(December 15, 2008 at 9:40 pm)leo-rcc Wrote: Actually, in Europe right after the rise of the Holy Roman empire, hygiene was quite good in the towns and the countryside. Life expectancy was reasonably high.Thats really interesting Leo. Where did you get that info? I think I heard hitchens and/or harris or someone else mention the 25 year old average life expectancy before medicine. I also either heard it on the 'Atheist' youtube video that won awards. Or a similar one I get mixed up with sometimes that I forget the name of and can't find now,
The average life span in the Middle Ages was indeed shorter than today but how much smaller is often exaggerated. Average life expectancy at birth was only 35. Many of the people born died while they were still children. Out of all people born between one third and one half died before the age of about 16. However if you could survive to your mid-teens you would probably live to your 50s or early 60s. Even in the Middle Ages some people did live to their 70s or 80s.
After the early middle ages where more and more people were drawn to the cities is where the misery started. Hygiene was a major problem with lack of fresh water and decent sewage. This was the breeding ground of course for epidemics like the plague. Those diseases were transported into the countryside and smaller towns by people trading in the cities.
So that interests me. I wonder where the 25 year claim comes from originally at least? And I'm interesting to where you heard otherwise.
Quote:No, because our evolution as you know is also dependent on the surroundings we find ourselves in at that time. So there is no way to accurately predict what we would look like 1 billion years from now.Yeah. Because we can't predict everything about the surroundings for a start!
@ Darwinian: My imagination either works very slowly at the moment. Or its terrible!
