Human Evolution Seems to Be Accelerating (Jews evolved from "financing!")

AP via Fox News ^ | 12-11-07

[squireofgothos]

above-average intelligence in Ashkenazi Jews — those of northern European heritage — resulted from natural selection in medieval Europe, where they were pressured into jobs as financiers, traders, managers and tax collectors.

Those who were smarter succeeded, grew wealthy and had bigger families to pass on their genes, they suggested. That evolution also is linked to genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Gaucher in Jews.

The new study was funded by the Department of Energy, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the Unz Foundation, the University of Utah and the University of Wisconsin.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Except for the inconvenient fact that the vast majority of the Jews who worked in finance and the professions were murdered during the Second World War, and the bulk of modern Jewry are descendants of the dirt poor shtetl Jews of Poland and the Ukraine and the similarly circumstanced Mizrachim of Northern Africa.

Many educated Jews escaped Europe before the darkness completely took hold, and you err in assuming that financial circumstances in the 19th century (when most European Jews came to America) necessarily indicates the ancestral circumstances of these Jews' forebearers. Being kicked out of one country for being too successful, and being shut out of opportunities for advancement in the country you've fled to, will result in your being a "dirt-poor shtetl", even if you've got a 150 IQ.

It is obvious that from the days of at least the Babylonian Captivity the Jews had a reputation as a highly learned and competent population.

Not so. There's nothing from classical times to suggest that the Jews were especially on the ball ahead of other peoples, intellect-wise. They were certainly outshone in just about every area of intellectual endeavour by the Greeks, and their insistence on revolting from the Romans every couple of decades, even when they were certain to be crushed mercilessly, while showing a certain amount of bravery, also demonstrates some blockheaded stupidity.

[From many - one.]

So, as if by magic, in order to prevent evolution, they just stop?

And what has mulism got to do with it.

[Borges]

Arthur Koestler thought that an Asiatic Tribe called the Khazars converted to Judaism in the 10th century or so and that Ashkenazi Jews are descendant from them. He put forward the theory in the hopes that it would deflect accusations from Deicide from contemporary Jews who would have no connection to Roman era JEws. Today the theory is favored by Neo Nazis and Muslims as it also invalidates Jewish claims to the Holy Land.

[sportutegrl]

Or that female Jews would only marry, (and thus have children for) males with the intelligence or ability to make a lot of money.

[Greg F]

To throw in my two cents . . . I think women like funny men. They choose them. Men get wittier and wittier. I am a prime example of this trend.

[allmendream]

Genetic studies confirm that Ashkenazim Jews are descended from Middle Eastern peoples. They are lighter skin either due to sexual selection (being raised among a lighter skinned population might make them think that lighter skin was ‘sexy’) slight interbreeding, or natural selection for increased Vitamin D synthesis.

[Sherman Logan]

AS I understand it, DNA analysis has more or less disproved the Khazar theory.

While the Khazars did indeed “adopt Judaism,” it is likely that this applied primarily or only to the royal family and high aristocracy, not to the entire nation, which probably was dispersed anyway among the very fluid gene-mixing of the medieval steppe.

[wideawake]

So, as if by magic, in order to prevent evolution, they just stop?

If by "magic" you mean the established science called "genetics", then yes.

When the chromosomal information of two lineages becomes too disparate, the ability to interbreed is lost.

And what has mulism got to do with it.

A mule is the offspring of a species known as Equus caballus and another species known as Equus asinus - the two species are very closely related and evolutionists consider them to have a common acnestor.

However, when they mate, the union - called a mule or a hinny - rarely produces offspring and these offspring are almost always unable to reproduce (there are fewer than 100 documented cases of mules reproducing and one documented case of the offspring of mules reproducing in recorded history).

This demonstrates that when a certain threshhold of genetic diversity or mutation is reached, the ability to interbreed is lost.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

So, as if by magic, in order to prevent evolution, they just stop?

