[quote]Airtruth wrote:
tedro wrote:
MrChief wrote:
Anyways, I say we forget about HIV. At some point we have to start letting natural selection run it’s course again, lest we continue this reverse evolution.
Pretty good counter argument, and do you or anybody else know the list of diseases that have been completely cured in the last 50 or so years?
This is the 2nd argument I always hear from the conspiracy theorist.
Tedro: Do you believe this only for HIV, or for all the other diseases also? What point do you decide to reverse evolution agian?[/quote]
When I say to completely forget about HIV, it is a bit tongue in cheek. I don’t hold anything against a drug company trying to find a cure for a disease to boost profits. I’m also not really going leave all HIV sufferers out to dry. The fact of the matter is that most with HIV are well into their reproductive years already, and with the current drugs available, they continue to have many years in which they are capable of reproducing. Obviously, HIV isn’t genetic, but the intelligence that one must lack to make such decisions to get the disease certainly is. Since HIV doesn’t prevent anyone from breeding, it in itself doesn’t really effect natural selection.
I would make a similar argument for any other disease that is a result of the choices one makes, which would include lung cancer, but exclude most other cancers.
I don’t think there is any way to stop reverse evolution, and if we don’t kill ourselves off in some other creative way first, it will definitely contribute to the downfall of human civilization. The problem is that virtually everyone now makes it to breeding age, and virtually everyone is allowed to raise children. Also, those of higher IQ’s and success tend to have less children than the unintelligent. Since intelligence is inherited, humans as a whole are getting dumber.
The only way to stop this without taking away an individuals right to life is to introduce a eugenics program. Of course if a eugenics program was used, it would lead to a huge revolt, so obviously the program would have to be structured in such a way that the majority of the power resides in the hands of those in favor. This means the requirements would likely have to be fairly loose, lest the revolting party would get too large and overthrow the eugenists. People are too selfish to give up their own ability to breed for the bettering of civilization.
Since the requirements would be sufficiently low, the results would be unsatisfactory, leading to a dismantling of the program and a return to reverse evolution.