Recently my Science teacher went on a rave about how Humans are stupid (her words not mine)
She thinks this because of the following reasons
*We cause most of our problems ourself: Global warming, Pollution etc"
*Greed, humans are very greedy & that causes problems
she had some others i cant remember.
I said, well humans went to the moon
and she replied with ‘‘What did that achieve?’’
i need some good points to throw in her face and make her lost for words.
If anyone can help i would be ever so grateful.
Bye
Or at least that intelligence is in inverse proportion to a tendency to talk.
But as for what going to the moon did, a half-decent science teacher should be able to figure out the benefits and spinoffs of any research. (Teflon and velcro, anyone?)
Stupid in the sense of short-sightedness, I’ll agree. But then so are most animals. Animals that have yearly hibernation only “plan” for the coming winter, and that’s basically limited to getting extra fat so they can sleep for 3 months.
It was tough to envision what burning fossil fuels would do, or that it would become so prevalent. One petrolium fire’s exhaust easily dissipates; so does two. But when its uses become so wide-spread that 1-2 billion people in the world depend on them to get around, it becomes a problem.
I myself don’t believe that people as a group are stupid. Certainly, there are individual examples of human stupidity… like your science teacher. Sorry. I can’t help thinking that:
1 – a science teacher who doesn’t see any benefit to our going to the moon.
-plus-
2 – a teacher who would make such a depressing and inappropriate remark to a class full of kids.
-equals-
STUPID
Of course, I’m not a math major.
BTW, you could try using the eradication of smallpox as an example of Smart Things People Have Done.
Or, I know! Invite her to this board! She’ll meet plenty of smart people. Of course, inviting a Maroon to this message board is a little like throwing a Christian to the lions. Not that that’s a bad thing.
How about: “Humans produced me and my classmates. We think that was a very good thing. If you believe that by doing so our parents were stupid, or you think that by being human we are stupid, go ahead, but don’t expect us to take you seriously. I’m sorry that you believe that by virtue of being human you consider yourself to be a stupid.”
[QUOTE] Originally posted by RAWisSYDNEY *
** She thinks this because of the following reasons We cause most of our problems ourself: Global warming, Pollution etc"
We solve many of our problems ourselves, too - think of the achievements of medicine, large-scale organisation (governments, businesses), communication, technology…
*Greed, humans are very greedy & that causes problems
But we’re capable of recognising individual or national instances of greed and we address that with instilling ideas of fairness in society, and the courts/justice system.
I said, well humans went to the moon
and she replied with '‘What did that achieve?’'
Aside from technological advances (such as teflon & velcro already mentioned), we gained information about the moon itself, knowledge for future space exploration, and the programme pushed the boundaries of human achievement. This last is not pointless or fanciful, and I’m sad to hear your science teacher does not appreciate the inspirational value of the moon landing/s.
i need some good points to throw in her face and make her lost for words.
How about brainstorming this with other students? I’m sure you can all come up with stacks of moon- and space-related info on the net
Nice teacher. Glad to see that our educational system is led by the best and brightest people. How inspirational.
First, compare human intelligence to the rest of the animal kingdom. By far, humans are the most intelligent. Looking deeper into her argument, perhaps intelligence is not a good thing given the side effects we have to deal with (pollution, global threats from war, etc.). But that is not the question here. Neither is “what is the benefit of going to the Moon?”. Her claim is simply that humans are stupid. Of all the life forms we know, humans are the most intelligent. Tell her to feel free to debate whether intelligence is a good thing or not.
Also, she may be confusing intelligence with wisdom. I.e., the ability to figure things out vs. knowledge. An intelligent person who is not wise can do things that, in retrospect, are stupid. Consider DDT, CFCs, and PCBs…all three are creations of intelligence that were thought to be safe. All three have very useful properties. But later, we found out that they cause more harm than good. We became wiser and now we must use our intelligence to solve the problem we accidentally created.
If you want specific examples of intelligence, you can cherry-pick examples of art, music, high mathematics, and sciences such as quantum mechanics, non-linear dynamics, cosmology, etc. Let’s see a ‘stupid’ species understand those things. The average human may not be able to understand these things, but many individual humans can.
Yoru teacher is attempting to make her point by being her own best example.
Stu•pid:
Slow to learn or understand
Lacking or marked by lack of intelligence
Pointless, worthless
I think it’s pretty clear that #1 does not apply to the human race in general. We are extremely clever and quick to learn. If her argument is to the contrary, to what is she comparing us? What is her measuring stick for stupidity?
Her response to your moon statement just seems hard headed and uncharacteristic of a (good) teacher. I suspect that she might just be trying to get you to think for yourself & maybe acquire some debating skills. What class is this, anyway?
Paraphrasing Cosmos:
Humans constructed the Viking Lander which, by some standards is about as intelligent as a bacterium and by other standards is as intelligent as a grasshopper. Nature took millions of years to evolve the former, and billions of years to evolve the latter. With just a few thousand years of practice at this, we’re getting pretty good at it.
All your teacher’s criticisms are about humans doing stuff that is detrimental to the human race as a whole - not to individuals. Most people are fairly good at making inteligent decisions based on what’s good for them personally - it seems like people find it a bit harder to extend that out to encompass other humans. So (generalising a lot…) we’re brilliant at exercising our intelligence in ways that benefit ourslves, good if they benefit our family and friends, OK if they benefit our town/state/country and pretty bad at making decisions that could benefit the whole human race.
