Cannibalism proves natural selection in humans
Offline Brain Disease 'Resistance Gene' Evolves in Papua New Guinea Community; Could Offer Insights Into CJD
ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2009) — A community in Papua New Guinea that suffered a major epidemic of a CJD-like fatal brain disease called kuru has developed strong genetic resistance to the disease, according to new research by Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists. The findings are thought be perhaps the strongest example yet of recent natural selection in humans.
Kuru is a fatal prion disease, similar to CJD in humans and BSE in animals, and is geographically unique to an area in Papua New Guinea. In the mid 20th Century, an epidemic of kuru devastated a population in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The infection was passed on at mortuary feasts, where mainly women and children consumed their deceased relatives as a mark of respect and mourning. This practice was banned and ceased in the late 1950s.
Scientists from the MRC Prion Unit, a national centre of excellence in prion diseases, assessed over 3000 people from the affected and surrounding Eastern Highland populations, including 709 who had participated in cannibalistic mortuary feasts, 152 of whom subsequently died of kuru. They discovered a novel and unique variation in the prion protein gene called G127V in people from the Purosa valley region where kuru was most rife.
This gene mutation, which is found nowhere else in the world, seems to offer high or even complete protection against the development of kuru and has become frequent in this area through natural selection over recent history, in direct response to the epidemic.
Lead author Professor John Collinge, Director of the MRC Prion Unit said: "It's absolutely fascinating to see Darwinian principles at work here. This community of people has developed their own biologically unique response to a truly terrible epidemic. The fact that this genetic evolution has happened in a matter of decades is remarkable. Kuru comes from the same disease family as CJD so the discovery of this powerful resistance factor opens up new areas for research taking us closer to understanding, treating and hopefully preventing a range of prion diseases."
The study, which began in 1996, is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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As much for the Lol factor as quality of the research....
Intriguing.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I'm not expecting you to visit this thread but if you should drop by eXni - could you please outline your position on PNG's cultural moral relativity as it relates to...eating your relatives.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Man, this thread is tasty.
I digress
As a Christian who denies that humans came from a lower life form, I don't see anything as ever validating Darwinism... because it never happened.
For fossils and mutations to be evidence for Darwinism you have to presume that Darwinism is true, otherwise you just have bones in the dirt.
As for my take on what happened...
The people were committing absolutely horrendous acts and dishonoring God immensely... God cursed them with a disease as a result.
Christians found out and sent missionaries and upon hearing about Jesus Christ, the stopped.
Today, the population is 95% Christian and God has blessed them with a resistance to their condition brought about by sin.
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior.
Speaking Truth in love,
"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ..." - Paul to the Corinthians
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Christian | Amaterialist | Supernaturalist | Anti-Crypto-Theist
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Facts do not speak for themselves.
A strawman of evolution if ever I saw one. Also fallacy in categorising information regarding paleontology. Knowledge of evolution came from studying "bones in dirt", amongst other things. It did not happen the other way around.
Finally, this evolutionary process occured prior to and cannot be claimed as the result of christian meddling by the very implications risen in the subject. If they were being punished, they were gaining immunity to that punishment en masse. By themselves, without jesus. More proof against god.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
You must be taking the piss out of us... Just confirm for me - the researchers who discovered the genetic mutations that grant immunity to kuru were in fact not discovering a variation passed down by survivors of the illness to their children but instead a gift from god - a direct stirring of the genetic pot by the lord himself?
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Your default position is "a christian who denies that humans came from a lower life form".
How can you make this statement and say you are bound by the truth? You made up your mind and now bend everything to serve your personal needs.
And you don't ever see a validation of the evolutionary process because "it never happened..."
For fossils to support it (and no it's not bloody Darwinism - this is 2009, not 1870) you have to presume the evolutionary process is true "or you just have bones in the dirt."
Is this a version of the 'god is there because we are talking about him theory' playing twister?
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
As a geology student I have to protest that there is an imperative in universal law that demands older strata generally unlay younger, unless subjected to discernible processes of lifting, folding or igneous intrusion. This imperative allows us to track the development of fossils over time with great accuracy. Perhaps you've heard of this universal law, eXni? It's called gravity.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
5/10
It's a bit too obvious, you fail to convince others that you actually believe it.
Try harder.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
Darwin didn't have any extensive knowledge of 'bones in the dirt.' In fact, the knowledge that we do have goes against the theory as I understand it. I think the recent uproar over the alleged missing link proves my point. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if we had plenty of fossil evidence...
Yep, that's basically it.
The word of God is truth, all else is subject to it. It's fairly simple.
God is there because we are both using laws of logic by which only He can validate.
