I was trying to understand what was meant by 'Darwin Nominated' it sounded to me like it was being suggested that people were selecting themselves out of the gene pool through stupid acts. I probably should of thought of a better example than a drug addict though. Anyway I always thought Darwinism was about selecting for the environment and adapting to that rather than anything like filtering out people who might be deemed 'stupid'.
As I say I'm just trying to learn.
Essentially man kinds greatest evolutionary step was cognitive intelligence. The ability to reason, to absorb and to act upon sensory input.
The Darwinism they're talking of suggests that for man to evolve further then we need the "less intelligent" humans removed from the gene pool, that this is a natural phenomenon.
This fails on many levels. Not least because it's not necessarily a good thing that we get "more intelligent". It's my opinion that we'll act more and more ruthless as a result, as emotion and unity are set aside for the greater good of the individual. Or the fact that one random foolish act does not make somebody less intelligent, or less "useful" to the race as a whole.
An important part of our evolution is education, we have the ability to teach and to retain information that we then pass on down our own blood line. What BOF seems to be suggesting is "**** it, let em die off"!
Also, you know, I don't think sympathy is a dirty word. That it should be regulated.
I'd read that the familar picture depicting an ape in a series of images as he eventually turns into man is one of the most misleading depictions of evolution, because it suggests that it's about becoming streamlined superhuman beings when all evolution is about is becoming more adapted to the environment and increasing your genes frequency.
So although we have become more intelligent as a result of evolution that's not what it's actually all about.