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Re: A troublesome Inheritance

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 2:55 am
by RickD
PaulS wrote:
Genetics is about what a person or even a group of people are born with, certain physical ( even mental perhaps) traits.
How people use them, ie: behavior is something different.
If genetics can pinpoint a gene that ALL serial killers have that everyone else doesn't have ( for example), then it means that everyone born with that gene has the genetic trait to be one.
Them becoming one is a whole different matter.
Paul,

If it's ever found that there's a gene that only serial killers have, and everyone else doesn't have, then that would have to mean the serial killers acquired the gene after they became serial killers.

So, nobody would be born with the gene.

Re: A troublesome Inheritance

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 4:46 am
by Mallz
is it possible that environmental factors are the cause of the results of this study?
Possibly. It could also be that ancestors altered their genetics through environment (natural and social) and passed down their altered genetic code to offspring. Genetic evolution (or de-evolution in some cases? :p :ewink: )
If it's ever found that there's a gene that only serial killers have, and everyone else doesn't have, then that would have to mean the serial killers acquired the gene after they became serial killers.
It could be the same as said above as well. In their cases, I'd suspect it's multifactoral on changes in epigenetics, or lack of genes not yet found (or both?). Geneticists are learning more and more, and there is still more to be found and understood regarding human behavior. I'm not a geneticist so my suspicion is just an educated opinion.

The world of Gattaca is quickly becoming a reality for ourselves. I find that to be very scary and hope we as a human race never get to that point before Christ comes again.

Re: A troublesome Inheritance

Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 8:40 am
by PaulSacramento
RickD wrote:
PaulS wrote:
Genetics is about what a person or even a group of people are born with, certain physical ( even mental perhaps) traits.
How people use them, ie: behavior is something different.
If genetics can pinpoint a gene that ALL serial killers have that everyone else doesn't have ( for example), then it means that everyone born with that gene has the genetic trait to be one.
Them becoming one is a whole different matter.
Paul,

If it's ever found that there's a gene that only serial killers have, and everyone else doesn't have, then that would have to mean the serial killers acquired the gene after they became serial killers.

So, nobody would be born with the gene.
Genetics doesn't work that way.
Genes can be passed on and not be active in some and active in others.
I should have worded it as "active gene", my bad.
That said, we may be getting into the "chicken or the egg" discussion...
Which isn't really the point of the thread.

As for environmental factors, yes of course those are factors in behavior AND are even be factors in "mutated genes".

Re: A troublesome Inheritance

Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 2:07 pm
by Gman
RickD wrote:
PaulSacramento wrote:If science shows that a particular group is more predisposed to violence than another, is that racism or simply scientific observation?
If someone says a particular group is more prone to violence because of their race, then yes, that's racism. Were ALL other factors considered? All?

Racism is a horrible evil. This kind of crap just tries to justify it.

And again, Darwinian evolution and racism go hand in hand.
Rick is correct here... ;)

The doctrine of evolution, if it is mindless chance chemicals coming together to create races of mankind, produces humans superior to others through the survival of the fittest. The basic message of Darwinian evolution was that some humans were 'more evolved', in the sense of their divergence from apes, than others...

This is confirmed in one of his wacky books “The Descent of Man."

"At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes. . . will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla. (Darwin; “The Descent of Man”, 2nd ed. P.178)."

Regarding the relative size of the brain of savages, as compared to civilized man, Darwin writes:

“The belief that there exists in man some close relation between the size of the brain and the development of the intellectual faculties is supported by the comparison of the skulls of savage (black people) and civilized races (white people), of ancient and modern people, and by the analogy of the whole vertebrate series. …Professor Broca found that the nineteenth century skulls from graves in Paris were larger than those from vaults of the twelfth century, in the proportion of 1484 to 1426; and that the increased size, as ascertained by measurements, was exclusively in the frontal part of the skull—the seat of the intellectual faculties." According to Darwin, blacks had a smaller skull cavity (or brain size) than the whites.. Because of this genetic trait, whites were ultimately superior to blacks who were thus called the savagerace...

Early on in Descent, Darwin discusses various aspects of man he deems significant. Regarding the shape of the human and sub-human ear Darwin writes:

“It has been asserted that the ear of man alone possesses a lobule; but 'a rudiment of it is found in the gorilla;' and, as I hear from Prof. Preyer, it is not rarely absent in the negro” (p.15).

Of the sense of smell:

"But the sense of smell is of extremely slight service, if any, even to the dark colored races of men, in whom it is much more highly developed than in white and civilized races”(p.18 )

Re: A troublesome Inheritance

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 6:12 am
by PaulSacramento
The current theory of evolution is quite different from Darwin's.
I think that has been mentioned a few times already.
ANYTHING can be made to sound racists ( even the bible, as has been mentioned already).
I think that IF science proves that a specific "race" has genetic advantage/disadvantage with certain traits, then it is not racist but simply a proven fact.