For this kind of intelligence, I’d argue pretty much the opposite to Jess - people as a group are fairly stupid (largely because everyone tends to think “Well, everyone else will argue for their own interests, so I’m going to argue for mine - no-one else will be looking after my rights”), and there are individual examples of both incredible intelligence and incredible stupidity.
So, you could point out that she’s only assessing intelligence in terms of its effects on the whole species, not in terms of tis effects on individuals or groups.
You could also argue that you can only assess human intelligence in comparison to other species - in which case, there are very few that can even come close to human levels.
In terms of scientific achievements, I agree eradication of smallpox is a good example. You could also go for more generalised examples of intelligence, like our capability to ignore natural instincts if we know that following them isn’t necessarily the best couse of action (like not scratching chickenpox, even if it itches, because we know it’ll leave scars) or our abilities in communication (most human languages are amazingly expressive, and have words for abstract concepts as well as real life stuff). Or you could try discussing how to rate artistic and creative achievements in terms of intelligence, because there are loads of examples of astonishing paintings, sculptures, fictional writing and pieces of music you could use.
This is a very interesting discussion, but it’s not really factual (yes, it’s a fact that we went to the Moon, but it’s an opinion to say that that’s a good thing). Lemme move it over to GD, so it can continue in the appropriate place.
Stupidity is a relative concept. Many “stupid” humans are still more intelligent than all “smart” dogs. And at least to me, intelligence means the ability to put 2 and 2 together, and to solve problems. It can’t be judged solely on achievements or lack thereof. For instance, a building superintendent might be quite a smart person, who can figure out all problems and fix them quickly, yet never achieve anything in his life other than the residents’ gratefulness.
Your teacher’s other arguments are just as whacky. The current pollution problem more an addiction than stupidity, we’re addicted to our lifestyle so we willingly disregard its drawbacks and carry on. Actually, the fact that we know what kinds of problems we’re causing, and how, is a sign of intelligence. it’s kind of like smart people who smoke. They know it’s bad for them but they can’t stop, and when they get a lung disease they have a pretty good idea why. A stupid person would smoke, get the lung disease and die, without every figuring out where the disease came from.
Greed is similar although I see it more as a bad value-system. For instance, I come from an ancestral line that lived in the desert. In that environment, one tends to keep and store everything, because resources are hard to come by. Myself, I live in a big city with plenty of resources and I make really good money, but I my upbringing (passed down from many generations of desert-dwellers) constantly makes me spend as little, and save as much as I can. I believe I’m relatively smart because I am aware of this, and I make myself spend money even if my initial reaction is always to save everything.
Oh and, going to the moon, that’s more of a showcase of other human achievements. Not the least of which is a way to pee in zero-gravity without having the yellow liquid spread all over the spaceships.
Good arguments that humans aren’t stupid?? This just seems silly.
Have you seen the Mona Lisa? The Sistine Chapel? The Taj Mahal? The Pyramids? The Golden Gate Bridge? The Space Shuttle? Read any Shakespeare? Or Darwin?
For that matter, has this ignorant person ever looked inside a computer? Or a car?
The reason your teacher thinks humans are stupid is undoubtedly a result of her daily reflections in the mirror. :rolleyes:
My advice is ‘don’t bother’. One of my pet peeves is teachers who use their classroom as their personal forum. It’s like arguing with some jackass on a message board. They never change their oppinion regardless of how many facts you present to them.
Personally, I think most humans ARE stupid. I also think most of us are self-serving, irrational, short sighted, and greedy. It seems to hold true at all levels of society, from CEOs of corporations who don’t care about the decisions they make because of their ‘golden parachutes’ to some trailer trash on Jerry Springer who’s sleeping with his sister. But that doesn’t probably doesn’t help you’re problem.
Try this:
You could ask your teacher if living in shacks with no electricity, no cars, etc would make us ‘smarter’.
or
Tell your teacher that we humans are so smart we completely dominate and control our environment. The smarter we get, the more we control the world around us. Eventually we’ll figure out how to solve polution and global warming. Just like we solve every other problem. You won’t change his/her mind, but it should piss him/her off real nice.
or maybe
Just tell your teacher to shut the hell up and just teach the class. Your in science class to learn how to figure out the mass of little wooden blocks and conduct experiments with light bulbs, not indulge the ravings of some misanthrope.
Are humans stupid? I dunno. Are they fast? Are they tall? These questions are meaningless unless you are comparing these qualities against something. Otherwise you are just asking if humans are smarter than humans. Duh!
What I suspect your teacher is really saying is that humans aren’t as smart as she is. So be careful when you try to challenge her statement because you are really attacking her ego.
Of course human beings are smart. For example, here is somebody who has figured out that he can accurately judge millions of teachers based on one statement allegedly made by one of those teachers that was posted on an internet message board by somebody that he doesn’t even know. If that’s not a sign of intelligence, I don’t know what is.
As bnorton said, this question is relative. Certainly, human beings are frequently guided by their emotions rather than by solid thinking, and all people sometimes act and speak in ways that they themselves couldn’t possibly justify. But does this necessarily mean that we all qualify as stupid? It can’t be said for sure.
This just seems silly.