I wouldn’t go quite that far, but I’m very skeptical. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
This still places the use of iron by Bantu to two thousand years ago. The Hittites began using iron over three thousand years ago.
It is easy for me to believe that the Chinese invented iron age technology independently, and I can believe that the east Indians did too.
In the New World the Aztecs and Incas used copper on a large scale. The Incas were beginning to experiment with bronze.
Like I said before, it’s been posted before in this thread. I’m not going to engage in your asinine game of requesting the same information over, and over, and over, and over, and over, again. You’re too stupid to recognize it, and even if you did you would claim it was due to some liberal conspiracy. Given you’re deep-seated dishonesty, it’s not worth the effort to engage you.
No, it’s very boring to read your grinding, relentless, unmitigated stupidity.
You keep claiming that there is no genetic evidence. How do you explain the fact that the achievement gap between whites and blacks exists everywhere, and always has? Where is there a significant population of blacks that behaves and performs as well as whites? Where is there a black majority country with a representative democracy, a high standard of living, and a low crime rate?
The Nok culture in Nigeria smelted and forged iron at least 2500 years ago, and likely 3500 years ago.
What’s with your obsession with the Bantu? There are lots of other populations in sub-Saharan Africa, but you keep talking about them.
This question itself shows your lack of scientific understanding or rigor. I know you don’t see why and frankly I don’t care anymore, as you are a dishonest poster. But for the benefit of any audience that may still be confused and for the general good…
As explained earlier (in this thread and the GD thread), there are several problems with this question.
- You haven’t shown that your concept of “races” are genetically based, beyond superficial physical clues, like skin color.
In fact, it ignores several the counter-examples given. For example, under your morphology (I almost hesitate to use this word as your definition leaves much to be desired), the San, Yoruba, Ibo, and Bantu are “black”. But, as shown numerous times in this thread and others, the genetic expression of their skin color, eye color, hair color, and other primary characteristics that make them both “black” to you are expressed differently genetically. In fact, the San are notably lighter skinned than several other sub-Saharan populations, which apparently isn’t important in your racial classification but is genetically significant.
And, as pointed out earlier, some of these groups are more closely related to Europeans/Asian population groups than other sub-Saharan groups. Apparently, this also doesn’t make a difference, but you haven’t explained how or why they are or aren’t significant.
- As I granted, maybe there is a correlation between racial genetics and intelligence. But you haven’t defined what genetic components define race nor shown that such genetic components are correlated with intelligence.
It is a poor scientist that has no better definition than “I know it when I see it”.
Of all genetic markers, you opt for primarily skin, hair, and eye color. Yet you don’t even realize that even among sub-Saharan Africans, the genetics that control for these can differ greatly among different populations.
I, for one, have been waiting weeks for such evidence that has been controlled for any other possible factors (environment, economics, etc), yet no such experiments have been given.
- Even if there can be shown to be a correlation with biology (which you haven’t done yet), you haven’t shown a correlation that is genetic without being biological. I’ve personally brought this point up at least twice, and it hasn’t been addressed at all.
Remember that genetics are NOT the end-all, be-all of biology. I’ve given several examples of traits which are biological but not genetic. Other posters have also given examples of traits which are inheritable but not genetic.
Heck, fetal alcohol syndrome is a perfect example. It affects the intelligence of a child but is biological without being genetic.
Beyond the lack of even biological evidence, where is the evidence that there is a genetic, rather than biologic factor at play?
- Even if there can be shown to be a correlation beyond biology to genetics (which, again, you haven’t done yet), you haven’t shown a direction. This comes back to the concept of controls. Are there are factors correlated with, even if unrelated to, with genetics that need to be eliminated as factors? You presume not, but you haven’t shown any evidence for it.
If you have a hypothesis that is not generally accepted, you don’t start out by assuming what you want. You assume the status quo. That’s called the Null Hypothesis. It’s the job of the scientist to show that a new hypothesis is true to a statistically significant level.
Just because a new cancer drug apparently “works” on 2 patients doesn’t mean it’s any good. That’s why trials take years and involve many more patients. Likewise, if you want to advance a theory for which you’ve yet to show direct genetic evidence (though mixed with lots of circumstantial evidence, errors, uncorrected for other factors, and a lot of dumb to boot), it’s on you to provide that direct genetic evidence.
5) As to my own qualifications, do you mean to ask if I’m a card carrying scientist? Well, yes I am (by “card” I mean an advanced degree). Of course, on the internet, that could also mean I’m an unemployed, uneducated slob getting my kicks by screwing with people, but I think a simple search of any/all posts I’ve made relating to mathematical/scientific topics aren’t going to show any contradictions with that background.
Basically, the proof is in the pudding. I’m not the one who’s demonstrated a lack of knowledge of science (vs knowledge of science facts). There’s a difference between knowing a bunch of trivia about science and being any good at doing science. That concept seems to elude you, somehow. Ken Jennings can probably give me a bunch of trivia about geophysics or mathematics that I did not know, but I bet I can actually DO geophysics or mathematics better than he can.
Not true. As has been explained earlier in this thread, black children in the UK and Germany did not show any achievement gap compared to their white peers (when corrected for the same socioeconomic class).
Apparently, if you don’t treat people like shit, they don’t end up performing like shit.
