Humans are Becoming Genetically Less Intelligent

[AzurePhoenix]

What sucks is that we don't seem able to balance intelligence beauty and strength. A few are gifted with all three, a larger number with two, but most of us are limited to one. Then of course, there are the poor bastards who don't have anything. Selective breeding might lead to making sure no one ever has to be born a loser ever again.

[Mokele]

Oh, we don't need artificially-imposed selective breeding for that. Those sorts of losers voluntarily display themselves as unfit mates (thereby weeding themselves out) either through verbal cues (mention of "Star trek" being the most common) or behavior (ex: furries).

 

As for those with all 3, I got my example of that, and she's all mine. Compare your loves to mine and then kill yourselves!

 

Mokele

[Rasori]

How about this--we make sterilization pills and disguise them as skittles. Give them to every person over 20 (and don't put them in a "Skittles" bag, that could trick even some smart people). Those who eat them were stupid.

 

Okay, now that that's done...

I do agree with many of the points opposing the initial argument, especially Sayo's (and that agreement has already been mouthed). But I didn't see anyone argue point three:

3. The higher the level of civilization, the better off the population. Civilization is not an either-or proposition. Rather, it's a matter of degree, and each degree, up or down, affects the well-being of every citizen.

I don't know that I agree with this. I do agree that the higher the level of civilization, the happier the majority of the population seems to be... or at least the more entertained they are. However, there are many civilizations that were better off than ours just because they didn't have the concept of a nuclear war on their minds at all times. And you can argue that higher levels of civilization don't even entirely lead to healthier citizens. Look at the amount of obese people (at least in the U.S.) and how it has skyrocketed since the early 1900s thanks to cars, planes, computers, and everything else.

[Christ slave]

There's no question that human consciousness acts as a whole. This is called the Spirit of Humanity, and what's unique to the human spirit and its evolution is that we work together as many different souls (spiritual beings). When a chunk (a percentage) elevates their consciousness and awareness, it spreads like wildfire. Everyone else begins to become more highly conscious (much more intelligent as well), and this leads to a shift in humanity...because, it's easier to speak English if all the people around you speak English all the time. Likewise, all people, including me, are affected like newborn babies. We soak in the energy, the awarenes, etc. and become awakened (higher thinkers).

 

This higher thinking is mainly affected by beliefs. If the entire population believed all things would heal if they simply believe it and allow it (or, things won't heal if it is their karmic or some other mission to suffer, in which case that is higher law by which no matter how much a person believes they will be healed, the soul itself has the right to make free will choices and so such events often exist and are fueled by the negative society in which the soul uses suffering to actually help awaken and heal karmic inbalances), then it would be much easier to simply allow such beliefs and flows of energy to pass into, through, and about your consciousness. Your cells would replenish because of the intense positive energy.

 

So, while most of society may be getting "dumber", as you propose, if there is still a good percentage of higher thinkers (spiritual people), the mass consciousness/energy would be more likely to overcome. At some point, it is destined, with the advent of the Aquarian Age whose coming becomes nearer with each passing moment, that humanity's consciousness begins to awaken (and I really mean "awaken", like a person awakening from sleep and again returning to the conscious world of life) and people will even be able to SEE energy (you know, there's lots of energy and light that the human eye cannot perceive, but when we awaken, as some people ALREADY HAVE done, perception and understanding will snowball into clarovoyence and whatnot).

 

All it takes is a huge amount of stress and pressure to fuel things. When the amount of stress and pressure increase in the higher thinking, the possibility for the snowball to gain momentum increases and begins to roll down the hill. This is also mimicked in education and evolution...in fact, these things aren't even separate. However, the degrees and limits on these things never end. Society will be pulled, eventually, and the Messianic Age will begin. In fact, even just simply working on awakening yourself to higher spiritual thinking will do much more to elevate and push the snowball than anything else...why? Because it all begins with each person. There are many people who are already doing it, so as each person jumps on the wagon, the more likely the wagon is to giveway.

