Evolution of Intelligence More Complex Than Once Thought

palegray.net writes "According to a new article published in Scientific American, the nature of and evolutionary development of animal intelligence is significantly more complicated than many have assumed. In opposition to the widely held view that intelligence is largely linear in nature, in many cases intelligent traits have developed along independent paths. From the article: 'Over the past 30 years, however, research in comparative neuroanatomy clearly has shown that complex brains — and sophisticated cognition — have evolved from simpler brains multiple times independently in separate lineages ...'"

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Re:Describe tying your shoe....

[slim]

I think that evolution activists have this inherent problem of having to acknowledge that religion is a natural part of humanity (since they believe it was "evolved") and is an evolutionary advantage, while at the same pretending it's something artificially forced upon people in order to be able to criticize it.

Superstition is definitely an evolutionary advantage. For example, if you don't have a sophisticated knowledge of bacteriology, in a hot climate, never eating pork is a good way of staying alive.

All sorts of things could injure or kill you in the forest after dark - if fear of wherewolves keeps you out, you're just as alive as if you'd used any other reason.

But once you /do/ understand things better, superstitions just hold you back.