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Humans Evolving 100 Times Faster Than Ever
John Hawks writes "A new genomics study in PNAS shows that humans have been evolving new adaptive genes during the past 10,000 years much faster than ever before. The study says that evolution has sped up because of population growth, making people adapt faster to new diseases, new diets, and social changes like cities. Oh, and I'm the lead author. I've been reading Slashdot for a long time, and let me just say that our study doesn't necessarily apply to trolls."
I think the author meant to say that Jesus has been performing more miracles in the last 2000 years (the earth isn't even 10,000 years old yet). He has helped us prevent diseases and adapt to city life.
...that someone would consider themselves knowledgeable about evolution to the point of discussing something as meaningless as 'rate'.
'rate of evolution' is redundant.
An organism either evolves or it doesn't. Fast or slow has nothing to do with it. Declaring that there is a quantifiable amount of change involved is just that...change. Changing in reaction to outside stimulation isn't automatically defined as evolving. Sorry. Try again.
is what our Creationist Overlords in the US Government (the sweetest smelling Government in the world!) would say. God created the Earth 6600 years ago, not some perchance aggregation of dust and goop.
In other news, common sense and the acceptance of blindingly solid evidence contrary to creationist theory prevails and evolution ensures the survival of the Sensible.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
Truth. Compassion has completely stopped, even reverted, natural selection and thus evolution. Not only illnesses and disabilities don't kill, but we even help these people and find companions for them. In some cases, genetic problems are spreading because of compassion.
It's not that I'd gas cripples, but there should be coupons for reproduction. People who have genetic conditions widely-recognized as problems that don't allow them to live as well as others (e.g. missing legs, liver failures, etc.; NOT Asperger Syndrome and rare conditions which take some things but give or improve some other skills), as well as people who are too poor to maintain children shouldn't be allowed to reproduce. Sex? All they want. In any way they want it as long as all involved parties agree. But reproduction should be taken with a dose of responsibility.
I was about to say 13256278887989457651018865901401704640, but it appears this number is private property.
It was at best a cheap "I'm better-than-you" shot. And that's giving it a lot of credit.
Have you read the article ? Muslims threaten their own academics (with death) about creationism. Please show me some Christians doing the same ...
The Crusades never occurred, that's a fabrication by the devil. That's obvious if you consider that the Crusades were evil. Of course Christianity isn't evil.
The witch hunts were evil too, so obviously they are fabrications by the devil too. As are the evil passages in the Bible.
Terrorists can't threaten a country's freedom and democracy. Only lawmakers and voters can do that.
First of all, the sickle cell / malaria evolution happened many thousands of years ago so it has nothing to do with what happens today.
Secondly, there are things that have to happen for evolution to take place, both of which are equally important. The first is genetic diversity, which as you point out is very good with our large population. But the second is *competition* among that diversity - and this is where humanity now falls flat on it's face. Technology has progressed to the state that, given equal access to technology, no one person on the planet really has a genetic advantage over another. A person with the sickle-cell gene can live just as long as anyone else given proper treatment. Similarly, someone who contracts malaria will also survive given proper treatment.
If evolution was still allowed to take it's proper course, people who were born with congenital heart defects and brain defects would all die at a very early age. Instead, they are allowed to live full lives in modern society, possibly passing their defective genes along in the pool.