Science & Technology

Richard Dawkins: 'we may be evolving too slowly to keep up'

By T.K. Randall
September 3, 2024

Image: Richard Dawkins
Credit: Fronteiras do Pensamento / CC BY-SA 2.0 (adapted) Mental health issues seem to be rampant in today's modern society, with health services around the globe struggling to keep up with the demand for psychiatric expertise.

But what could account for the overwhelming prevalence of mental health issues in the world today ?

One prominent theory is that our society is simply evolving too fast for biological evolution to keep up with, thus making us mentally ill-equipped to deal with the problems of modern life.

It's an idea that was recently echoed by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

"Many people do worry that the pace of change is such that we are no longer well-adapted to live in it," he said during an appearance on the TRIGGERnometry podcast. "This is a worry.""Certainly, the rate at which we are evolving genetically is minuscule compared to the rate at which we are evolving non-genetically, culturally."

"And much of the mental illness that afflicts people may be because we are in a constantly changing unpredictable environment in a way that our ancestors were not."

That said, Dawkins himself is not entirely convinced that this is the true cause.

"Actually, I think it's amazing how resilient we are," he said. "We do seem to, most of us, manage to cope pretty well with the astonishing rate of change in my lifetime."

So could our rapidly changing world really be the key to understanding the recent rise in mental health issues or is there another explanation ?

The search for answers continues.

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Richard Dawkins, Evolution