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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/21/2009 : 07:09:16
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Neither are fit for human consumption.
But whilst visiting Pharyngula, I found this linked in an article:
"Humans, like all other living beings, are a product of four billion years of evolutionary processes. We have been shaped and pounded by the rhythms of our planet's geology and climate as well by the continual interplay among biological organisms. You exist because eons of your ancestors, from bacteria to primates, struggled and reproduced successfully. The genes that reside in each and every one of us are the ones that helped our ancestors not only to survive, but to out-reproduce their competitors. And as improbable as it might seem, you are here through the success of billions and billions of generations.
Every living species on the planet -- from cabbages to whales -- has gone through this process, and evolved to fit a particular niche. Our human niche just happens to have emphasized brains over brawn, which has given us language, creativity, curiosity, and the most complicated social system of any species. However, our incredibly powerful brain is locked in a continual battle between reason and ancestral fears. This conflict helps us understand why religion has held such a grip on humanity and why reason must still fight to be heard.
Our ability to solve complex cognitive problems evolved over our long, tenuous, evolutionary history. Many adaptations that squeezed through the sieve of environmental constraints have led up to more and more complex brains. This culminated in fine-tuned software for negotiating the competitive social hierarchies that have been a crucial aspect to primate, especially human, evolution. We humans evolved the uniquely complex communication system that is language, and it in turn drove the evolution of more and more complex social interactions."
A very interesting read that I will make no attempt to elaborate upon -- heh, as if I could!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Edited by - filthy on 01/21/2009 07:14:11
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 01/21/2009 : 08:41:10 [Permalink]
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It's very hard to speculate on the future wvolution of man. We now know that evolution exists and we have the ability to manipulate our own lines. I get the feeling that any further speciation will only happen intentionally.
On a side note the topic name made me think of Pepsi-Cola, which is an anagram of Episcopal, intentionally. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
 Posted - 01/21/2009 : 09:10:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
It's very hard to speculate on the future wvolution of man. We now know that evolution exists and we have the ability to manipulate our own lines. I get the feeling that any further speciation will only happen intentionally.
On a side note the topic name made me think of Pepsi-Cola, which is an anagram of Episcopal, intentionally.
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I believe we have reached a point where we will control our own evolution....for good or bad. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
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Religion and the Big Mac
