If you believe in evolution- Answer me this?

Question

If you believe that humans came from apes and not from God why in the world have we not kept evolving? And if we came from apes why in the world do we still have apes?

Answer 1

That is an excellent. I will be watching for answers.

Answer 2

Apes and humans are both primates that descended from a now extinct primate. Chimpanzees too, and we're actually more closely related to chimps than we are to apes. Chimps, apes, and humans are all cousins on the tree of life.

Evolution doesn't happen to every member of a species at the same time. If a species is spead out over a large geographic area, a new species can evolve in one region and the old species can continue to live in another region. In fact, our distant ancestors were tree dwellers. Some of them adapted to live in the savannah, and we are their descendents. Since the tree dwellers and the savannah dwellers lived in different habitats, they didn't compete, and both survived.

You also ask why we haven't kept evolving. Are you sure we haven't? For example, humans are quite a bit taller now than we were 500 years ago. However, the real answer is two-fold:
1) Evolution only happens when a species is under pressure to adapt to the environment. Humans are very good at making the environment adapt to us, so evolution is less likely to happen.
2) Not enough time has elapsed. Evolution happens very slowly. Even the so called "Cambrian explosion" happened over a period of 30 MILLION years. Most of us aren't really able to comprehend how much time that is. In fact, quite a few people think that the world is only six thousand years old. 30 million years is 5000 times that long. And in the history of life on this planet, 30 million years is a relatively short period of time -- about 1/100th of the 3 billion or so years that life has existed on this planet.

Your questions have been asked here many times. All of the answers I give above have been given here many times. But sadly, the state of education in the United States is so poor that many people have the same level of understanding of evolution that you do. Please take my answers seriously and go verify them. Don't let the propaganda against evolution keep you in the dark.

Answer 3

Actually, we are still evolving. Look at Asian people. In the last 10 years, they have become much taller, and girls have much bigger breasts (natural ones, that is). That's just an example. That's due to the food, though. But it still is evolution, I think.

Evolution takes a long time to take place. That's why you can't really see the difference between what you see in the mirror and drawings of people made 1,000 years ago (although I do believe there is a little difference).

What about bones of our ancestors that are found? Lucie? Does that ring a bell? There even was one found more recently, even older. Her skull was way smaller, and she couldn't stand straight the way we do.

As for apes, I'm not sure how it worked anymore (I studied English, not science), but I think we come from ONE TYPE of apes. That's why you still find apes, because there are many different types of apes (I'm not sure about that explanation, hope someone can give a link).

Check an encyclopedia: they should be able to give you basic information.

Answer 4

I'm sure this is not an completely correct answer in evolutionary terms, but it will probably be close enough. Certain conditions came about, probably through a climate or geological shift that isolated a large enough group of primates so they evolved along a different path than others of its race. Eventually, whatever triggered their isolation ended, and the advantages they gained in isolation allowed them to spread. Further evolutionary changes most probably followed this general pattern. The appearance of more man-like primates did not eliminate other simians, which is why, according to evolutionary theory, we have many types of apes today, such as apes, monkeys, etc...

To support your unspoken bias that you are a creationist, there are holes in the evolutionairy theory large enough to drive a herd of Presbyterians through. When it comes to explaining the missing link, the sudden abundance and variety of life during the "Cabmrian Explosion" evolutionists sprout conjecture and theory presented as fact, which I believe is a diservise to real science.

This is not disimilar to what creationists do, where they ignore the inconvenient facts and harp incensently on the "facts" that support their position. From my point of view, this is two ideologies that are clashing for supremacy, instead of a true search for truth.

There is so much that we don't know. There are so many ancient life form being discovered that cannot be explained by creationists if the earth is only 6,400 years old (I hope I got that number right). There is also, as an example, the irreducible complexity argument of the evolution of certain parts of the cell that has, to my knowledge, not been explained in any concrete and irrefutable fashion by evolutionists. So this leaves enough holes for herds of both Presbyterians and apes to run though.

This leaves the third group, the Interventionists, that purport that evolution is factual but has had a guiding hand. Is this the hand of god or of a group of aliens from the Andromeda galaxy, who can tell?

There is a mystery here. Some delve into this mystery using the tools of science, some the tools of faith. To me they are not different, they seem so to us because we have not evolved (pun intended) to the point where we can accept this. There is only the search for truth, whatever avenue we take.

Answer 5

The answer is not something one writes in a paragragh. If you are truly interested read books on the subject. It appears you are more interested in having your beliefs confirmed.

Natural selection is about passing down traits that are best utilized for surivial. If the environment an animal is in has food at the top of the trees the animals able to obtain the food will survive. Their off springs should be well nourished and survive at rates higher than off springs that aren't well nourished because their parents can't provide food, shelter etc. Over a period of time the population of animals will adapt to the envronement due to the traits passed down. The other traits will die off or migrate to another area for food. Thus within a species you will see variations.

People who believe in natural selection, evolution understand that this doesn't happen in a decade, century, thousand of years. The earth itself is million of years old. Biblical accounts of the earth formation puts it near 5,000 years.

The ape that you see in the zoo is not what evolutionist say we evolved from. Man in his earliest stage had a slight upright walk, hairy body and a low intelligence in comparision to man today. Evoluntionist speak about the early stages of man. Some people try to refute it by refering to the early stages as "Ape" as in the ape in modern zoos.

