| WessleWoggle said: First, at CHYUII, There's more races than the human race... I'm not saying any one race is better or worse, because there's large genetic variation between individuals. I never said evolution was a linear process. Different races can be more or less evolved in different areas. Darker people have skin that is better for sun protection. When white man invaded native peoples, some died because their immune systems weren't as evolved. Khuutra, you seem to contradict youself. "Different races can't be more or less evolved. That's stupid and it's racist." "our ancestors had to fill separate evolutionary niches in order to adapt best to their environments." Is being more evolved somehow different from being more adapted to your environment? Also, why don't you believe in the concept of devolution? Over generations of inbreeding, or exposure to substances or radiation that can damage DNA, animals can become less adapted to thier environment. Or maybe that's called something different than devolution. |
You are not 'more' or 'less' evolved in anything, ever, because evolution is not linear, it's branching. We evolved to fill different niches. That's not a linear process. At all. That implies that, if the whole thing happened over again, we'd evolve in roughly the same way - but we wouldn't, the idea is ridiculous.
Black people are not evolved "more" to protect from the Sun - they're just evolved to fill the niche of an environment with a Hell of a lot of Sun. People in Norway are not. That's not more or less evolved - that's just fulfilling different niches. Acknowledging that there are differences between races is not racist, just the idea that one can be more highly evolved. We can't. Nothing is more highly evolved than anything else. We just evolved into different niches.
"Is being more evolved somehow different from being more adapted to your environment?"
Yes. The first example doesn't exist, and the second example means that you live to pass on your genes instead of dying.
You're right - that's not called "devolution". That's evolution too. That's why evolution doesn't work linearly - it's not always advantageous, and the vast majority of the time results in death or even extinction.
