TYT: Creationist Vs Scientist On Why Human Intelligence Is Declining

[WhoIsNumberNone]

*People are becoming dumber and dumber, according to a controversial study, and that fits the teachings of the Bible, according to an advertisement released by a Creationist group. "You know, our world is so technologically advanced that we often think we are far more intelligent that our ancestors," Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis says in the 60-second ad, which was uploaded to YouTube on Thursday. "In fact, many people think ancient cultures were primitive, but a recent study found that human intelligence may actually be declining." Dr. Gerald Crabtree of Stanford University published an article in 2012 that argued humans were gradually losing their cognitive capabilities...* John Iadarola (host, TYT University and Common Room), Ben Mankiewicz (co-host, What The Flick?! and TYT Sports), Wes Clark Jr, and Cenk Uygur break it down on The Young Turks.

[exboyfil]

1. Two charts to consider

Income by IQ

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/02/06/correlations-of-iq-with-income-and-wealth/

Birthrate by Income

http://www.statista.com/statistics/241530/birth-rate-by-family-income-in-the-us/

Not sure what to make of it. A movie Idiocracy addressed it in part (a movie with a great premise but lousy execution).

One thing to remember is that lack of technology does not imply a lack of intelligence. IQ is an imperfect measure of intelligence. I am not going down The Bell Curve argument. I am just throwing out some statistics for discussion.

Some other articles talk about how the income gap is reinforced by the societal pairing involved with higher education.
http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/college-graduates-marry-other-college-graduates-most-of-the-time/274654/

Frankly I would prefer my daughter who is studying to be a mechanical engineer marry a skilled tradesman over another engineer with all other things being equal.

Finally does society put in incentives/disincentives that lead to lower income individuals having more children. Could it be having more children just lead to lower income (implying that come earlier slowing or stopping additional education/training for example).

[DhhD]

2. It could be that there is evolution continuing to provide for a, Division of Labor, amoung neural

cells. It is true that the brain is very plastic and the neurons can move to places that enchance the, duties of choice, whereas, making a daily unstressed choice between chocolate and vanillia does not make the neurons move at all. With better neuron wiring, the brain could become smaller and then the bigger again with the number of abilities and nuerons growing with spurts of evolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciation

Click on the Tree of Life on the right in the link above to enlarge it.

[DhhD]

3. The link is not working. Keyboard in, Speciation.