Why are Jews smart? This question has been haunting me. Recently, a possible explanation has been put forward. The Journal of Biological Social Sciences published by Cambridge University Press is about to publish a controversial paper by Gregory Cochran, Henry Harpending and Jason Hardy. They believe that Jewish intelligence comes from a genetic gene that leads to neurological diseases and competition for survival. According to the reports of NicolasWade, a The New York Times science journalist, and the Economist's science column, this paper gives readers a brief introduction.
In the first century A.D., Jews rebelled against the rule of the Roman Empire. After the failure of the uprising, Jewish refugees fled everywhere, and those who settled in Europe were called "German Jews". In the Middle Ages, European Jews were discriminated against, banned from farming and turned to business and finance. The author thinks that people engaged in these industries use more brains, which makes the intelligence of Jews develop. That makes sense! Businessmen are smart, while Jewish businessmen are famous for their cleverness. I have seen them many times. The author further points out that Jews who get rich through business have a better life, more children and more advantages in the competition for survival, which makes their intelligence genes swell. Of course, this also applies to the non-Jewish peoples in medieval Europe, but their elites are martial, keen on chivalry and despise business, which makes the intellectual elite of the Jewish nation stand out.
But the question is: Do intelligence genes really exist? The author affirms this point and points out that this intelligence gene is the same as the gene that causes amaurotic idiocy and other four hereditary nervous system diseases. This bold assumption raises at least two questions: first, how are genetic diseases related to intelligence? Second, how can people with genetic diseases have a competitive advantage in survival?
The author's answer to the first question is that this mutant genetic disease gene can affect the management of sphingolipids, which are chemicals that constitute the outer sheath of brain cells. It can promote the growth of brain nerve cells and increase their branches. More importantly, it can increase the connection between brain nerve cells, thus affecting the development of intelligence. The author further points out that Jews who inherited a single copy of this gene from their parents have more connections of nerve cells in their brains and more developed intelligence than ordinary people. People who get duplicate genes from both parents have too many connections between nerve cells in the brain, which leads to neuropathy. This is exactly in line with a sentence: "there is only a thin line between genius and madman."
The author's answer to the second question is: this mutant gene has two sides, on the one hand, it will produce nervous system diseases; On the other hand, it will enhance intelligence, and the survival competitive advantage of Jews with this gene comes from the latter. This is called every cloud has a silver lining. Lao Tzu has long said, "misfortune is a blessing;" Blessed, cursed. " (Tao Te Ching)
The author thinks that there is a precedent for the above argument: West Africans suffer from a disease called sickle cell anemia, and the red blood cells of patients contain special hemoglobin caused by genetics. Sickle cell anemia patients get two copies of this gene from both parents. People who get a single copy from one parent not only have no symptoms of sickle cell anemia, but also have innate anti-malaria characteristics. Malaria is the main killer in West Africa, so people with a single gene have a competitive advantage in survival.
The scientific hypothesis needs to be proved, and the author of this paper puts forward a verification method: the IQ of people with a single genetic gene of nervous system diseases should be 5% higher than that of ordinary people.
Cochrane, one of the authors of the paper, is used to challenging tradition. In the past, he put forward some controversial hypotheses, "If you don't say it, you will die!" This bold assumption has caused a lot of criticism. Neil Risch, a geneticist at the University of California, San Francisco, disagrees with their hypothesis. He pointed out that all these hereditary neurological diseases of Jews occurred at the same time 1 100 years ago, so they all originated from the same reason, which is difficult to explain by the competition for survival. The author agrees with Xu Li that the diseases occurred at the same time and had the same origin, but disagrees with his conclusion. They still believe that the competition for survival is at work. Andrew Clarke, a population geneticist at Cornell University, criticized: "The author made a typical mistake in explaining heredity." He thinks it is "too much" to associate genes related to sphingolipids with intelligence. The sharpest critic is Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard University. He said: "This paper is politically incorrect, so it is not an exaggeration to say so." This paper claims that there are genetic differences in intelligence between different races, which is no small matter! At that time, Hitler strongly advocated German doctrine, and according to the so-called "eugenics", he concluded that Germans were "excellent people" and dehumanized Jews. But Pinker went on to say, "Of course, this is a very weighty paper, which is not easy to refute."
I'm also a little worried: if the hypotheses of the three authors are confirmed, Jews are indeed born with intelligence. Some people with low self-esteem may feel: "I was born stupid" and feel pessimistic and disappointed with their cleverness. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary. Or China's old saying goes well: "A wise man loses when he worries, and a fool gains when he worries." No matter how clever nature is, it is useless to use it; No matter how stupid nature is, as long as you persevere and work hard, God will not let you down. Don't Jews also learn from the sufferings of generations? Besides, Jews, like us in China, attach great importance to the education of their children, which is also an important factor for the emergence of talented people, and cannot be completely attributed to their birthright.
