a reply to:
wtf2008
Howdy,
Again, I know I'm not the person you are addressing, so please forgive me for again pushing my way into your conversation. I really do hope that I'm
not overstepping by posting here...
You certainly do like to bring up monkeys throwing number signs in a lot of threads. Monkeys have societies you know... They don't all fling feces
at each other constantly. I feel like you are really insulting monkeys unfairly here.
That said, perhaps you have a point about reproducing. I've seen some shocking claims (sorry, don't have any actual cited info, so take this with a
grain of salt) that suggest intelligence is negatively correlated with number of children. Certainly, this would be a worrying trend if true. At
least some portion of intelligence is genetic (although I cannot say with certainty or cited material how much), so it may be true that average
intelligence may be driven downward.
And yet, overpopulation of the Earth is almost a reality. Sure, there is a lot of Earth left to populate, at the cost of destroying natural
ecosystems, driving many species to extinction. But do we not currently enjoy our quality of life in industrialized and post-industrialized nations?
Do we not enjoy consuming at our current levels? Well, we cannot do so indefinitely, and adding more people to the world certainly decreases
available resources and thus our standards of living.
Consider this, though. There are other ways to benefit mankind than to reproduce and spread the genes of intelligent people. By merely contributing
to mankind's knowledge, a smart man/woman might do more good (helping many people grow intellectually or indirectly benefiting them through
technological advances) than can be done by passing on his/her genes.
To lay my cards on the table, I certainly do not want to have children (and no, I don't consider myself "supersmart"). Not because of overpopulation,
but because as a child I experienced many things (not as much as many people in less industrialized nations, and certainly there were many less
fortunate than me in my own nation) that I would not wish upon another human. I do not want to choose to make another human suffer, and although not
directly a cause, overpopulation would definitely decrease the resources available to any of my potential children. I would not knowingly place
anyone into a lower standard of living then what I had as a child, and I would certainly not wish it upon anyone. As it is though, it looks like we
don't have enough to ensure American's can all live decently now, let alone in the future. Then consider that this is a global issue.
In essence, no, evolution is not a bad thing, and it certainly does not imply that we should throw feces at each other. You can be considerate and
still believe in evolution, but I ask you to please be considerate regardless of what you believe.
Regards,
Hydeman
edit on 4-8-2014 by hydeman11 because: (no reason given)