A "scientist" recently speculated about the fate of humanity on that channel of scientific renown, Bravo. He speculated on a few important obviously knowable areas such as:
"Men will have symmetrical facial features, deeper voices and bigger penises...
Women will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts, according to Curry.
Racial differences will be a thing of the past as interbreeding produces a single coffee-coloured skin tone."
Also he speculates that a lesser human species will develop (ala H.G. Well's The Time Machine).
Now, as much as some may joke about Social Sciences not being "real" sciences, like the science this expert claims to study, I think this shows how wrong that assumption is. Bypassing the obvious metaphysical problems with spliting humanity into a tier of the "beautiful" and the "ugly" there is also the problem of simple cultural ignorance.
A student of culture can easily explain the error. The scientist speculates on the basis of EXTREMELY
CURRENT preferances. If you look at the time of the Renaissance, women in paintings who they considered beautiful have few of the characteristics that we find attractive today. They tend to be more meaty, and little attention is paid to "glossy hair and pert breasts." Men were desired if they were large in more areas than the doctor is concerned with (big gut = good provider) and commanded a broad intellect. This male doctor assumes natural selection through mating largely on the basis of current preferances and external traits.
CURRENT preferances. If you look at the time of the Renaissance, women in paintings who they considered beautiful have few of the characteristics that we find attractive today. They tend to be more meaty, and little attention is paid to "glossy hair and pert breasts." Men were desired if they were large in more areas than the doctor is concerned with (big gut = good provider) and commanded a broad intellect. This male doctor assumes natural selection through mating largely on the basis of current preferances and external traits.Yet, if our culture continues to be as superficial as this "doctor" (I keep putting it in quotes because, what professional would go on Bravo, really?), if everyone is as shallow as him, then perhaps he's right. But, would the shallow breeders really be ruling, or being ruled? As one of my DTS profs likes to say: "everyone has an eschatology, not just Christians."
"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty." -1 Cor 1:27
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