 

You'd be surprised how much of a difference it can make for you as well. It's not just people working for society, but this work is the same kind of work you desire. How doesn't want to be healthy and healed? Who doesn't want wisdom, understanding, etc.? But you have to be willing to consider the poor state of society as it is and recognize that you yourself are not freed from disaster, but must be willing to accept it. In fact, suffering is quite beneficial anyhow. I do suppose however that eventually suffering will come to an abrupt end. However, all it takes are English speakers to step into a town and start spreading their presence. So, consciousness itself is also this way. The more you become spiritual and recognize all things are possible, the more power you receive for you and society toward becoming better. Jesus is a good way to go, as it would be stupid to attempt to raise consciousness and start healing but refuse to giveup old habits which are being eliminated. A change MUST occur, and this includes your own carnal habits...this is what spiritual awakening is, it's when the carnal self begins to die out (symbolized by Jesus being crucified).

 

So, destructive habits must be eliminated. Are you willing to help awaken society? It is smarter and wiser for a man to stop eating junk food if he wants to increase health or if he is constantly working out at the gym. A diet is formed in order to reform the physical form. Likewise, don't think that order and sacrifice are limited only to the physical body. There are many many more aspects to a person than the mere outward appearance. People must also sleep to get rest and remain healthy. Likewise, the spiritual self is also subject to a diet. And, this is good. Wouldn't it be nice to know that if everything you want required simply changing your diet? You would be free from limitation because you would begin to work to better yourself. So also, those of you who may be spiritually smoldering, reawaken that fire and keep it burning. All fires must be kindled, and if you help kindle the fire of society, pretty soon the fire will catch so that it gains enough heat and whatnot to simply grow on its own and burns down the entire forest.

 

So, there's no need to hopelessly think, "Well not everyone in society will ever do this!" All it takes is a percentage (a few million people) of society to elevate their consciousness and thinking and then the fire will be kindled enough so that it simply roars like a forest fire and burns the entire beast down. This burning down is the burning down of society--the awakening. It's like a contagious disease...or, a contagious cure, rather. If you let yourself be gasoline on the bonfire, the fire's potential rises all the more to no longer needing assistance and simply burns freely everything in its path. He who has understanding and perception, let him understand and perceive.

[adhocboy]

er, i think i know who needs the 'skittles'...

[AzurePhoenix]

Oh, yeah, no doubt at all....

[Rasori]

C'mon, guys, you just aren't really "spiritual people." I mean, c'mon. Rub your hands together really fast. You feel that heat? It's your inner healing power!

LOL

[Aardvark]

And you can argue that higher levels of civilization don't even entirely lead to healthier citizens. Look at the amount of obese people (at least in the U.S.) and how it has skyrocketed since the early 1900s thanks to cars' date=' planes, computers, and everything else.[/quote']

 

Well, the higher levels of civilisation have lead to greater and increasing longevity.

 

Mass vaccination, proper public sanitation, improved diet (despite the obesity problems) eliminating such disorders as rickets which were common until quite recently.

 

Current civilisation has its problems but people are on average a lot healthier than they were at any time we are aware of.

[Christ slave]

C'mon' date=' guys, you just aren't really "spiritual people." I mean, c'mon. Rub your hands together really fast. You feel that heat? It's your inner healing power!

LOL[/quote']

 

Nobody puts a bunch of sick people in a room together and attempts to isolate the diseases. You yourself can testify to the huge differences in the relationships of monkey to men--and you watch cells turn from conceived primordial embryos and fetuses, into adults, and then you watch them die. In fact the number of deaths to born humans is, for the most part, apart from us yet to die, equal. So why then is it so incredible for you to consider that perhaps death itself is equal to birth? What if we are still growing, and this life called earthly life (the time between birth and death) is the phase of growth equivelant to that of a pregnancy? If those who are born are equal to those who die, why stop there?

 

Is it so fabulous to consider? You see a mole although a mole does not see you. You watch humans rule the world while monkeys, evolving from the same source, are seemingly inferior. Why then is it so incredible for you to humble yourself and comprehend your own inferiority? In fact, you gaze upon a maggot and a tree, although they do not gaze equally back. You may wave to them and say, "Hello", although they will not open up lips and speak with a tongue back to you and say, "Hello". No, you see them but they do not see you. Why are you so special? If they don't see you, what then gazes upon you that you do not see? And when I say "see", I use this as a metaphor for whatever else there is greater than us. A maggot lacks sight, and yet sight exists (we happen to possess it). Our levels of experience are that of our own, while there are others that are different. Why can you deem the inferiority and lack thereof within other species and things that exist and live among and with us, yet deny yourself the right to be just as inferior to something greater than you?

