Evolution: Are we still evolving?

Question

First of all, let me say that I do believe in evolution. Lately, a thought occurred to me that I would really appreciate some insight into.

Humans are obviously not perfect. Since creatures evolve to become better suited to their environment, are we still evolving?
My husband read an article that said human thumbs are slowly moving down towards our wrist since we no longer need them to climb. Anyone know of any other examples of how our bodies are still evolving?

Wow.... I got such great answers that I can't just pick one. Thanks for all the feedback!

Answer 1

Okay, this "thumb" thing is bogus, sorry. We're evolving, but the selection pressures these days are largely social.

Evolution has to do with those who have more children. So, who is having more children these days? I'll give you a hint. It's not women with educations and careers. So the next phase in evolution is that girls will be less interested in education and career than they are now -- probably a decrease in the overall intelligence of the human species.

Answer 2

I forget exactly what the analogy was; but the whole jist was if you laid out the time since earth was created on a 24 hour time scale (not sure if that included life or not) homo sapiens take up no more than a few seconds of that clock. So i think its fairly difficult to percieve evolution on such a small scale. But examples: we are getting fatter, lazier, and in fact i think we might be regressing (if possible of course); our enviroment which we soo much change to our needs, i think should be the focus of evolution. But my examples are listed with Americans in mind. Maybe you should just look at homo sapiens as any other animal, we got stronger species and weaker species, so maybe we evolve but only for a paticular niche. Good question.....by the way. Thought provoking.

Answer 3

Aside from the large brain, one reason humans have been so successful is that we have an opposable thumb that gives us extreme dexterity and the ability to manipulate things. So I don't think your husband is correct with respect to the thumb thing.

Regarding whether or not we are evolving, the answer is ABSOLUTELY, and it does not depend on your religious viewpoint. All evolution is is adaptation to environmental pressures. For example, viral infection may kill a certain percentage of those that become infected. But some may have genes, developed through random mutations that occurred over centuries, that help them fight off the virus and survive. Since they survived, they are more likely to pass those genes on to their children, and so on. That is evolution.

Regardless of whether you are an atheist or religious, you can say its simply nature in action, or God's design. You have to admit the process is an elegant one. Regardless of medical advances and so on, we are always faced with environmental pressures. Haven't you ever noticed that viruses and bacteria seem to stay one step ahead of medicine? You hear about all these new and emerging threats. That is because they, the bacteria and viruses, are also constantly evolving. Evolution never stops.

Answer 4

First of all, you're not supposed to "believe" in evolution, belief is for religion.

Humans have stopped evolving because we no longer let the least fit die out. For example, if you've got a deadly gene for diabetes then we give you insulin and let you breed more kids with diabetes.

Same for bad teeth, appendicitis etc.etc.

Your husband's article is wrong because thumbs would move down if it was a survival character. Not climbing is no reason for thumbs to move.

Answer 5

Evolution is a logical regulation. Its consequences are particularly multiple and in many cases counterintuitive, however the consumer-friendly theory is as immutable as good judgment itself. That pronounced, if there is a few place available the place good judgment as all of us comprehend it comes into touch with something Else™, it would be exciting to confirm how evolution would be manifested in the interaction between the two, or what equivalent it would have on the different area. of course, we've not got here upon something like this yet, so the variety of hypothesis is specially in the realm of metaphysics.

Answer 6

If think that on the whole humans no longer experience natural selection pressures. Industrialisation has essentially replaced the 'natural' with an enviroment wholly man made and open to manipulation by man. Any selection pressures that exert their 'force' upon man kind today are largely a result of the envrioment we have created and the social rules and moral zeitgeist we have advertedly or inadvertedly imposed on ourselves. It is analgous to selective breeding, in the sense that nature no longer sorts the wheat from the chaff (horribly crude I know), but humans do. Those who would not survive in a natural enviroment can today have potentially a hundred offspring.

Answer 7

Yes all life will keep evolving...it does not stop.


What will happen is that since in this day+age we reward stupidity with lots of free time and free money so they can just breed all day while the intelligent and kept working long hours for no real money since they have to support everyone else leading to early death due to stress induced heart attacks, etc...the human race will become less and less intelligent until another species supplants us as dominant.

Answer 8

I read an article on yahoo about this a couple weeks ago. the article asserted that humans are going to diverge into two separate species in the next 1000 years or so. it sounded just like the different class from Brave new world, where you have a beautiful, smart group, and an ugly hard working group of people.

Answer 9

You mean by Darwin's theory of natural selection.
We are constantly evolving however not in a good way in my opinion. I believe that humans today are physically inferior to those about a thousand years ago. I believe this because our immune systems have degraded and many more people are handicapped and able to pass on their handicap to future generations which wouldn't occur a couple of thousand years ago. However we have evolved in a good way in intelligence terms.

Answer 10

Althought it isn't obvious, we are still evolving. Since our current lifestyles no longer require us to be able to move quickly to acquire food and escape danger, our bodies are evolving to suit our present needs. We are letting out bodies go to hell. Basically we are screwed.