Human Evolution is Accelerating?

On December 17, 2007 in In the News, Science Related

So I opened my internets today to find some more silly articles. The subject of the day, “Accelerated Human Evolution.” This is being talked about all over the place. I read it first on CNN, then after consulting the Google, I read it on Reuters.

So what’s the skinny? Basically ze car iz going faztur! Not sure why I said that in a false German accent, but you get the idea. We humans are apparently “evolving” faster than ever before! Unfortunately, we’re not really given much insight as to what they mean by “evolving”.

Have you ever considered that word before? Seriously. I mean, let’s consult dictionary.com and see what we come up with. The first definition is “any process of formation or growth; development.” If that were the definition, would Human Evolution be Accelerating? Yes. I mean, after all we’re experiencing exponential population growth.

The second definition is “a product of such development,” which also is correct. The third is a “change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.” Is that true too? Certainly. I mean, you ARE different from your parents, who are also different from theirs. Still, no biggie.

Fourth definition states “a process of gradual, peaceful, progressive change or development, as in social or economic structure or institutions.” That qualifies - I don’t know about the “peaceful” part, but it certainly qualifies.

So as I’m looking down these definitions, I don’t see any problems. If Reuters and CNN lived by the law of Dictionary.com, all would be well. But when they say “evolution”, they don’t always mean unequivocal things like “Getting smarter, and making pretty things.” Not at all, they mean goo-to-you-by-way-of-the-zoo. But they get that nonsense mixed in with the non-nonsense by saying things like “a product of development” or “change in gene pools of populations.”

It’s this equivocal language that makes people believe the nonsense that birds and banana’s are related via a common ancestor. Nobody disputes that things change with time…it’s the type of change that is in need of more scrutiny. But anyway, I’m getting slightly off-topic. Back to what CNN and Reuters had to say.

CNN was embarrassingly empty, probably because they didn’t want to post some of the silly things that Reuters did.

Reuters states that “Many of the recent genetic changes reflect differences in the human diet brought on by agriculture, as well as resistance to epidemic diseases that became mass killers following the growth of human civilizations.” I agree that we have some big differences as a result of out diets changing. One of which haunts me as I write this - Wisdom teeth. Our softer-diets causes to smaller jaws which now have less room for my wisdom teeth! Today, a large percentage of the population has to have their removed. That’s not a good mutation though.

What about that other thing they mentioned - that “resistance to epidemic diseases” thing? They continue in the next paragraph with “Africans has new genes providing resistance to malaria.” So wouldn’t that be a beneficial mutation that has set us on the path of super-humans?

Evolution-propaganda gets very redundant over the years. I’ve only really spent about 5 or 6 years reading the material religiously, and have noticed a trend. Evolutionists really only have a few key elements that they boast about. One of which is this “malaria” resistance. Reuters made this sound so wonderful, didn’t they? But they failed to tell you more about this gene that protects Africans from Malaria. The gene causes another condition called “Sickle-cell anemia”. You’ve probably heard about it if you’ve taken any biology class.

Carriers of this gene have about 50% normal hemoglobin, and 50% sickle-celled hemoglobin. Because of this, the malaria germ leaves them alone. But does this constitute as a beneficial mutation that will drive human evolution into perfection? When you consider that 25% of the carriers children can die from sickle-cell anemia, and 25% are indeed capable of getting malaria -”beneficial” hardly seems like the right word to use.

So if this isn’t convincing, what other evidence did Reuters give us? “In Europeans, there is a gene that makes them better able to digest milk as adults. In Asians, there is a gene that makes ear wax more dry.”

So, if you guys continue to evolve rapidly, someday you can be milk-guzzlin’ maniacs with the super-human ability to produce dry earwax! Oh the day this happens, oh how we humans will conquer the Universe!

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