Steven Vincent Johnson wrote: Sometimes I just wish it was easier for us to accept the notion that we aren't evil, that we have not "fallen" from grace, but unfortunately, the "fall from grace" is a strong belief for which significant portions of our society appear to be lost in the drama that makes it so titillating to experience over and over.
Steven Vincent Johnson also wrote: >From a biological perspective, instigating a genetic reintroduction / diversification program makes perfect sense. Introducing increased genetic diversity within a race of homo sapien-like humanoids that may have allowed its own genetic heritage over eons to become too homogenous is likely to increase the chances of its continued survival. Hi All, 8-6-09 On Tuesday, 7-28-09, I visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History; the Darwin exhibits were outstanding. One of the best was an interactive display examining the effects of selection for a larger brain. This tended to require a larger skull, which then required larger hips to birth. But if the hips get larger and larger, the homonid can't walk -- very negative for natural selection. So something has to give. In this case, there was selection for a smaller face so that the face would not take up so much of the skull. But the smaller face resulted in problems with our 32 teeth: There was not enough room for the third molars (the wisdom teeth) -- in general a mess with braces a tooth extractions. This is not a fall from grace or original sin; but it may feel like it. There may be some selective advantage for an ability to commit genocide on hominids (one thinks of William Golding's "The Inheritors"); and we were so "shocked" whan Jane Goodall found that chimps had the same talent. This is almost funny, except now we have atomic weapons and germ warfare. Genocide probably does reduce genetic diversity; but the more devastating "pinches" have been acts of G_d, such as the eruption of Toba 70,000 years ago or the Tunguska-type event that probably plunged the Northern hemisphere into the Younger Dryas cold spell 12,900 years ago and destroyed the Clovis culture. These things are unhappy events from the viewpoint of the victims, but they merely illustrate how easily such a cobbled-together species as ouselves could join the 99% of all species that no longer exist. Jack Smith
