. It could be any of those three. That's part of the reason why it
is
> important to determine the date, even with a fair margin of error. Once we
> have an approximate date, we can begin the work that will narrow things
> down. When we've done that we can move forward to establish what kind(s)
of
> environment we grew up in (or into).

We have good reasons to assume a riverine environment with tropical forests,
coastlines and rivers to supply the fresh water. And lots of seafood
proteine to foster big, energy-guzzling brains.


.

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