 

If you can stand next to a maggot without that maggot seeing you, who then stands next to you that you have no eyes to perceive? Who picks of the fruit of your branches that you do not have eyes to know you have? A tree has fruit and yet sees itself with no eyes. What then do you possess that you do not perceive? A blind man may stand in front of the same wall as you, and yet without sight he is all the more oblivious. Why then are you so keen as to lack oblivion? Let today be the day that you stand up and say, "Although I have eyes that see, like a maggot, I too am blind to that which is greater than I and stands beside me."

 

In fact, a fetus sits in the womb for all its pregnancy with closed eyes and darkness. It has YET to see the outside world and light of life...it does not open its eyes to gaze upon its own form to know and perceive itself. Until it is born, although it may think and simply BE, it lacks perception. Why then do you suppose that spirituality is so readily disposable? Is it because you think that lamps exist inside the womb? Do lamps light an unborn baby, the day before it is born, a glow to see its own form?

 

Why are you any different? Perhaps the eyes of your body, the unborn baby (which is born at death), are likewise closed, and until you truly experience the death (the birth), you are a fetus in darkness waiting for light. No matter how proud you build yourself up, you too, like an unborn baby, cannot comprehend nor see your true form until you really do. Be not fooled, dreams do not denote the awakened reality.

[AzurePhoenix]

A mole smells us better than we smell each other. It can hear us, and feel our vibrations.

 

Monkeys are only inferior because we say they are. But I don't see any monkey's driving the world into decay.

 

A maggot might eat the same food that we may. They may taste our flesh, smell our rot, feel the enormity of our shoes. They may not see us, but they do percieve us.

 

A shark may percieve us in ways that we can't start to comprehend, and a mantis shrimp may see us in a rainbow of hues lost to us. A dolphin may see within our bodies. And how they look upon us, what they think of us, is as mysterious as the alien world they inhabit. If we are gods to the poor maggots, moles and trees of the world, are these creatures not gods in comparison to us?

 

No creatures are superior to any other. Only better adapted for certain standards of living. And the one thing I do know, it's true that humans most certainly have a mob mentality, but not because of spiritual resonance or whatever, but because at our hearts, we're weak pack animals, needy for acceptance in a sea of fear, uncertainty, and yes, ambition and greed.

 

Why does English catch on so quickly? Because it is profitable. As is religion. And a world of 6,000,000,000+ people cannot be galvanized into a utopian society for the simple fact that paradise, though quite a lovely concept, does not feed every man's ambition to succeed, to leave his brethren behind in a quest for his own glory, even his own god-hood. The very same quest that drives life to survive, adapt, and evolve.

[Christ slave]

So you admit there is a wide spectrum of diversity? And also I am inclined to propose that there are waving levels of consciousness (sentience, even). I believe if we are formed of the environment, sentience is fed from somewhere. Likewise, sentience itself is from a source (a greater source). We are all evolving together, and a quest for godhood and spirituality does not necessarily leave anyone behind, as God does indeed put limitatons on mankind. In fact, many souls (and most, I would) souls are actually not incarnating to earth with limitations (they gradually heal, they gradually rise above, etc.) as a means of providing support, doorways, and paths for other people and not leaving anyone behind.

 

It is indeed a love-your-neighbor-as-yourself reality, and don't think that we have limitations not for a reason. We have limitations not to limit our own potential, but to give us the potential to instead of pursuing solely our own creativity and the likes, but to join together. See, if everyone had no limits, there'd be no point to earthly life (a school/meeting/gathering place for souls). Each soul is very unique, and when you put stress on them and confine them until they work together, then we lack the ability to simply isolate ourselves from the mass consciousness and spirit, and likewise we all have a role. We are working together--why? Because God is a God of unity and love, not of anything else. God is a God of peace, and if suffering is the means by which this is necessary (i.e. we suffer by stress and limitations), then that is a good thing, as it strengthens the reality of a no-child-left-behind act.

