Re: So, are there races of men?


EKurtz99@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Ken Shackleton wrote:
> > EKurt...@xxxxxxx wrote:
> >
> >>Dale wrote:
> >>
> >>>Besides, what would be the driver for intellectual differences? For physical
> >>>differences it's usually obvious, lighter skin for letting in more sunlight,
> >>>larger bodies for dealing with a cold climate, etc. But what kind of
> >>>selective pressures would lead to greater mathematical or verbal ability?
> >>>IIRC, a large part of human intellectual capacity is used for social
> >>>interaction, which is going to be the same in any group of humans.
> >>
> >>Excellent question, and the answer (or at least *one* hypothesis)
> >>brings us back to the main business of TO. It is argued by Philippe
> >>Rushton in "Race, Evolution, and Behavior" that the rigors faced by the
> >>human populations that initially left Africa and populated Eurasia led
> >>to selection for higher intelligence and a number of other behavioral
> >>characteristics; these characteristics persist to this day and
> >>determine the relative success of the resulting populations - the
> >>ability of Caucasoids and Mongoloids to establish and maintain complex
> >>civilizations, and the inveterate backwardness of most of sub-Saharan
> >>Africa.
> >
> >
> > How do you define "backwardness"?
>
> Famine, tribal wars, border wars, civil wars, corruption, voodoo, river
> blindness, malaria, complete absence of science, technology, belief in
> the supernatural; and, of course - AIDS, entire populations fornicating
> themselves into extinction by means of an entirely preventable disease.
> Do you think all this is something other than backward?

It's a tragedy what these people have to deal with. What is truly
backward is your thinking. Your statement is a mostly garbage.

>
> > I would think that the rigors of survival in sub-Saharan Africa would
> > be the equal to anything found in Eurasia. I could not imagine anything
> > worse than hacking out an existence in jungle....or the Kalahari Desert
> > for that matter.
>
> Speculation and the argument from incredulity.

No....you need to show that the conditions in Eurasia are more
difficult than those in Africa....since that is your position. Support
your position.

>
> > The point about complex civilizations....they did not exist until the
> > last few thousand years....so what about the previous tens of millenia
> > in Eurasia?
>
> The point is not just the establishment of civilization, it is the
> maintenance of it once established. Why is this possible in every part
> of the world, but not in Africa even today?

Civilizations have risen and fallen throughout history due to
availability of resources [like food]. The ethnicity of the people
involved has never been a factor.

>
> > I think that Jarod Diamond hit the mark much better in his book "Guns,
> > Germs, and Steel". It's not about race....it's the available resources
> > that count.
>
> Right on cue, Jared Diamond. No resources in Africa, today? No oil,
> diamonds, gold, bauxite, wildlife for tourism?
> His argument may work for Africa in the past (I'm not convinced it
> does), but why today? Why is there no technology in Africa? No science
> worth the name?

.

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