The Next Step in Human Evolution: Me?

A study by Kanazawa found that more intelligent individuals were more nocturnal, waking up and staying up later than less intelligent individuals.  Because our ancestors lacked artificial light, they tended to wake up shortly before dawn and go to sleep shortly after dusk.  Being nocturnal is evolutionarily novel.

Well I must be evolving then. Actually the studies located here are very interesting to say the least. The claims about liberals being a more “Advanced” race makes a good deal of sense. Even the suggestions that those of us who stay up late have in a way taken a novel step forth in the evolutionary process makes me think there may be some truth to those studies.

Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as “very liberal” have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as “very conservative” have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.

Again, no surprise. After all, being that liberals are more attacked than Conservatives in a political discussion, mostly by Conservatives, tends to solidify the old salutation…”If you can not understand something, attack it.”

Young adults who identify themselves as “not at all religious” have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify themselves as “very religious” have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence.

Interesting figures there, no? I’m an Agnostic, not an Atheist, but I can guess that I would fall under the lines of the above figures. These studies shine some light on the facts of human nature, addressing the idea that if you think outside of the box, rather than stand in line waiting for the special kool-aid, then maybe you are a wee bit smarter than the average homogeneous species.

Similarly, religion is a byproduct of humans’ tendency to perceive agency and intention as causes of events, to see “the hands of God” at work behind otherwise natural phenomena.  “Humans are evolutionarily designed to be paranoid, and they believe in God because they are paranoid,” says Kanazawa.  This innate bias toward paranoia served humans well when self-preservation and protection of their families and clans depended on extreme vigilance to all potential dangers.  “So, more intelligent children are more likely to grow up to go against their natural evolutionary tendency to believe in God, and they become atheists.”

Now I never attended college, but I was making that same argument while I was in High school. I have always perceived that as humans we try to basically explain away the unexplainable, by giving events or unidentified actions on earth, per say lightning for an example, a god to identify it with. Native Americans had gods for everything, and with over 78-85 cultural religions out there, based upon a coherent need to explain things away that we couldn’t explain, it all adds up to religion being a man made artifact of who we are as humans. Of course in my mind religion was also a tool of control, giving rulers a form of control to govern over a body of civilization, and what better fear to use than your soul in the after life. Follow the rules and you will end up in a city of gold, virgins will be at your feet, and you will wash you hands in basins of diamonds and rubies. Don’t follow the rules and your soul will wander endlessly in a lake of fire, tortured, and torn apart by hells demons.

It’s a simple acknowledgment of the human condition, and humans ability to understand things before the advancement of Science. As we evolve, so does our understanding about everything around us, and I believe we are evolving very quickly in the mental area of understanding. Not very long ago the Earth was flat, and now we are taking photographs from a satellite we have shot out into space to explore our Universe.

What I also tend to believe is that it will not be very long until we find another planet to colonize. Why? Because we have almost, just about conquered understanding our World, although there a magnitude of things yet to discover here and learn, I think we have exhausted our ability to learn here to an extent that will push us further into understanding what is beyond our planet. It was only a few hundred years ago that people hypothesized what was beyond the horizons on Earth, and now we are doing the same in reference to what is outside our knowledge of Earth.

In addition, humans have always been mildly polygynous in evolutionary history.  Men in polygynous marriages were not expected to be sexually exclusive to one mate, whereas men in monogamous marriages were.  In sharp contrast, whether they are in a monogamous or polygynous marriage, women were always expected to be sexually exclusive to one mate.  So being sexually exclusive is evolutionarily novel for men, but not for women.  And the theory predicts that more intelligent men are more likely to value sexual exclusivity than less intelligent men, but general intelligence makes no difference for women’s value on sexual exclusivity.  Kanazawa’s analysis of Add Health data supports these sex-specific predictions as well.

Opps. Now that also explains quite a bit as well. In order for a more dominant species to survive, they will mate continuously outside of their partner of choice, in order to pass along their genetic marker that makes them a smarter, stronger, more powerful creature. At least that is what I remember from National Geographic, and Wild America shows I watched as a kid. Maybe this is why I have 4-5 kids. Not sure, there maybe one from a wild day in my youth…..