 

So, we could all go being different, or recognize that stress, limitation, evolution, and the graduation thereof is all interlocked so that nobody gets left behind (i.e. astronauts will not be permitted by the laws of God to advance to a point to go live on some other planet if indeed they are still in a selfish state of consciousness/mind by which somebody would be left behind). So, if the planet begins to suffer in terrible conditions, God does not want half of humanity leaving everyone else behind to wallow in the suffering while they, like some sort of elite, privileged rich group go live it up in paradise like a paid-vacation while everyone else deals with the mess on earth. No, God does not permit humanity to do such--and even though that's how many people are (elitists more willing to abandon their neighbor for their own ill-gotten pleasures), until this changes, humanity will not be able to advance in areas. This is why stress, time, and evolution exist--because we are a school of souls. We aren't meant to be anything other, and the entire graduating class is expected to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas.

 

I personally find it such an amazing truth--we're one big family, and until paradise does indeed come (namely by people returning to peace and love and elevating their consciousness to a more global and universal awareness by which they learn to manage God's energy--anything a person does is energy and that energy is sent out and then is mirrored back and sent back to them), God is willing to make us monkeys until we see to it that no one is left behind.

[Skye]

Well' date=' the higher levels of civilisation have lead to greater and increasing longevity.

 

Mass vaccination, proper public sanitation, improved diet (despite the obesity problems) eliminating such disorders as rickets which were common until quite recently.

 

Current civilisation has its problems but people are on average a lot healthier than they were at any time we are aware of.[/quote']

It's interesting though, that despite all that there are much lower birth rates. If you were to graph it, I would imagine that birth rates and life expectancy (of a country let's say) would be inversely proportional.

[calbiterol]

Or, said another way: when intelligence is important for survival, it will be selected for and increase within a population. Obviously, a different set of traits are necessary for survival right now.

 

Hmmm... I would have to disagree on that last part. I (personally) believe that humans, as a collective, have begun to escape the process of natural selection. We are, in most cases, at the very top of the food chain. Our treatment of diseases and "equal treatment" of all people has defeated the process of natural selection, in my mind. We are too moral for our own good - if someone is dumb onough to walk in front of a train with the gates down, or to walk across a busy highway and get hit by a car, we will not allow natural selection to stay the course, even though at this point it is more artificial than natural. Also, it's not that the genes being passed down help one to survive - its the number of kids that matter in this case. If one family decides to be fiscally responsible and have 1 or 2 or 3 children instead of 15, they will have a better chance of succeding (fiscally) in society. At the same time, there could be a prostitute who has 14 children, all abandoned at a hospital, who all survive. That has nothing to do with survival - the prostitute would actually be more likely to die first. Maybe the genes required for more offspring are, simply, an abnormal frequency of horniness.

 

The dictionary definition of "natural seection" is, by the way, this:

The process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.

 

Put another way, it's the process by which members of a population most likely to survive are able to produce offspring and pass on their genetic information while those less likely die before they are able to do so.

 

The problem for natural selection with humans is that we won't let them die. The only way to do it would be "artificial selection," in other words, selective breeding. How's this one for kicks - send everybody on Earth that has the "desireable" traits to a different planet - or, if we wanted to please environmental activists, send the ones who aren't "desireable" to another planet. Note that the problem with this is that "desireable" is going to be misinterpreted by society - a "desirable mate" in some societies (as in, the U.S., among others) is considered by many to be someone who is physically attractive. The problem is with society. Too humane, too moral, for our own evolutionary good.

[Sayonara]

The dictionary definition of "natural seection" is, by the way,

... really really bad.

[Rasori]

Indeed. You have now officially ticked Sayo off. However, an otherwise good post.

[Sayonara]

He's not ticked me off. Unnamed dictionary has.

[Mokele]

I (personally) believe that humans, as a collective, have begun to escape the process of natural selection. We are, in most cases, at the very top of the food chain. Our treatment of diseases and "equal treatment" of all people has defeated the process of natural selection, in my mind. We are too moral for our own good - if someone is dumb onough to walk in front of a train with the gates down, or to walk across a busy highway and get hit by a car, we will not allow natural selection to stay the course, even though at this point it is more artificial than natural.

