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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 12/10/06, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
> That's right.  We are looking at a situation where normal skepticism and
> querry are pretty much thown out the window making the stand closer to 
> theology
> than science.  That is, on the part of those who have a religious belief that
> genetics explains every shade and turning of the human condition.

Genetics explains maybe 50 percent of phenotype. To argue that it's
100 percent is silly. It just appeared to me that the James/Gene
faction was arguing that genotype was totally irrelevant.

> I was in highschool in the late 60's and was in a graduating class of 285.
> Out of those 285 teenagers, maybe twenty or so were somewhat overweight and 
> two
> might have been considered obese ... by the standards of that day.  One was
> type 1 diabetic.  I was driving by that same highschool recently and the 
> number
> of severely overweight children was staggering!   Thinness was in short
> supply.  I read that the incidence of type 2 diabetes in teenagers is getting
> pandemic. ...Genetics caused this?

I doubt it. Sounds like Big Macs to me. So? The fattening of America
isn't even news any more.


The
> same with the rise in heart disease, cancer, and such .... and the ages at
> which they are occuring.  It was unheared of half a century ago and is common 
> now
> of days.

Heart disease has been around for a long time and so has cancer. One
of my great grandmothers died of breast cancer. Several of her
daughters had the disease but surgery and radiation cured 'em all,
much to the dismay of their friends and relatives. The only reason
that explains why cancer was less common in the 19th and early 20th
centruy is that people died of something else before they had a chance
to get it.

Cardiac insufficiency must have been around for a long time because
foxglove was known for a few hundred years as a way to treat it. There
is no reason that heart disease and cancer should be rare; they occur
after individuals are done with breeding and so, as Gene pointed out
in an earlier post, don't cleanse the gene pool.
> Geneticists are trying to say that our choice to overeat, smoke, be under
> stress, cheat on spouses, steal, and murder are all genetically controlled.  
> Not
> our fault.

Really? I don't see any evidence to support what you say. In fact,
it's absurd. Give us a  couple of citations to refereed journals, and
I'll believe you, or at least consider what you have to say.

Marie