CJ Morgan – “Science may be value free, but the world in which it operates certainly isn't.” I have to agree with this! I can hardly see any reason as to why anybody would go to any length to prove why Africans are less intelligent or women are less creative! Even if it was true what will it achieve? It would make many people though out the world feel sub standard!

If the scientific research was a means to an ends which may benefit mankind I would support it but scientific research to prove “we are better then them” or “They are stupid compared to us” is very ill-conceived and will only create negativity and achieve nothing

EasyTimes

Let's have a reality check.

We are developing the technologies that will enable us to tie collections of genes to specific characteristics such as intelligence. To put it another way, we're developing the ability to distinguish "smart genomes" from "dull genomes."

We're going to continue along this path for two reasons. One is intellectual curiosity. There are scientists who want to know how it all hangs together.

The other reason is profit. Multo dollaro. The first company that can offer an in utero test to determine whether the foetus will grow up smart or dim will make a fortune.

The idea of aborting a foetus because a genome test says it's likely to grow up dim may be distasteful but, so long as a woman has an absolute right to an abortion, how would you stop it?

In any case, we already test in utero for, inter alia, Down's syndrome and advise women to abort a Down's foetus. Is this so different?

Later on this sort of knowledge may enable us to develop drugs to make us smarter. Performance enhancing drugs for the brain.

Even better, once we know how body chemistry and smarts interact we may be able to develop specialised training techniques that amplify an individual's strengths and compensate for his or her weaknesses. We may move to the era of personalised education instead of the "one size fits nobody" system we have now.

Now how are you going to stop this sort of research EasyTimes?

In the course of developing these capabilities we MAY discover that different population groups have different ranges of abilities. Note "population groups" NOT races. The populations of East and West Africa, for example, seem to form two quite distinct groups.

So how would we suppress this knowledge EasyTimes?

If that's the way it is then that's the way it is.

We'll have to find a way of living with it.

Stevenlmeyer – I am not against scientific research which leads too a bettering of civilisation but I cant support scientific research which is trying to prove a hypnotises that a group of people are lesser then others! Sure culturally it may be obvious that some groups are more successful then others but it does not need to be rubbed into peoples faces that they are less.

I don’t have a problem with individual being shown to be smarter then others but I do think that its not in the interests of human civilisation as a whole to prove that some people from particular back grounds are less intelligent then others.

Even if there prognostication is true it will merely cause a feeling of worthlessness in those who are singled out.

TurnRightThenLeft

You might roll around laughing when it comes to creation but their are plenty of scientist a lot smarter than me and dare I say you that roll around laughing at the holes in the evolutionary theory. I have spoken to a number of geologist who will tell you that they have to pretend to believe in evolution to get passes. It is sad when people have to pretend to believe in a lie to get a pass. It is this sort of nonsense that puts science in a bad light.

EasyTimes, but you're assuming that if some research is done that categorically shows that, say, white Europeans on average are genetically less well developed in the area of abstract reasoning abilities (the sort measured by IQ tests) than Chinese, it somehow makes white Europeans "inferior". The reality is that there really is no objective and sensible way of comparing two human beings, or even two groups of human beings and saying "well that one is clearly better than the other one". Einstein was, no doubt, a mathematical and scientific genius - but would you say he was a better person than, say, Gandhi, or Don Bradman, or Mother Teresa?
I honestly don't see any reason why the idea that males are more likely to be geniuses than women should be controversial. After all, women are more likely to be better empathisers - and who says that genius is more worthwhile than empathy? And even Watson's is purely a claim about particular intellectual ability. If you think this is an implication that whites are superior to blacks, you're basically implying that if his suggestion turns out to be factual then the world would be a better place if everyone was white. Well, I don't know about you, but I don't believe that for a moment.
Why "intelligence" is so often reduced to a some single linear scale and held up on a pedestal above all other abilities and attributes that make human beings interesting and worthwhile I've never understood. I've said it before in another thread, but I'd happily give up at least 10 or 15 IQ points to improve other aspects of my own personality.

runner, I didn't say that a majority of scientists don't believe in a creator deity, I don't know what the stats are.

But I'd bet pounds to pennies that for the handful that believe the earth is just 6,000 years old, you'll have thousands rolling around laughing at the self imposed ignorance this requires.