Re: Has mankind bypassed natural selection?

Dear Garrett,

In answer to your question as to whether humans have bypassed natural 
selection, my answer is a resounding NO.  There are many evolutionary 
pressures on, albeit they are different ones than in the past.  Most 
scientists think that the environment is changing--ozone depletion, bigger 
el ninos, world temperatures on the rise etc.

Beyond this, consider the rise of new diseases like AIDS, and the new staph' 
infections which are immune to our antibiotics.  Certainly some humans will 
be more immune to these things than others.

I believe that in America the sickle cell alleles are gradually decreasing 
compared to in Africa because there does not exist the environmental 
pressure to have the alleles.

Evolution by natural selection continues for us humans as for all living 
things.

For further ideas and discussion please look at books like the Cambridge 
Encyclopedia of Human Evolution or textbooks such as Weiss and Mann's Human 
Biology and Behavior.

Dr. Smerken