Unlike those who flame both of us, brazil84 is courteous, articulate, and well informed. If he has responded in kind to the insults that have been thrown at him by those who cannot respond rationally to his arguments, I missed it.
I say there is no genetic evidence because there is no genetic evidence. How do you know the achievement gap has always existed? And many studies and statistics show the gap is receding. There’s barely any decent data for most of sub-Saharan Africa for the past 50 years, much less the tens of thousand years of human cultural existence.
Up until recently there were no Asian countries with a representative democracy, a high standard of living, and a low crime rate. There are many Asian countries now with no democracy, very low standards of living, and very high crime rates. What will you say in the future when (inevitably) there are numerous “black majority” countries with all these things? The standard of living is going up everywhere- and the greatest rate of increase has been in the poorer countries (which is not surprising).
He did call me a liar, and accuse me of contradicting myself, both of which were false accusations.
Strand, Steve (2012) The white British-black Caribbean achievement gap : tests, tiers and teacher expectations. British Educational Research Journal, Vol.38 (No.1). pp. 75-101. ISSN 0141-1926
A recent analysis of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) indicates a White British–Black Caribbean achievement gap at age 14 which cannot be accounted for by socio‐economic variables or a wide range of contextual factors. This article uses the LSYPE to analyse patterns of entry to the different tiers of national mathematics and science tests at age 14. Each tier gives access to a limited range of outcomes with the highest test outcomes achievable only if students are entered by their teachers to the higher tiers. The results indicate that Black Caribbean students are systematically under‐represented in entry to the higher tiers relative to their White British peers. This gap persists after controls for prior attainment, socio‐economic variables and a wide range of pupil, family, school and neighbourhood factors. Differential entry to test tiers provides a window on teacher expectation effects which may contribute to the achievement gap.
At this point, I am tired of the discussion of genetics minutiae. I am more interested in an examination of the underlying ethical principles of NDD’s worldview.
NDD - last night I spent about half an hour composing a reply to an earlier post of yours in which I had asked you to clarify some of your earlier assertions. I did not insult you or malign your character. Would you do me the favor of a reply?
I can’t stand racists.
Yes, the achievement gap exists. You’ve consistently failed to provide any evidence for your genetic explanation. And the Eyferth study showed no difference in IQ between half-black students and white students in Germany. So even the achievement gap doesn’t exist everywhere in all societies.
What race are the Hausa and the Mandenka? Are they the same race? I keep asking because it’s another example (there’s lots more) where one “black” population is more closely related to European and Asian populations than to certain other “black” populations.
I did not see him call you a liar. That does not mean that he did not. I would not call someone here a liar, although I believe that those who think that the human races are biologically equivalent are delusional. Some may be less certain of their opinions than they claim to be.
Part of the reason I believe that some races are intrinsically more intelligent on the average than others is the same reason I believe in the greenhouse effect. Both are so plausible. Different human populations facing different population pressures are going to develop different characteristics. Burning fossil fuels restores an amount of carbon dioxide that existed in the atmosphere when the average climate on earth was warmer.
No it hasn’t. Anyway, I don’t engage with people who weasel, i.e. who misrepresent their own statements. In this case, you are misrepresenting the statements of people on your side of the debate, which is close enough.
Goodbye, liar.
For what it’s worth, I do sometimes accuse people of being liars. But it’s normally justified. If I called iiandyiiii a liar, and you are curious, I am happy to link to his lie.
You just said populations, not “races”. But human populations, even the most far-flung, are far more closely related to each other than subspecies of animals like chimpanzees. And if we’re just talking about opinions as to what’s “plausible”, it’s not plausible to me why intelligence (or agreeableness or whatever) would be a greater adaptive advantage in a “civilization” versus a hunter-gatherer society. Intelligence and cooperativeness should be just as advantageous for a hunter-gatherer as they would be for someone in an early city. It’s always helpful for a human to be smart.
I’d love to see it, because he’s never successfully posted any supposed lies I made.
Several other researchers have been skeptical about the value of the study for illuminating the causes of racial IQ differences.
Arthur Jensen has pointed out that the white girls in the study obtained an average IQ eight points below that of the white boys, suggesting a sampling error, because in the WISC standardization sample the average IQs of boys and girls are equal (among the mixed-race subjects in the Eyferth study, there was a small sex difference of 1 point, favoring boys). He has also noted that the IQs of the children’s mothers and fathers are unknown, and that white and black G.I.'s in Germany were not equally representative of their respective populations, since about 30 percent of blacks, compared to about 3 percent of whites, failed the preinduction mental test and were not admitted into the armed forces. He further argues that the selective preferences of the German women with regard to sexual partners may have influenced the results in an unknown manner. Moreover, nearly all of the children were tested before adolescence, i.e. before the genotypic aspect of IQ has become fully manifested. Finally, Jensen suggests that heterosis may have enhanced the IQ level of the mixed race children in the study.[8]
Rushton and Jensen have further pointed out that 20–25% of the fathers in the study were not African Americans but rather French North Africans.[9]
French North Africans are likely to be Caucasians. Also this study was limited to 387 children, so we are talking about a sample that is too small to draw many conclusions from. Nevertheless, this study is frequently mentioned by those who are looking for any evidence they can find that the races are equal in terms of innate ability.