 

But there is still a *chance* that the stupid person who plays on the freeway will not survive to pass on their genes. Natural selection works on probabilities: if one genetype (and resultant phenotype) is less likely to play in traffic, it has a slightly lower mortality rate (all other things being equal), and will spread. Even a 1% increase in survival rate can spread through a population in as little as 1000 generations.

 

Furthermore, you neglect one of the biggest sub-sets of natural selection: sexual selection. Whethere or not all humans survive the same, there are *definite* inequities in who gets to mate and how much.

 

The dictionary definition of "natural seection" is, by the way, this:

The process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.

 

Sorry, that's one of the crappiest definitions I've seen.

 

Try this, short and sweet: natural selection = differential perpetuation of genotypes.

 

a "desirable mate" in some societies (as in, the U.S., among others) is considered by many to be someone who is physically attractive.

 

And that's wrong why? You seriously think that the criteria which we use to select mates has *not* been fine-tuned by evolution to search for geneticly meaningful information in appearance? Women with the "ideal" waist/hip ratio of 0.7-0.6 have the most successful pregnancies, both in terms of the baby's health and their own. Males and females with symetrical features are displaying genetic quality by showing they can overcome environmental insults and have good developmental genes. Males who are "manly" in form (broad shoulders, rugged, etc) are honestly advertising quality; testosterone inhibits the immune system, so only high-quality males can produce enough for these features.

 

You're so focused on death that you forget the other major part of evolution: sex.

 

Mokele

[AzurePhoenix]

I agree with cal. We help others in ways that ensure poor or deadly genes survive, even thrive in the human gene pool. Natural selection would be nice, perhaps even the best course to take, but modern tech sort of hinders that. Therefore, artificial selection is the only viable answer (not through killing unworthies, but through "breeding licenses").

[Christ slave]

But what you fail to acknowledge is that after millions of years of evolution and survival, you hold onto negative and false beliefs that hinger your growth. You fail to recognize that a spiritual body exists; you play with your kinesthetic sense all day long and yet you ignore the fact that a spirit exists. Why? I fail to understand why.

 

Healing does indeed come from somewhere, and the Spirit is pro-life. A person is apt to look at an apple when they're hungry and think it looks delicious...yet, it is not the apple that looks anything. It is merely the human seeing their self in the apple. If you look at the apple and realize that that which is delicious is actually YOU inside the apple, within you, you will begin to understand and clarify all your flamboyent mishaps and miscalculations of wondering in evolution (and wandering).

 

However, I think we can both acknowledge that we are not physically in the apple, nor the apple physically in us. So, then, we can conclude that all things we see and experience are actually portions of our own spirit and soul--our own individuality. Whenever something attracts or repels you, it is you that you see. Granted outside forces affect you, it is in essence you...which means that when you're willing to detach from all things and give them up, you will then realize that you yourself are free. And, as such, freedom comes with healing and clarity (truth and understanding, wisdom, etc.).

 

You cannot look at an apple and say, "It looks good." No, rather, look at an apple and ask yourself, "What? What is it? Why do I want it? Why does it look delicious? That is me inside which says it's delicious, not the apple. For all I know the apple is fake." You may then ask yourself, "Who are you? Who am I? What do I want? What is the truth", and point out, "I want the truth. All I need is the truth. I don't need that apple."

 

Then, simply turn away and go starve or something...either way it matters not as man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. God is within us. We are all one, like a pop-up book. Open the book, and behold--a physical projection, and yet when you close the book, the illusion is immediately hidden and you acknowledge that it is still indeed just a mere single, unified book.

 

In fact, that is something that should heighten your understanding if you are willing to accept it. If indeed it is you who are appealing to the apple, and not the apple you, then you may overcome yourself--be at peace and love. Tell yourself, "I can do all things." Speak as if you are simply being. "I can do this," or, "I can start to do this"...and, "I don't need this," and, "I don't need that", and, "That is unnecessary." As a result, your subconscious and conscious will start to become attuned as it recognizes the unnecessary things. When it starts to rid itself of unnecessary habits, and recognizes the possibilities, the truth, and healing, then it will start to shift its energy there.