And what has mulism got to do with it.

Er, well, if they can't breed anymore, then they can't pass on genetic heritage.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

This demonstrates that when a certain threshhold of genetic diversity or mutation is reached, the ability to interbreed is lost.

I was going to make a joke about West Virginia here, but I'll refrain.

[Deut28]

Rather odd that this phenomenon had a greater impact on a subset of Jews than other parts of humankind.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Arthur Koestler thought that an Asiatic Tribe called the Khazars converted to Judaism in the 10th century or so and that Ashkenazi Jews are descendant from them. He put forward the theory in the hopes that it would deflect accusations from Deicide from contemporary Jews who would have no connection to Roman era JEws. Today the theory is favored by Neo Nazis and Muslims as it also invalidates Jewish claims to the Holy Land.

The Kagan of the Khazars, and the aristocracy, converted to Judaism, but it's unlikely that the bulk of the common people did.

[ModelBreaker]

It is obvious that from the days of at least the Babylonian Captivity the Jews had a reputation as a highly learned and competent population.

It's interesting. A good friend of mine recently told me that there was no evidence of any exodus across the desert from Egypt. But "modern scientists" thought it was possible that Moses and the Jews were actually a band of about 20 raiders who crossed the desert--and then the story just got out of hand over time.

I pointed out that the Old Testament has no peer in the pre-Greek world. It stands utterly by itself. For example, almost every major idea in modern philosophy appears in Genesis, well developed and well thought out. The culture required to sustain such an oral (later a written) tradition could not possibly have been 20 guys raiding caravans. Surprisingly, other civilizations of that time (the Babylonians and Egyptions) were much more powerful and wealthy. But they produced nothing comparable to Pentateuch, which is the granddaddy of one of the two intellectual traditions that produced the modern world.

I don't think most people stop and think about what truly remarkable folks the ancient Jews really were. The Torah and the Bible are just facts of life to us today. It is uttely astonishing the Torah was produced at that time.

[Deut28]

Your definition of a new species, while almost universally accepted, is flawed.

How would the first of a new species procreate if it can’t breed with the species it originated from? Did two of the new species evolve simultaneously, one male and one female? Is the first of each new species capable of asexual reproduction?

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Rather odd that this phenomenon had a greater impact on a subset of Jews than other parts of humankind.

Not necessarily. IIRC, genetic change becomes more marked in a smaller interbreeeding population than in a larger one.

[Gingersnap]

Well, that milk-drinking observation is bogus. All normal human beings can digest milk as infants. It’s only if they get weaned and then avoid milk for years that they lose the ability to digest it.

Asians and Africans who grow up in milk-drinking cultures can drink milk.

[Deut28]

So then you would expect to see very similar results from similar sized interbreeding populations?

There are plenty of such examples in the world. It would be quite interesting if this study compared comparable samples, but the results would likely lead to more questions than answers.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Dang! Now if only I’d been a counter drudge I’d have become a genius! Of course, I can’t do math anyway, so no one would want me as a counter drudge.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

So then you would expect to see very similar results from similar sized interbreeding populations?

Well, in modern times, I'm not sure that we have a comparable sample population. And even then, it depends on what traits are being selected for. Intelligence is only one trait among many, and the benefits to a trait are at least partially determined by the environmental needs.

In ancient times, however, I would submit that the branching off of the original populations for the various races of man show what happens when small isolate population breed endogamously.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Question for the people who think that any talk about IQ and heredity automatically equals eugenics and Naziism - If you accept the principle of natural selection, which even most creationists as well as all evolutionists accept, then why can you not see the same principle at work here? On a scientific level, do you think human genetics operates any differently from that of the animals, which we routinely breed for the purposes of expressing specific traits?

Oh, I don't know . . . maybe it has something to do with a little thing called the human soul???

Of course, if you think that the human soul is actually just biochemical reactions in the brain . . .