Just as so many people say Eve gave Adam an apple. The bible never mentions an apple. It says a fruit. Some people read things, some people let others tell them inaccurate information. I suggest anybody interested in the subject read a book or take a class.

Answer 6

We *have* kept evolving - That's why we have things like different skin colours, facial features, tolerance of heat and cold, tolerance of living at high altitudes, body shape, resistance to disease and so on - all things you can easily see in the world today.

Humans are apes. The most recent common ancestor of both humans and chimpanzees was approximately 6 million years ago.

The way to understand this is to remember that living organisms are in a state of constant change - It's not that evolution *can* occur, but that it *must* occur, simply because there is no mechanism in living organisms to ensure perfect, flawless reproduction for ever.

Suppose you could study a population of chimpanzees in the jungle, on a timescale of millions of years. Clearly, each individual only lives a few decades, so the population is constantly being succeeded by individuals which are different from their parents - and remember, this is *inevitable*. It can't *not* happen. All the time this population is inter-breeding, the genes are getting mixed together, and only genes which work well with all other chimpanzee genes will tend to get passed down to successive generations (because individuals with genes that don't work well together will tend not to reproduce).

However, suppose that circumstances arise which cause a group to become genetically isolated from other chimpanzees. This could be as a result of an accident of geography (e.g. an impassable river) or breeding preference or simply great distance. There will develop two distinct groups of chimpanzees which can never again exchange genes, because they have become different enough that mating will not produce viable offspring. This is what biologists define as speciation - i.e. the population has forever split into two distinct groups. Biologists have observed many instances of speciation, so there is no doubt that it occurs.

Assuming that both groups continue to survive, it is again *inevitable* that they will diverge genetically - There is no possible way that both groups, isolated and independent from each other, can change in exactly the same ways, and the longer they continue to breed, the more different they will become. Over millions of years, given that the rate of genetic change via mutation tends to remain fairly constant, the two groups will become as distinct as today's chimpanzees and humans are from each other, and from their most recent common ancestor.

All this is based on what we *know* is true - it's not supposition or guesswork, and remember it's not just possible, it absolutely *has* to happen, because there is no mechanism in biology to make reproduction a 100% perfect, flawless process.

Hope this is a useful explanation.

Answer 7

Some of us have evolved. If you look at the history of our Earth, you will see that change occurs over millions of years. You just haven't been around long enough to see it. Compare humans to those thousands of years ago and you can already see how our bodies, brain functions and life expectancies have evolved. Apes are still around because humans were an off shoot, the whole line didn't evolve. Take some anthropology courses and get the facts.

Answer 8

how do you know we have stopped evolving? in terms of time evolution has been taking place over millions of years, i'd say that it must be a very slow process. considering we humans live on average 75 yrs. that is a very small drop in a very big bucket..scientists have said that teenagers are getting taller, bigger overall, who knows what humans will look like in 100,000 yrs. assuming the world is still here and has not been burned to a crisp by the sun. As far as apes go there are a lot of species that are "related " that have branched out and developed entirely different characteristics, did you know that lobsters and cockroaches are directly related?...which came first? who knows? I firmly believe in a higher power, perhaps evolution is just the plan set in place by this higher power....I know this counters the Adam and Eve theory and is not the answer you are looking for, but it's the only one i have that seems to work for me.... thanks for the question

Answer 9

Concerning the debate going on about intelligent design and evolution: is it possible that the final answer about which of these two seemingly opposite ideas is correct could simply be yes?

With one position firmly held by the believers and the other just as fearlessly defended by the non-believers, if you happen to be in a position somewhere near the middle, it does not look all that complex. From this position, you wonder why either-or has to be the answer.

If you believe that some higher being created the universe by intelligent design, what more elegant and intelligent design could there have been than a self-regulating system that continually checks its own errors and makes its own corrections in mid-stream as an integral part of the process.

This all seems quite logical to me although it probably won’t satisfy the believers because they are afraid to see any truth other than the one they have been told to believe in. Inversely it certainly won’t satisfy the non-believers because it leaves them stuck with a god that they are so obviously terrified of.

To sum up this view from the center, it might be most easily be explained by saying perhaps the designer was intelligent. Problem is, the designer was likely so intelligent that those seeking to prove that it is intelligently designed may be incapable of ever understand it well enough to see it for the elegant self regulating design that it has always been.

The nonbelievers will be similarly handicapped due to the internal terror the have about the idea that there may be a God. Neither side being able to leave their entrenched position for fear they may have to admit they were wrong. While the rest of us stand by trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. Personally I don’t think anyone is wrong, I just feel both sides are about half right.

Love and blessings
don

Answer 10

WE DID NOT COME FROM APES. Would people stop saying this? We and apes came from a COMMON ancestor that was neither ape or human. Some evolved into humans and some into apes. We are still evolving. We now know that some northern Europeans EVOLVED a resistance to HIV for example (but you have to inherit it from both parents so it's fairly rare).

Technology will allow us to control our evolution soon so we may not see much natural evolution in Humans anymore.

Answer 11

I believe in God the creator of all things including evolution!
We (and by this I mean all life) are evolving all the time. I am sorry if it is too slow for you to notice but that is how it is. We are at present just a snapshot in time, we humans have splintered away from the apes because we are far more intelligent and have left them far behind, but we are very closely related nevertheless.