 

See, a being is constantly using its energy--like a game of JENGA, it shifts the energy about in order to use it to the best degree. Likewise, when you start using your full potential, it is like a game of jenga when the game is over and the tower has not fallen. Your body recognizes areas where energy are not needed, and this is evolution. If you tell yourself, "Sexuality is only a carnal desire, I can live without it, I don't need it", and then overcome sexual indulgence and lust, you now have so much more free energy...do you honestly believe it by the environment or natural selection that this energy is chaotically thrown around? It is not. Energy has a direction--a being is prone to healing itself, and when you have more energy available, you can push the limits and optimize your being (your growth, adaptation, and evolution).

 

This is evolution. So, when you jump up and down like an excited fool whenever someone tells you that you won the lottery, remember that inanimated and physical things can never, unless they their selves are optimized (like a doctor, classical music, or something else), assist and determine what is the optimal path of healing and evolution...because it comes within. It is not a conscious choice to heal, but bodies heal on their own. So, when you stop sinning and doing foolish things (wasting your light and energy), you yourself will be optimized...but don't get me wrong, I don't condemn you to anything like a fiery eternal grave, rather, I advocate life. So, if you choose misery, go ahead. Sooner or later your soul should recognize, if not in this life but in another life, that it must start to make wiser decisions so that it can manage its energy and optimize its evolution (spend it wisely).

[AzurePhoenix]

Actually I live on soup and sea food in addition to bread (a meal of shrimp scampi, minestrone, and sourdough is the epitome of living). I've never had roasted "God's Word" before, and frankly, it doesn't sound very filling. And also, you've forever ruined apples for me. I can just imagine holding the apple, and seeing my reflection in it's shiny skin screaming tinnily "Heeeeelllllllllpppppp Mmmmmeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!"

[adhocboy]

Dictionary smictionary.

 

Natural selection is more robust than genes. With the risk of sounding too spiritual, natural selection is a process that goes beyond organic forms. Successful or functional design is perpetuated in proportion to its utility.

 

As intelligent animals our behavior and culture are under the influence of natural selection ('memes'). Again, for the purist it sounds like a bunch of baloney. But the reality is that functional forms are propogated.

[Christ slave]

Actually I live on soup and sea food in addition to bread (a meal of shrimp scampi, minestrone, and sourdough is the epitome of living[/i']). I've never had roasted "God's Word" before, and frankly, it doesn't sound very filling. And also, you've forever ruined apples for me. I can just imagine holding the apple, and seeing my reflection in it's shiny skin screaming tinnily "Heeeeelllllllllpppppp Mmmmmeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!"

 

No, you're just more attached to the womb than the moving on. A baby does not idolize and glorify its mother's plecenta--nor her body, as it is destined to detach and open its eyes to gaze upon its form and awaken to the light of life. You, sir, have closed eyes. You are still believing that your flesh (which is more or less a plecenta of planet earth) is you and more worthy of notice and exploration than finding the truth within you.

 

Don't you know, a baby's sight is hidden until it is born? What makes you so special? You too are still unborn (you have yet to die). So, who are you to claim your true form, whose eyes are closed and is not yet alive and awakened, has or has not received the words of God? Don't you see? We are the cells of a body. Each human is a cell...and cells are a very small fraction of the overall being. Likewise, this being, called Christ, is much, much larger than us--and fills the entire universe. Look deeper, lest you find yourself alone.

 

A group of cells at conception, with genes, chromosomes, organs, etc. all grow and eventually form a single human being. Likewise, who are we to suggest that because we are born, this accomplishment rules out further development and advancement? We are cells and organs of a body...and this goes on and on forever in a vast array of things, as evolution and extraterrestrial life demonstrate that life does not end, nor does growth and maturity. Even on the smaller level, us single cells of a larger being were once embryos and now we are made up of many cells...and likewise, this is also on another level for us locally not finished, as we too undergo death and then flourish as newborn spirits.

 

It goes on and on, infinitely. We can testify infinity exists! Numbers are infinite! Do you suppose then that this is only true for us? Why do you put limits on reality and truth? Infinity exists because infinity exists everywhere in all things--not just a concept which is true to humans in a field called and dreamed up named "mathematics". The existence of inifinity infinitely expands and covers everything far beyond a numerical representation...evolution, life, BIRTH, growth, existence, and being are infinitely expanding. We can see atoms, and then we too are so tiny in the vastness of infinity that we are tiny little specks on a single orbiting electron or whatever you want to call it around the center nucleus of the sun...and then the further you go out, the more they begin to form a larger body, and this never ends. It goes on and on, and imagination, possibilities, and potential is infinite! Today we may have come from sperm-ducts of some man into a womb, forming an embryo and cells, forming organs, forming a baby, forming a birth, growing into a child, going through puberty, reproducing more children, then dying, but tomorrow we will realize that this doesn't end because the beginning also continues.

