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Author Topic:   Have we halted our own Evolution?
whiskeyjack
Inactive Member


Message 63 of 79 (302884)
04-10-2006 11:08 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Heathen
03-17-2006 1:37 PM


Is it now the case that humans have effectively Halted our evolutionary development?
The fundamental premise of this question is incorrect. By asking if evolution is halted you presume that there is an end point to evolution or that it should be a continuous process which it doesn’t and isn’t nesercerily .
The question should be, ”is there selective pressure acting on current breeding populations that will result in discernable evolution?’

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 Message 1 by Heathen, posted 03-17-2006 1:37 PM Heathen has not replied

  
whiskeyjack
Inactive Member


Message 64 of 79 (302890)
04-10-2006 11:16 AM
Reply to: Message 11 by crashfrog
03-17-2006 4:21 PM


My point, which I made in an oblique and possibly rude way, is that there's considerably more to evolution than fatal negative selection, the culling of the weak/diseased, etc. Sometimes that kind of selection is the first step. But the second step, in organisms that reproduce sexually, is finding someone to mate with you. We don't do that at random, so that's a selective - and evolutionary - influence.
I take your point that mating is not random from an individual perspective. However what people find attractive in a sexual partner can be seen as being random therefore alleles will not be selected out of a large breeding population. And if there is no selection there is no evolution.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 11 by crashfrog, posted 03-17-2006 4:21 PM crashfrog has replied

Replies to this message:
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