I find it telling that you state a law and define it as something that makes older strata 'generally' unlay the younger... Why did you have to say generally if the law of gravity somehow proves your point. I think it doesn't.
I have good reason to trust gravity... why do you believe that gravity is a law champ?
Speaking Truth in love,
"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ..." - Paul to the Corinthians
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Christian | Amaterialist | Supernaturalist | Anti-Crypto-Theist
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Facts do not speak for themselves.
Newton's law of universal gravitation, perhaps?
"Darwin didn't have ~ plenty of fossil evidence.."
Oh man. First of all, Darwin got a few things wrong, so while he is the original proponent of evolution, he is hardly the end of the study. Paleontology was the next step, and confirmed many of the predictions set out in the original hypothesis. There have been steps since then, but creationism hasn't caught up to science yet.
Second, I imagine that you don't in fact understand evolution. If you do, I'll be most pleasantly surprised. While this comment might seem a slight against you, I'm not actually expecting that you have any arguments against it that haven't already been presented and refuted. You have no reason to study it after all, you think it's a crock. Your comments on a supposed "missing link" and fossil evidence support my assumption. There are no "missing links", after all (the very term is fraudulent); and fossils are rare. That we have as many which support evolution and none to discredit it is very telling.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
OK, my take on your take as to what happened:
So the people were getting sick and dying because they were turning grandpa into stew. When they could have used a resistance factor to the disease, none could be there because god was cursing them.
After a while and some proselytizing, they stopped doing the thing that was causing the disease in the first place. So god decided to lift the curse and while he was at it, he gave them this special gene that would mean that they don't have to get sick and die.
The problem being that the only reason that they were getting sick and dying in the first place was because of the gramps stew. If they have stopped, then they will not get sick and die, at least from that particular disease ever again.
So basically, what you are saying is that god has blessed these people with a resistance factor to a disease that they cannot ever get again because they have stopped doing what put them at risk in the first place. Mind you, now that the resistance factor is in place, should they go against god's will and return to the practice, then they are good to go. All because god rewarded them for cutting it out in the first place.
Um yes, I am going to need you to work on Saturday Peter. Also, I am going to need you to work on Sunday as well.
=
You would have a more interesting case if there was not such an increase of Christians during the same time frame...
Your commitment to atheism forces your mind shut on these things. God created all things, nature is His creation. We expect God to work by means of genetic change and we expect detractors to pervert His workings and try to steal His blessing. Everything fits, but again what a 'coincidence' that Christian missionaries were there supernaturally changing lives while it was happening.
Speaking Truth in love,
"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ..." - Paul to the Corinthians
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Christian | Amaterialist | Supernaturalist | Anti-Crypto-Theist
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Facts do not speak for themselves.
Lol.
I love the cherry picking. No matter what happens you warp your imaginary reality around it with gusto!
Instead of picking the rational explanation that makes predictions and consistently explains reality you choose to pull things out of your anus and mold the resulting product to your preexisting assumptions. Bravo for unfalsifiable belief (and as we know, non-falsifiable means non-existent intellectually).
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
So when the Christian missionaries bring the diseases to the populations where they are supernaturally changing lives? It was imported into the natural system by God's servants.
Is this still God's work and a coincidence?
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
It doesn't matter of course, when you can freely interpret reality and assign divine intervention to even the most straight forward things (like car accidents) people like eX are 100% in magic land.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
I feel obligated to use the word generally because geology is a vibrant science and other shit happens. To say older strata underlay younger would not always be true but it almost always would be.
Gravity is the mechanism for the formation of sedimentary rock - it doesn't matter whether you think it is or not. Silt settles, covers dead animals, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc,. etc, etc.
I say gravity is a law because gravity is a universal constant proven by observation- your implication that gravity's existence supports the presence an invisible god who can do magic and lives
in a parallel universe yet is simultaneously connected to every particle in this universe, and wants to be my best friend but hates me, is supremely unlikely.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Definitely, he's already stated in another thread that if the Bible contradicts observable reality, then it must be reality that's incorrect. Either you're interpreting reality wrong or you're being tricked by Satan.....or both. It's all a walk in the park for him at this point. He can make up whatever bullshit he wants.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Am I missing something, why can't christian be cannibals? Also, did cannibalism stop in the area? I thought that the disease stopped because the only people left alive were those with the gene, hence, all/most of their offspring have.
No, you aren't missing anything. eX is.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
Christians are cannibals. They eat the body of christ don't they, drink his blood? I don't care how figurative it is - it's weird. It didn't start off as figurative as this I'm sure.
The godly fancy long pig.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Thanks for coming out.
Aww, somebody give this kid a ball to go play with in the corner.
Please change one word in the above sentence and read it to yourself out loud.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck