Evolution? How can that even be possible?

Question

Evolutionists say that it takes millions of years for the tiniest change to happen in a creature, plant, ect. So how can any changes EVER happen when plants and animals can't even live that long?

By the way, this is in the religion section because I think it takes more faith than anything to believe you came from and ape...

But if it takes millions of years for one small change to happen--how can it happen if nothing can even live that long? If it took a million years for that ape to turn into a human, how could that have happened if that ape died probably 999,980+ years before the change occured?

Answer 1

Yeah, exactly.

Evolution doesn't happen to one thing, it happens to a species over time.

YOU will not evolve, but over time MAN might evolve again, but probably not..since we're not in a life threatening condition.

See there's also things called mutations, which can speed up the process. and also it has been a billions and billions of years process.

Answer 2

I won't get into the deep complexities of evolution, but the mutations take only a generation. However, it takes thousands of years for the changes to be significant enough to form a new species.

Each set of parents ends up with genes slightly different from what they are born with. These changes are usually insignificant (only a couple of changes in the entire genetic sequence, 80% of which is useless in humans.) However, each generation of children has another couple of genetic changes. After many generations, there are enough total changes to see a noticeable difference. (By a few generations, I do not mean 2 or 3; it's usually a lot more.) This pattern of slightly different genes repeats itself every generation and it accumulates to a point where a newborn is so different from the original, many generations ago, that it is a completely new species.

Long story short: the changes in the DNA are minor and occur throughout generations not a lifetime.
If you still insist that evolution must happen in a lifespan, according to the Bible, the first organisms lived much longer. (Look at the ages of some of the earliest people. They live hundreds of years.) However, I would strongly suggest that you research evolution on your own. I don't want to be rude, but there's no nice way to put this: Based on your question, it's obvious to me that you have not taken more than a week of any educational course that includes lessons on DNA or evolution. Again, I don't want to be mean, but you clearly have a strong opinion against a concept that is unfamiliar to you.

Answer 3

Not exactly. The variety of dogs we see today are all descended from wolves and this has taken about 10,000 years. Birds can change the color of their coating in just a few generations.

But to answer your question:
We're not talking about individual plants slowly changing by themselves, as if it was part of their life cycle. DNA will only change during reproduction.

Plants, just like animals, live, reproduce and die. As many generations pass, small changes stack up, driven by necessity. For instance, resistance to the latest kind of antibiotics, which is an observable phenomenon (i.e., a fact) in germs. When you compare horses today with horses 50,000 years ago, you'll find they have changed a lot (if there even were horses back then, I don't know).

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Edit: Hope you read this, but you don't seem to have read what I wrote above. Sorry for yelling, but you've got it all wrong.

NOBODY IS SAYING CREATURES GRADUALLY CHANGE AS THEY GROW OLD.

Children are slightly different from their parents. There's your change. That's why germs and bacteria can adapt so quickly to new antibiotics; they have a very short life span and reproduce quickly. Even the tiniest change in humans will take many years to spread because it takes us about 18 years to get mature enough to reproduce.

Answer 4

"So how can any changes EVER happen when plants and animals can't even live that long?"

uh, because thats not how evolution works. evolution does not happen to a living animal, that would be "inheritance of acquired characteristics" (which has been proven false long ago) and not evolution which occurs in descendants.

basically this is how evolution works in one very basic hypothetical scenario:
1. humans leave thick rainforest environment and over time move to more grassland, plainish type area.
2. long grasses are hard to see over. short people start dying off quicker because they cannot see predators approaching over the grass.
3. since short people keep dying, more tall people survive to procreate.
4. the average human height now is higher than it was before since the "tall gene" is more dominant and recurring.

and voila, an example of a way people might evolve.

EDIT

"evolution isn't possible, if it was, then why we don't keep evolving, it just suddenly stopped?"

anybody who knows anything about evolution knows we are still evolving and we will never stop. in fact, because of evolution, last year i had to have my wisdom teeth taken out, just as millions of other people have had to.

Answer 5

It happens because DNA mutates just as any cell will do as it replicates itself. So the DNA will mutate to be different in your offspring..then their child's DNA will be mutated again to be different and so on and so forth.

Look at it this way....Back in the Roman Empire it would have been considered to be quite tall if you were a 5 foot even man...by today's standerds that is kinda small..we have evolved into a generally taller species in hundreds of years.

Now follow this for a thousand years and it will be even more pronounced and then another thousand you might assume they are 2 different species. As life progresses it changes to adapt and eventually you have something totally different then what you started with but it happens a little at a time over a long long time..just like how a child grows up..it happens so gradually that it can be hard to point your finger and say "There I saw you grow just now".


and for the ONE BILLIONTH TIME we did not evolve from apes! apes and humans both decended from a common ancestor...please please please actually read the theory if you want to prove it wrong.
Saying humans are decended from apes is like saying you are decended from your cousin..that is stupid and crazy talk...you are both decended from your grandparent.


Jesus was the child of Joseph who bore him...Mary had nothing to do with the process and was not the mother of Jesus..it was an immaculate paternal birth. I am gonna start saying this even though it is totally false just to make my case better

Answer 6

From your question, I can tell you don't understand how evolution works. If you researched how evolution works, you would find that your question doesn't even make sense. The changes are because of repeated breeding. If animals did like for millions of years, evolutions wouldn't be possible. It is because animals live for short times and breed over and over that evolution takes place. For example, in recent times, every generation of humans have been slightly taller then the previous. Over time, you can see that humans are getting taller. This might not necessarily be because of evolution, but it is a good example to see what I mean.

Answer 7

Evolutionists do not say anything like that. You need to educate yourself before making ridiculous assumptions like that.

Evolution happens over generations. Every time a new baby is born, there are mutations that differ from the mother and father. (Think about such wonderful things like genetic diseases and such). Summing advantageous mutations, leads to different species. This isn't a hard concept. Every mutation in between is functional.

Here's a better way to put it: if nothing ever changed, then why do you need flu shots every year? If the virus never mutated, you'd never need a new shot -- it'd be the same. But they do mutate, and have radically different strains. And that's just over a year!

Answer 8

You mean evolution is false, because there isn't a million year old horse? or a million year old tree? Or the species doesn't last that long?

I think what you are missing in either case is a fundamental lack of what evolution is and how it works.

Would you agree even on a small scale that insects can become stronger and change due to stress from pesticide?

Added
The common ancestor we shared with apes carried one set of genes, when this set of genes carried on through the ages and met another common ancestor with a gene that caused a change which made the common ancestor.

Or a female of the species only mated with males that had a trait that was making her offspring more apt to survive in the environment they were in.

This is kind of simplified down, but I hope you are getting the point.

Answer 9

I'm going to say this as politely as possible, and I don't mean this to offend. :)

But you really don't have the vaguest idea of what evolution is, or how it works. I can understand why you would scoff at it, operating from the presumptions that you have. Look up evolution on Wikipedia, or grab a book from the library.

Once you gain a better understanding, that's when you should come back and ask questions, and/or debate the subject.

You do seem to genuinely be seeking answers, so I hope you'll do so. I'd like to hear from you again afterwards.

Answer 10

Because every plant, animal and mineral breeds or 'mixes' with others. It is in the breeding that creates changes, and no two flowers, animals or people are the same. Think back to 100 years ago... We were generally shorter in stature. Men were on average 5'5" - 5'8", and women were on average around 5'2". Now, there are more women crossing the 6' threshold and men are going into 6'4" and above more frequently. Taller people are becoming much more common, and this is one affect of evolution.

Answer 11

Evolution is a fact. Arguing about the theory (which is meant to explain how it happened, not if it happened) does not make it untrue. It has more evidence supporting it than the theory of gravity. Itis based on the same sciences as modern medicine, which is only about 15% evidence based.(1) Given those two facts, I ask you, how much faith does it take to go to the doctor when you're ill? If you do,then the far supperior level of evidence supporting evolution should be no problem for you.