Interesting People mailing list archives
Created Equal?
From: David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:44:19 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks) Date: November 18, 2007 5:50:39 PM EST To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Created Equal? [Note: This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis. DLH] From: Mike Cheponis <mac () wireless com> Date: November 18, 2007 12:05:52 PM PST To: interesting3 () wireless com Subject: created equal? <http://www.slate.com/id/2178122/entry/0/> Created Equal Race, genes, and intelligence. By William Saletan Updated Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007, at 11:10 AM ET From: William Saletan Subject: Liberal creationism Posted Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007, at 7:57 AM ETWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …
-- Declaration of IndependenceLast month, James Watson, the legendary biologist, was condemned and forced intoretirement after claiming that African intelligence wasn't "the same as ours." "Racist, vicious and unsupported by science," said the Federation of American Scientists. "Utterly unsupported by scientific evidence," declared the U.S. government's supervisor of genetic research. The New York Times told readers that when Watson implied "that black Africans are less intelligent than whites, he hadn't a scientific leg to stand on."
I wish these assurances were true. They aren't. Tests do show an IQ deficit, not just for Africans relative to Europeans, but for Europeans relative to Asians. Economic and cultural theories have failed to explain most of the pattern, and there's strong preliminary evidence that part of it is genetic. It's time to prepare for the possibility that equality of intelligence, in the sense of racial averages on tests, will turn out not to be true.
If this suggestion makes you angry—if you find the idea of genetic racial advantages outrageous, socially corrosive, and unthinkable— you're not the first to feel that way. Many Christians are going through a similar struggle over evolution. Their faith in human dignity rests on a literal belief in Genesis. To them, evolution isn't just another fact; it's a threat to their whole value system. As William Jennings Bryan put it during the Scopes trial, evolution meant elevating "supposedly superior intellects," "eliminating the weak," "paralyzing the hope of reform," jeopardizing "the doctrine of brotherhood," and undermining "the sympathetic activities of a civilized society."
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