EVOLUTION vs GOD?

Question

I just did some quick research and i found that humans as a whole have only been round 4 a couple of million years, and the very first humans didn't have much of a brain but our species (homo sapiens) have only been round for approx. 500,000 years.

My question is how come we evolved so quickly to have such developed brains over about a million years or so. Doesn't evolution take much longer. Either nature was working particularly hard on us humans or maybe their was divine intervention. I 'm not particularly religious myself

Answer 1

First, brain expansion has been occuring for at least several million years, not 500,0000. So the time pressure isn't quite as extreme, but it is still quite rapid in the grand time scheme of geological time. It does imply that human beings were under intense selection pressure for much of that time. This was a period of tool development, a shift to larger social groups (culture), and language (more culture) all of which would place strong selective pressures for more intellignece and brain expansion.

Second, a simple need for bigger brains doesn't automatically mean that brains will get larger. There needs to be a physical development that makes this possible. In the case of larger brains, this was the combination of changes in the hip strucutre of women (caused by the shift to walking upright) and the way the human skull mautres around birth.

Brian size is constrained by skull size (When the skull is full, the brain stops growing) which is constrained by space in the womb. In early primates (before humans) as well as in chimpanezes (our nearest cousins) the skull case stops growing before birth. In modern humans, however, the skull is much more malleable and keeps growing after birth (when there is lots more room for expansion).

Why? Because all humans are born prematurely. When our early ancestors started walking upright, the pelvic cavity (the birth canal) changed, making the birth of large skulled babies very dangerous for both child and mother. Giving birth to premature babies with soft and small skulls was safer (provided they could be cared for safely afterwards).

Once this happened, the ability to grow larger brains accelerated till it reached a point of diminishing returns (the brain consumes an amazing portion of all energy used by the body). That's why predictions of humans evoving giant brains are also spurious, Our hearts would have to grow dramatically and we would need to develop new ways (head ridges?) to keep our heads cool.

Answer 2

Well first, to your subject line ... this is a false choice. The existence of evolution does not disprove or preclude the existence of God ... and vice versa. Both can exist, and neither precludes the other.

The growth of the primate brain did not begin with humans of course. Just considering the split of the apes (of which we are a member) from the other old-world primates (which evolved into modern African and Asian monkeys), according to independent fossil and genetic evidence, this branching seems to have occurred about 25 million years ago, and the brain has been growing ever since.

Certain physical developments help accelerate brain growth. Things like color vision (which other mammals, and new-world monkeys, do not have), an opposable thumb for manipulating tools, and vocal cords that allowed the creation of language, etc. cause certain brain centers to grow to handle the new information and coordination tasks.

It is true that the human brain is the result of almost freakish acceleration of brain growth in the last half-a-million years. It is possible that this is related to the development of language. I.e. language leads to a whole new category of information, which leads to more brain growth, which leads to more language categories, which leads to more brain growth, etc. Feedback loops like that are almost always the cause of some acceleration in some process.

Answer 3

No divine intervention whatsoever. Pressures applied on protohuman populations quickly eradicated any non-adapted individuals. Only a few (the population with today's human traits) survived and the population went through what we call and bottleneck. And so on... the whole out of africa thing.

Evolution has no time frame, in some it's incredibly fast (some bacteria could evolve into a whole new species in less than a century, maybe less than a decade even). In some, especially if there's a bottleneck that leaves a few traits available to replenish the population, it's faster than we think. Crocs haven't changed in millions of years because they haven't had any pressure to do so. The first H sapiens had a few pressures (falling prey to animals, freezing/starving/dehydrating to death for example) One small group of protohumans developed creativity, which gave them the advantage over all the pressures.

Time frame is irrelevant if there's enough motivation to change fast.

Answer 4

How do we know that God is not a monkey? I mean, why do religious people always associate God to some sort of old, strict, but caring man? Evolution is a proven scientific FACT. Anyone in denial is just plain ignorant, or has a hard time accepting reality. But the origin of GOD is also very important because it helps us understand the origin of not only MAN (i know we feel we are the center of the universe), but nature, and the universe itself.

We physically evolve in response to the environment, while simultaneously selfishly destroying and taking from it. Now, in the techno age, this process of evolution is even faster than ever. Hundreds of years from now when humans are no longer just humans, but are actually androids, will they be disgusted that they evolved from fleshy, bloody humans?

Answer 5

I don't doubt that God had a part, but a million years is long enough for evolution. Think of it this way, about one in every four million cells contains a mutation and humans have billions if not trillions of cells. Each one of these mutations either helps, hurts, or has no effect on the species. If it helps or has no effect it is carried on, otherwise the species will not live long enough to have offspring and will die. It is not hard to see that the mutations can add up quickly and evolution can proceed.

Answer 6

it's a good question, not that i'm a religious person or anything, but if there was a "GOD" why would he speed up evolution for us and not the rest of the species on the planet, take sharks and crocs for example, most scientists will say that they are perfect killing machines, and that they had no need to evolve, but surely as time goes by the course of evolution would have changed them at some point, if not for the better then maybe for the worse!!! just a thought, but hey what do i know, i'm Irish..... And Damn proud of it too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

EVOLUTION

The introduction to Genesis and to the whole Bible ascribes everything to the living God, creating, making, acting, moving, and speaking. There is no room for evolution without a flat denial of Divine revelation. One must be true the other false. All of God’s works are good, great, wondrous, and perfect.

Man starts from nothing. He begins in helplessness, ignorance, and inexperience. All his works, therefore, proceed on the principle of evolution. This principle is only seen in human affairs: from the hut to the palace; from the canoe to the ocean liner; from the spade to the plowshare to machines. But the birds build their nests today as at the beginning. There is growth and development within man, but no passing, change, or evolution out from one into another.

For this theory or fallacy of evolution to be true there would be evident stages of evolution today. You would be able to find species in many stages of evolution in nature right now. For this theory or fallacy of evolution to be true there would be no God. And that’s exactly what evolutionists believe and are trying prove. The evolutionist bases his or her conclusions on human assumptions and reasoning, instead of on the documentary evidence of the manuscripts.

Answer 8

For some reasons people deny the hand of God in creation. Personally I do because if it is evolution why dont monkeys too evolve, why could such changes only happen to man? The bible is clrear "IN THE BEGINNING GOD MADE THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH."

Answer 9

I read that everything evolved from a fishlike reptile which adapted limbs to climb onto the earth becoming a mammal.

The God thing, I believe in God wholeheartedly. Divine intervention definitely had something to do with it. There has to be a supreme being that started all this.

Answer 10

Quick research wont cut it. I am educated in evolutionary biology, the evidence for evolution from chemical precursors is now indesputable.

God is not a creational possibility, but nevertheless a god could exist theoretically, but not the one the religious people harp on about.

Evolution is a certainty though, to answer your Q