Do evolutionists say after couple of years Americans will turn back to apes going shorter and shorter eventually developing a tail. Just curious to know about your awesome belief?
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=49750&cl=3093948&ch=61492&src=
2007-06-19 19:51:39 · 21 answers · asked by Ismail Eliat 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I know the question's flippant, but height demographics is an interesting topic.
Much of the difference in height between modern humans is not the result of genetics but of environment. It's mainly influenced by two things- diet and stress. For instance, if you take a child and raise her in an indigenous Guatemalan village, she's likely to be very short. If her parents move to the US, she's likely to grow up to be taller. It thus has nothing to do with evolution or natural selection.
Currently the Europeans are taller on average than Americans. Nobody's sure exactly why but the Dutch, for instance, are getting taller and we aren't. We eat a much better diet than we did a hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, so we are taller. But we do eat a lot of junk still, and have more poverty and violence than the europeans, so that might explain why they are getting taller and we aren't.
For a great discussion of the topic, see this New Yorker piece: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/04/05/040405fa_fact
2007-06-19 19:59:29 · answer #1 · answered by thatguyjoe 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
this is based on observation and not medical fact. It seems to many scientists, that when one race coincides with another, lets say a German with an Brazilian, their offspring tend to be alot taller than their parents. Americans were one of the tallest people in the world back in the day, when people were emigrating here and marrying. If you look at some other countries that were for centuries alone, and married amongst themselves, the people are much shorter. I've travelled a lot, and for example, where I live now, Crete, the people are Very short. They tend to marry only Greeks. But if a short Greek person gets together with somebody from a foreign country (also short) their children dwarf them. In the schools here, the children from mixed marriages tower over the others. Maybe there is some truth in that, I don't know. It is just what I have observed. By the way, I am from a mixed marriage, and I am 5'8 -- my brothers are over six feet. My father and mother were 5'6 and 5'3 respectively. Go figure.
2007-06-19 20:03:49 · answer #2 · answered by Starjumper the R&S Cow 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
1) There is no "reverse gear" in evolution, it's a forward only process.
2) If Americans are getting shorter, which is unlikely, it is only due to more short people reproducing than tall people.
3) Since when did "evolutionists" claim that evolution meant you only got taller and not shorter.
4) Try reading up on this scientific theory before you make claims that it is a belief. As your question shows, you obviously don't know a lot about it anyway, it's no wonder you prefer creationism.
2007-06-19 23:48:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You really don't know what the ToE says, do you? Evolution is not directed, and there's no 'reverse gear'. If you absolutely must have an automotive metaphor, it would be like a U-turn, where the same ground is covered at a later time.
2007-06-19 19:57:26 · answer #4 · answered by Doc Occam 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Poor nutrition. The American diet isn't balanced, we don't get minerals from vegetables, (because the minerals arn't in the soil, and plants can't make minerals), it's no big surprise.
By the way, I don't think we evolved from apes, (or even had a similar ancester we diverged from).
I do believe in "micro" evolution. Or evolution within a species.
Example: As the diets of the Japanese & Chinese have improved, in the last 30 years or so, they've gotten taller........
2007-06-19 19:53:17 · answer #5 · answered by spam_free_he_he 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
All this crap about evolution, people are so blind to the truth. If evolution did exist, wheres the missing link, i mean, if it were true, then where are the animals that are meant to be in between i.e. half monkey, half man? Lets all go running off to the Amazon rainforest, im sure there will be some there. sheesh. Science has reached its higher end, and still no prove, shame on them.
2007-06-19 21:45:20 · answer #6 · answered by Honey 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
"God is making us that way." says the dumb Christian.
But to the smart Christian, there is no scientific proof being taller will some how give you a genetic advantage, sure maybe most girls will like a tall guy over a smaller guy, but the smaller people live longer and are smarter. Both will have there own advantages, look at Einstein, was'nt that guy like 5'6" or something like that.
2007-06-19 20:05:01 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Uhh, I'd think if anything they are getting shorter because of malnutrition. All of the processed foods and unhealthy fast foods, no nutrients you need to grow. Why would you try to pin this on a faulty view of evolution? Very ignorant.
2007-06-19 19:54:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
Actually, it would be advantageous to be shorter in stature because it would mean less stress on the spinal cord and disks.
So no, evolution isn't reversing, its moving forward.
2007-06-19 20:00:22 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
It probably means Americans' diets suck. Height has more to do with nutrition than with heredity.
Btw, evolution does not always "improve" a species by moving "forward". It is about adaptation and survival, not cosmetics.
2007-06-19 19:58:48 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