 

Our beginning extends beyond a conception--it extend through the interwoven paths of evolution, which then expand to the question, what species stopped on planet earth and dropped microorganisms that sprung this vast array of life on this body? Well, this baby bird has grown its wings and lept from its nest onto the moon...don't think infinity ends with the origin on earth, because then we must trace sources back, and back, and back, and back, and then we go forward on forever...none of us know an end. Give me a break! We're all living and nobody has proof of an end, nor has any evidence sprung to suggest that the being has an end. Yesterday we were cells working together, but then organs, and then a body...today we are flesh and tomorrow we die and then we awaken to an even more complex and vast reality, as real as this body which was once an embryo, so a newborn baby is the embryo of the spirit. Death is evident and inevitable! Accept it, just as we accept birth.

 

Stop painting fields of darkness and limiting your scope...infinity echoes and ripples in a vast sea of being. When my spirit is born and this plecenta named Brian is discarded back into the dust it came from, I will have no need to look back, but just as I do now, I look forward to bigger, better, and brighter things! Today there is war, but tomorrow the immune system kicks in and the cold goes away. Love isn't only relative, subjective, and applicable in certain areas, because if it cures the earth, it cures the fractions on a singular level (your bodies, your cells, and then the informational genes and energy waves of those cells, and then the fractions of the waves, and the fractions of those waves and so on).

 

Live, my dear friend, because you know no end. The only evidence you have to a possible end is your lack of recollection...but, my friend, you too can get drunk and forget what happened, but that doesn't mean you no longer exist now, that you're dead, nor does it mean you did not exist then nor were dead then. All there is is being. Be all that you are.

[Mokele]

Natural selection is more robust than genes. With the risk of sounding too spiritual, natural selection is a process that goes beyond organic forms. Successful or functional design is perpetuated in proportion to its utility.

 

As intelligent animals our behavior and culture are under the influence of natural selection ('memes'). Again, for the purist it sounds like a bunch of baloney. But the reality is that functional forms are propogated.

 

Two things:

 

1) The term "natural selection" originated in biology. Yes, it has applications elsewhere, but the primary use of the term is still with biological systems. Any additional definitions would be, in my eyes, secondary.

 

2) This conversation is about biology, evolution, and genes. Ergo, it is logical and rational to deduce that "natural selection" is being used in a genetic context. If we're in a conversation about black hole formation, and you see the phrase "critical mass", a rational person does *not* attempt to bicker over the wording because the same phrase is used in nuclear reactors and atomic weapons with a different meaning.

 

The lesson for today, boys and girls, is that *context* is important. See here for more details.

 

Mokele

[Sayonara]

I am seriously considering writing a module that scans for more than two paragraphs of waffle and automatically blocks that user from the subforum in question.

[calbiterol]

He's not ticked me off. Unnamed dictionary has.

For the love of Jebus, Dictionary.com is not[/u'] a technical resource.

 

Not so unnamed any more. Now, I have ticked Sayo off.

 

I've managed to scrounge up my ancient Webster dictionary (it's 19 years older than I am - more than twice my age) and it says:

 

"in evolution, the process by which those individuals (of a species) with characters that help them to become adapted to their specific environment tend to leave more progeny and transmit their characters, while those less able to become adapted tend to leave fewer progeny or die out, so that in the course of generations there is a progressive tendency in the species to a greater degree of adaptation: see also DARWINIAN THEORY."

 

My "new" concise dictionary, which is in many ways less dependable, says thus:

 

"Biol. The process whereby individual variations of advantage in a certain environment tend to become perpetuated by the race."

 

Once again, the 35 - year - old dictionary proves more trustworthy and useful than either a "modern" online dictionary OR a "new" one.

 

 

[Edit: I was not aware that growth could be hingered, Christ slave.]