Related background information:
The Jewish nation occupies an extremely important position in the history of human civilization. The history of the Jewish nation owning its own country is not long. However, Jews have made great contributions to human civilization. The contribution of ancient Jews to human civilization is second only to the History of World Civilization by ancient Egyptians (Volume I, page 100). Modern Jews have brought the prosperity of business, the rise of capitalism, Marxism, classical political economy, relativity, modern physics, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, philosophy of science, modern painting school and Jewish literature to the world. The Jewish nation has produced a large number of great men and celebrities, who belong to the most outstanding figures in all fields. Just look at the list of Jewish celebrities below and you will know the greatness and Excellence of Jews.
1) Up to 1984, 98 Jews have won the Nobel Prize. Among them, there are 30 people in physics, 33 in chemistry 15, 33 in physiology and medicine, 7 in economics, 8 in literature and 5 in peace prize.
2) religious circles. The most influential religion in the world should be Christianity, and it is recognized that the founder of Christianity is the Jewish Christ Jesus. He claimed to be the son of God, preached everywhere, and advocated abstinence, repentance and other methods to save himself. Later, he was betrayed by Jews and executed by Romans. Nearly two thousand years later, he is still a household name all over the world, and he can be called the most famous number one figure of mankind. Among his successors, the most famous St. Paul is also a Jew. In addition, Moses, the father of Judaism mentioned above, is also a world-famous figure. Although it is still difficult to determine whether these people really exist, their names are all over the world.
3) Philosophy. In the Hellenistic era around A.D., Fei Yu reconciled Judaism and Greek philosophy, and his theory had a great influence on later Christian philosophy. In the Muslim era, Ben-Maimonide (12nd century) integrated Greek Aristotle and Judaism, and reinterpreted Jewish scriptures and laws with reason. He made great contributions to the Jewish thought of later generations. /kloc-in the 7th century, Spinoza "integrated rationalism and mechanism" (page 645 of the original history of world civilization). In the Germanic Enlightenment in18th century, Godthold Golessin and Mendelssohn were the most outstanding leaders. The former advocates tolerant religious thought, while the latter revises Judaism with a long history according to the actual situation of Jewish life. /kloc-At the turn of the 20th century, Bergson of France put forward intuitionism, which is one of the most influential schools of philosophy in the 20th century. German Husserl put forward another very popular school of philosophy-phenomenology before and after the First World War. Other famous Jewish philosophers include Popper, the master of philosophy of science, and Wittgenstein, one of the famous logical positivists.
4) Thinkers. The greatest is Marx, who put forward a huge and complete theoretical system, which triggered a wave of socialism sweeping the world, followed by Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, which influenced various fields of humanities and literature, and the rest should include Bernstein, a famous theorist in the proletarian movement, and Marcuse, Adorno and Hawke Harmo, famous representatives of Frankfurt ideological trend in this century.
5) social science scholars. The most prominent are david ricardo, the second figure in classical political economy, and Durheim, a great sociologist.
6) Political activists. Disraeli, the famous British Prime Minister, Luxemburg, the leader of German Women's Production Party, Trotsky, a famous Russian politician and theorist, and Kissinger, a contemporary American diplomat. Two popes: the famous Alexander III and the less famous Aracri Teus II.
7) Natural scientists. Physicists are gifted: Einstein, the founder of relativity, Bohr and Bonn, the pioneers of quantum mechanics, Fermi, the pioneer of atomic physics, Lippmann, who founded the law of conservation of electricity, Michelson, who measured the speed of light, Feynman, one of the initiators of the concept of "image", Schwinge, who proposed the formula of quantum electrodynamics, and Sigmund, one of the discoverers of antiprotons. There are also many chemists: Movado, who separated pure fluorine for the first time and established high-temperature chemistry, Baiduo, a pioneer in dye synthesis research, and Habai, one of the founders of synthetic ammonia. Biomedicine is too numerous to mention: ehrlich, one of the founders of modern chemotherapy. Lanzteiner put forward four blood types of human beings: A, B, AB and O, etc. Wiener, the most famous mathematician who put forward cybernetics.
Among all kinds of celebrities produced by the Jewish nation, most are natural scientists, followed by scholars and thinkers. The Jewish nation has also produced many excellent athletes. In addition to the above-mentioned great men, the Jewish nation also provided mankind with half of the Bible, a rich source of Islamic thought and a part of the ideological foundation of western democracy. Jewish businessmen made great contributions to the elimination of feudalism and the development of capitalism in Europe in the Middle Ages and modern history.
Jewish world outlook is the foundation of western value system; It is a way for westerners to discover new ideas and experiences, and to know and feel the world. The Jewish world outlook has become an indispensable part of western culture, and it can even be said that it has entered the cells of westerners and become the genetic code of western civilization. (Excerpted from The Gift of the Jews)