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Originally Posted by kidicarus5897
For those of us who believe in evolution and natural selection as the basis for all life, it seems that our ability for compassion has stopped natural selection in its tracks, at least for the most part. Ilnesses, diseases and handicaps that would normally result in those inflicted being eaten by a predator or dying for any other reason and take themselves out of the gene pool before they procreate. With medicine, vacinations and other aids to help the less healthy survive, especially those would normally die from a genetic defect, the less healthy are able to contribute their genes to their offspring. (Now, I am all for this in every way, don't get me wrong- this is simply a thought experiment) I wonder, however, that if this were to continue for the next couple thousand years, how that would affect the health of our species. Maybe our species will become less intelligent overall because people who would normally not be able to survive in the natural world on their own can thrive on Mcdonalds and and airline jobs enough to have 14 kids who end up being worse off than their parents. This is assuming that medical genetic alterations in the future don't eliminate bad genes altogether, negating this whole idea. We have already altered the evolution and natural selection in bacteria and microbes due to mis-use of antibiotics and antibacterial soaps, and not in our favor either. Bring on the virus-infected flesh-eating zombies........
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what you're describing is completely natrual and in line with evolution. it's just not the best possible outcome that we would want. "we" means specifically those who believe nature is here to serve man (because god created man in his image, and nature to provide for man) as opposed to man is merely a part of nature with no special significance. nature was here before, and will be here after man is long gone.
it's true that we're perpetuating some diseases by keeping the 'victims' alive which allows them to reproduce and their offsprings keep the 'bad' genes in the gene pool. this is just a blip and will not affect the balance in the long run. human population continues to grow exponentially and will do so until things start to get too crowded. when that happens, food shortage, disease, war (africa style) artificial population control (chinese style) and other forms of natural population reductions that I can't even envision (like the antibiotic crisis you described) will reduce the rate of growth. not sure it'll be zombies but it'll be something .
every species affects the balance of nature. no doubt man has affected it more than other species. but the whole premise of evolution is that there is no predetermined outcome, goal, design, or plan. species evolve in reaction to changes in the environment, and at the same time every species affects the environment. arguably man is the only species that doesn't have a natural predator, and what you're saying is that man is becoming his own predator... that's doesn't go against evolution or 'prevent' natural selection. on the contrary.