what are we evolving into. more people are gay and i am not knocking it but is it a sign of evolving. and it also seems that more and more people are smarter, living longer etc...
what are your thoughts on this
2006-10-27 15:04:32 · 23 answers · asked by Enigma 6 in Social Science ➔ Anthropology
any links on the subject will be appreciated
2006-10-27 15:06:49 · update #1
isn't it possible that we could be evolving out of existance due to population etc..
or maybe there is something in the water
2006-10-27 15:22:32 · update #2
It has long been held in certain circles that the "deep mystery" of the human brain has no climax and continues to evolve. A good example will be Uri Geller (I may have misspelled the family name) who bends spoons and could sense goldmines etc underground. A better example are people who repeatedly break the barrier of time to predict things through either dreams or wakeful wanderings of the mind. The latter are respected in religious circles as the "near ones" with respect to God. Hard to explain. But the evolution here refers to each indivdual reaching his potential to the fullest. In finding Self, you find God.
Gay people have existed a long time. Evolution favors a trait in those who reproduce.......homosexuality cannot permit that. The two ideas are thus incoherent. This answers a part of your question.
2006-10-29 15:38:23 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The human race is still evovling, but to a much lesser extent than in the past. Humans have slowed down the process of natural selection. Some factor must make an indivdual more or less able to reproduce. Because of new medical advances, once fatal diseases are no longer fatal. Normally this disease would kill off those without an immunity to it, and the survivors would evolve a resistance to that disease. Modern Medicine prevents it. Instead of sacrificing less fit indivduals for the entire race, we are giving those less fit indivduals an artificial immunity. If used correctly an artificial immuntiy can completely wipe a disease off the face of the earth, effectivly acheiving the same ends as sacrificing those people. This explains why more and more children are being born with asthma and peanut allergies. In the past these ailments would be fatal most of the time, which meant there were very few instances of this gene in the gene pool because indivduals with these conditions would usually die before they were able to reproduce. Now people with these conditions are able to reproduce and the instance of the gene within the gene pool increases. Basically, instead of evolving, the human race is becoming more and more varied. Modern Medicine allows people with once fatal gene combinations to survive and reproduce, thus increasing the variation within the gene pool. Since this variation is not selected on by anything, the human race has reached a stagnation point in repect to further evolution.
Homosexuality is displayed in many higher apes. The only reason it has not been evident in humans until now is because social taboos developed against it once it no longer contributed to the welfare of the human race. Now that social morals are changing it is now more acceptable to admit to a natural condition.
2006-10-29 22:42:41 · answer #2 · answered by datacovdelives 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes we are still evolving. Heres an example from a lecture I heard about this topic: People from islands in the Pacific, such as Samoa, traditionally didn't have much food to eat, some taro and breadfruit maybe but not much of it. In the few thousand years that they lived there, they evolved to have a lower metabolism, in order to get enough energy out of their food. But now that they have access to Western products like cola, which have high calorie levels, they have very high rates of obesity and diabetes. Within the next hudred or so years, they will have to either evolve to have a faster metabolism, or they could die out.
On a larger scale, you have to remember that anything that kills people before they can have children could cause evolution. For instance, back in the day when the plague swept through Europe, a lot those who survived had genes which protect them from the plague, which coincidentally may also protect against AIDS.
Nowadays, millions of children die from malaria, and millions of young people die from AIDS, especially in Africa and south Asia. These diseases will also leave behind people who have evolved a resistance.
2006-10-28 15:37:10 · answer #3 · answered by jellybeanchick 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the human species is evolving, but not so much in the way you stated. Evolution basically means changing and/or adapting over generations to the environment - it isn't a progression towards some sort of "perfect being."
2006-10-27 22:28:37 · answer #4 · answered by JBarleycorn 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is probably not that more people are gay but there is less of a stigma around the idea, allowing more to be openly gay.
Evolution can take thousands of years so your guess as to how people will change is as good as any one elses, though it will still even be so remote that any one would even notice, though I could see how given our life style that people could be alowwed more room to grow taller as seems to be a trend in average population hieght compared to a few hundered years ago especialy when looking at some native Europeans.
2006-10-27 22:12:22 · answer #5 · answered by james v 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Homosexuality has been prevalent throughout history. It isn't happening more today, homosexuals are just persecuted more in this political, right-winged, evangelical goose chase. Study your history. Greece, the Renaissance, the Victorian era. All rampant with homosexuality but not as persecuted. Its in the news today, that's why it seem like it happens more today.
Science is the evolution of the human species that allows us to live longer. Are we any smarter? Who knows? Knowledge is geometrically expounded. Knowing that the world was round, discovering gravity, etc. leads to other discoveries. Flight, the atom, etc. lead to other discoveries. DNA, microwaves, stem cells, etc. leads to more discoveries that don't require discovering the things that have already been discovered..
2006-10-30 00:49:00 · answer #6 · answered by youngliver2000 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I think we are evolving, but that doesn't have anything to do with being gay.
We are living longer and people are smarter, but I think soon we will not even have things like an appendix
2006-10-27 22:08:55 · answer #7 · answered by Dark Knight 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Being "gay" is a sign of evolving? What?! You're proposing that a species is evolving itself out of existence.
"Evolution" presumes that the change is being made to improve the specie's survivability over multiple generations.
So, in anthropoligical terms, "gays" are not an improvement on the survivability of the species over time. Therefore, any apparent increase int he number of "gays" is not an indication of evolution.
2006-10-27 22:17:38 · answer #8 · answered by asperens 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
People have been gay forever-just that it is more socially acceptable so they are able to come out of the closet.
There is one piece of scientific proof I know of that we are evolving. People are being born without their wisdom teeth. Now that we no longer need all those back molars for tearing into our food.
I think we are living longer due to medical breakthroughs, not evolution, though.
2006-10-27 22:07:58 · answer #9 · answered by erewhon77 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Being gay is not part of evolving, not to me anyways. Gay people lived in Sodom before and God brought them destruction and damnation. But yes, I think the human race is still evolving. One day, we may lost entirely our body hair, fingernails. And the brains are evolving to become smarter in some ways and more stupid in others.
2006-10-27 22:08:36 · answer #10 · answered by seek_fulfill 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