[ExI] Religions and violence [Was Re: Sarah Palin]

[Keith Henson]

On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:23 PM,  John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> On Jul 22, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Mike Dougherty wrote:
>
> John Clark:
>>> [Genetically Jews and Arabs] are virtually identical, so some other factor must explain this anomaly and I think we both know what that factor is.
>>
>> New York Deli Pastrami?  Bagels?  Nope, I'm unsure what that factor is.
>
> You know what, I flat out don't believe you. I believe you can think of a cultural factor that is astronomically more likely to be the source of that HUGE Nobel deficit among the Islamic than bagels, but will not admit it (perhaps even to yourself) for fear of being called a foe of multiculturalism. I say a spade should be called a spade.

There are worse sins than being a foe of multiculturalism.  You can
make a case that the difference between Jews and Arabs is largely
genetic.  At the current level of reading the genes it would be hard
to tell, but at the same resolution you could not see the difference
in tame foxes and wild ones either and we know that's genetic, we even
have a count on the genes involved and know something about what they
do.

I am not saying culture has nothing to do with the disparity, but at
one time Arab culture was ahead of Western Europe.  That was before
most of the intense selection Clark talks about.  You can also make
good case that the Jews in Europe underwent some heavy selection where
the smart and prudent Jews were the ones who had most of the surviving
children.

If you want to sort out the genetic from the cultural, there were lots
of Jews that never left the mid east and were not subjected to the
some selection pressures.  How do they stack up as Nobel prize
winners?  Or are all the winners European?

All of this will be subjected to scientific investigation as we
connect personality traits to clusters of specific genes.  We will
understand the connections and be able to do something about them just
before it doesn't matter in the least.

Keith