evolution group wow

[nec209]

Wow we got a evolution group!! I'm a big fan of evolution .There are 2 ways of looking at it.

 

The strong stay alive and weak die.I have bean reading lots on how medicine is causing different types of cancer ,turmour ,viruses and diseases so on.

 

We are victim to viruses ,bacteria and diseases so on.The human immune system is shutting down .

 

Stop the medicine and allow evolution and body over time will have strong immune system to viruses ,bacteria and diseases .

 

Or put trillions of dollars into medical research with very litle return.We have lost the war on cancer ,turmour and alot of diseases .The viruses and bacteria are on top of the food chain not people.

[Sayonara]

It's important to understand that when we say "strong" and "weak" in terms of natural selection, we are referring to the individual's fitness in terms of its ability to pass on its genes (see Wiki article on biological fitness for a primer).

 

This doesn't necessarily invalidate your post (although the claim that medicine is destroying the immune system is extraordinary and therefore requires extraordinary evidence), but it is an important distinction to wrap your head around if you are interested in the role of natural selection in evolution.

[ecoli]

Stop the medicine and allow evolution and body over time will have strong immune system to viruses ,bacteria and diseases .

 

you're effectively correct in describing the type (although not the scale) of the problem. Again, your solution is of the wrong scale. We have to be smarter about how we design and use medication and know how diseases evolve in the presence of our medicine. The answer is certainly not to stop treating diseases.

[SkepticLance]

In fact, the original post got it wrong by 180 degrees.

Modern medicine is a selective advantage in evolutionary terms, and makes Homo sapiens fitter, stronger, and more likely to survive.

 

We are in the difficult position of shifting members of our species wholesale around the globe. Every time a person from one continent goes to another, they are potentially introducing a new disease that can wipe out millions. AIDS from Africa is the classic example, but other examples include smallpox delivered to America, plague from Asia to Europe, and measles to New Zealand. Dozens of such examples exist.

 

Humanity would be at great risk of a massive depopulation due to introduced diseases without the benefits of modern medicine. The fact that our species continues to grow in numbers is a good indication of how effective it is at increasing our evolutionary fitness, in spite of continually introducing new diseases from other continents.