Evolution and humans (Evolution)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Monday, May 18, 2015, 16:36 (3475 days ago) @ David Turell

David: A very reasonable answer. We know that cross-breeding occurred. But only one type of Homo survived. Are there reasons of superiority or just dumb luck? The best studied group the Neanderthals seemed to have just disappeared, or did competition from H. sapiens drive them away? All of them were far in advance from apes, as your Denisovans article indicates. I would conclude, with no absolute proof, we are here because of superiority.-Actually, I think it is probably more of a case of simple cultural assimilation. I'll give you two more recent examples. When Rome was building their empire, not only did they kill off most of the males, but they also bred most of the females of the nations they conquered. Of those that weren't spoils of war, many migrated into Roman culture because they perceived advantages over their current lifestyle. That is not to say that the lifestyle was superior, only that it was more attractive. The same happened in the U.S. with the huge influx of immigrants. Now, within only a few generations, much of the ancestory is so muddled as to be virtually indistiguishable. Today, we are seeing more interbreeding between races within the U.S., particularly between Black, White, and Hispanic. It is not inconceivable to think that if isolated, the population of these parent races would disappear in just a few generations as social and cultural barriers give way to new norms. -As for the seperation in gene diversity, see the first sentence about Rome, because this was typical of ancient warfare. Kill all men old enough to fight, breed/rape all the women. So right off the bat you would be cutting the gene dispersion potential for a group nearly in half. Within a few generations that group would be all but non-existent.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.