I apologize to everyone.

[Rhyfelwyr]

In trying to eliminate racism we are obligated to bring it [the us v them mentaility] up as an issue, because you are asking a society to fight against evolutionary tendencies (which your second is in agreement with, in my opinion). Perhaps some day we'll live in such a peaceful world that all the violent and bigoted genes have been bred out of everyone, but I doubt it.

I completely agree that it is a relevant issue to bring up. Obviously, while scientific enquiry is perfectly legitimate regardless of motivation, it is equally legitimate to question if the lines of scientific enquiry that we choose to pursue are being constrained by underlying biases. My concern was that with the racism issue, the awareness of these innate biases only existed on one side of the debate.

As for whether bigot or violent genes can be bread out, I have no idea how much such things could be attributed to a particular gene or group of genes, or whether they are much broader traits that reflect wider personalities or social influences.

My point was that there is no good measurement of practical intelligence (which is the only kind that you could try and objectively measure as a representative of the whole 'intelligence' of a person--in my opinion). Academic intelligence proves nothing beyond your aptitude for abstract thinking, and your background as living in a situation that allows you to think like that.

Again I agree completely, acedemic intelligence is fairly small part of the brain function that determines our capabilities, and the sorts of tests used to measure academic intelligence really only measure an even narrower form of intelligence (the ability to perform well on pretty rigid and manipulative/easy to manipulate tests).

btw I was never attacking you in particular, more a general attitude. Everything you have said is valid and need to be said - it's more what is never said that led me to post what I did.