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Sunday, November 18, 20071195440367
Never believe it. We've fought too hard.
Courtsy of Half Sigma, an exceptionally good article from Slate.com on liberal creationism. The article is solid and unremarkable, other than for its intended audience. What's most interesting are the comments it generated from Salonists. I lurked in the forum, and found some zingers.
My favorite is so over-the-top I wonder if i is a satire:
I don't care what the "scientific evidence" says - I'll never believe the "truth" that the races aren't equal. We've fought too hard for too long. I also am very disappointed to see Slate publish this pablum - maybe in the National Review or whatever rag Herr Bush reads, but not Slate.
Another clearly disaproves of gnxp:
Jason Malloy is a member of one of the most notorious racist blogs on the Internet -- Gene Expression. The bloggers there claim blacks and Hispanics are geneticially inferior -- a missing link between apes and humans. Ironically, Malloy himself is at least a quarter black, but can pass for white. Hatred of his own ancestry seems to motivate him. He has no background whatsoever in science.
Steveangr takes a pot-shot at christian Creationism while defending his own kind:
Christians go through a phase because they were indoctrinated to sth that is false and now they have either to come in terms with the false bearing or choose the right thing which is different from their upbringing. Believing that there is no inherent genetic trait to intelligence, is not only supported by science -thus far- but it is wrong to thing otherwise, it's yours the pit you have dug there...
The comments I linked to were about average. Some were well meaning but misinformed. Others were emotional and clearly hurt. A few trotted out things they clearly learned in a 100-level class, and authoratively stated that anyone who took a freshman-level class would realize.
All in all, a good read if you're looking for dogmatism.
20:46 Posted by Dan tdaxp (Webmaster) in Science | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this | Tags: race, salon, intelligence
Comments
One interesting comment is from Akbar2 who asserts that IQ tests are a Jewish/American construct. When someone points out that East Asians are the top of the lists, he states that he stands corrected, but then asserts that Jews are Asians after all (in reference to a certain conspiracy theory that Jews (at least the Azkenazim) are really from Siberia not the Levant, thus have no claim there.
One thing I'd love to see explored (and it was sort of alluded to in Saletan's piece) is the evolutionary pressures that created the different outcomes, or just some indication of the history of the wondering of the non-celtic Indo/European types.
Posted by: ElamBend | Sunday, November 18, 2007
Which is why I keep coming back to TDAXP!
* zing *
Posted by: Aaron | Monday, November 19, 2007
ElamBend,
Could you rephrase what you are looking for?
Aaron,
But only for the trivia :-)
Posted by: Dan tdaxp | Monday, November 19, 2007
I'd love to know why the differences exist. What Specific causes created them?
What happened once humans left Africa? Where does the Asiatic/caucasoidal horde of the Asian interior fall?
I'm not sure they can be answered, particularly the latter two, but I'd love to know.
Posted by: ElamBend | Monday, November 19, 2007
Nick Wade's book [1,2] has very readable sections on post-African evolution
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Before-Dawn-Recovering-History-Ancestors/dp/1594200793
[2] http://tdaxp.blogspirit.com/archive/2007/05/02/review-of-before-the-dawn-by-nicholas-wade.html
Posted by: Dan tdaxp | Monday, November 19, 2007
Thank you
Posted by: ElamBend | Monday, November 19, 2007