2006-10-26 05:48:09 · 30 answers · asked by jayr 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
OH GREAT ANOTHER ONE
WE EVOLVED FROM A COMMON ANCESTOR
2006-10-26 05:53:59 · answer #1 · answered by ηιgнт ѕтαя 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
This ape thing comes up over and over again. Darwin nor any other scientist ever claimed that humans evolved from apes. What he did say as that at one point of evolution, humans may have been ape-like. All life evolved from single cell life forms. Some took the path that eventually became the humans of today. Some took the path that led them to become apes.
What humans or apes eventually evolve into would only be a guess, or run-away imagination.
2006-10-26 13:02:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
We didn't evolve from apes, we share a common ancestor. And they are evolving. It takes thousands of years for small changes to take place. So when we look at the last 100 years or so, we see apes and it looks like they aren't evolving. But when you look at chip skeletons from thousands of years ago, they are different. It is like we don't see humans evolving, but the average height in humans has increased in the last 1000 years. this is a very small step in the evolutionary process.
In fact, there was an interesting experiment where they had a bunch of captive foxes. They would breed them to be more docile for caging purposes. The docile ones got to breed, and the aggressive ones didn't. After only a half dozen generations or so, they had a much more docile population, and the coloring was actually a little different. On the surface, they were still foxes, but those who were around them everyday noticed that they were more docile.
2006-10-26 17:29:14 · answer #3 · answered by Take it from Toby 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Scientist have not suggested or stated that we evolved from apes. Natural history makes it clear that humans share a common ancestor with modern apes. Yes, there is a difference. maybe your anthropocentric conceit won't allow you to see it, but it remains.
Scientists do not suggest that natural history was scripted to lead to humans or that humans were inevitable. That is the province of religiously rationalized arrogance.
Scientists do not say that evolution is a pressure that forces simple organisms to become more complex. It allows it if becoming more complex has an immediate benefit for survival, but it also allows movement in the opposite direction if that improves survival rates.
Intelligence is not always an advantage for survival. Big brains are metabolically expensive to grow and maintain. If human agriculture were to fail catastrophically our big brains would be the death of us.
Evolution of large animals like apes does not happen quickly enough to be observed inside a human lifespan. Maybe they are evolving into humans, or a species that will replace humans.
"Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, d@mn you! God d@mn you all to he11!" Planet of the Apes (1968)
2006-10-26 13:42:35 · answer #4 · answered by corvis_9 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Our fellow apes are evolving, just as we are. It just takes time to see major changes. And sometimes things change in their environment faster than they can adapt and they go extinct as sadly it looks like what will happen some of our cousins. If they would happen to survive and continue evolving they might not continue to become human-like - we are not a goal of evolution but just adapted to fit the environment.
We did have a common ancestor that would have looked like an ape - we branched off from chimpanzees only abut 6 million years ago. The earliest fossils of what would become eventually human basically looks like an upright walking chimpanzee.
2006-10-26 13:28:42 · answer #5 · answered by Sage Bluestorm 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, the theory of evolution never stated that we evolved from apes. It says that us humans and the apes had a common ancestor, but that different branches of this common ancestor family went in two very different directions a long, long, long time ago - no one is saying this common ancestor was anything like an ape.
2006-10-26 12:58:23 · answer #6 · answered by daisyk 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
[sigh] Because they survive just fine in their natural environment as it exists. Evolution does not happen in an individual's lifetime. It happens BETWEEN generations. If some kind of cataclysmic change were to occur in their environment, say persistent drought, extreme cold, increasing toxicity from pollution, many of them would die without successfully reproducing. Only the ones capable of tolerating the environmental change would continue, and their offspring who inherited these coping genes would continue. If the difference is great enough, speciation occurs, which only means they can no longer reproduce with the previous species (which may be extinct or unable to live in the same environment anyway).
So far, apes have managed without the need to develop complicated speech, to walk exclusively on their hind feet or to operate heavy machinery. Should the time come when their current native skillset is inadequate for the changing environment, you will see evolution. Either that or extinction, if the need for adaptation outstrips the ability of genetic mutation to cope.
2006-10-26 13:06:10 · answer #7 · answered by skepsis 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm not a scientist, so I can't answer that. If you're trying to prove Darwin wrong. I've always thought that God (or a supreme power) and Darwin's theory of evolution could both be possible. I just can't imagine there not being a God. I tried to take my life twice. Once I took over 110 pills, and I'm still alive. It was too late for the hospital to do anything but monitor me, and give me potasium. That's just not natural. In my opinion, I think both are possible.
2006-10-26 12:56:10 · answer #8 · answered by noface 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I like how people who answer your simple question with frustration, annoyance AND ignorance believe in the fairy-tale that they're going to 'heaven'. Good job guys. And the ones answering in an ignorant fashion from the scientific perspective, well you're just being pricks.
Knowledge is most rewarding when shared. Keep this in mind when you all set out to raise children.
2006-10-26 13:10:35 · answer #9 · answered by suedoubleyou 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Evolution doesn't say we evolved from apes; that's what the Christian Right wants you to think. I suggest you do actual research on the theory of revolution--outside of the Christian material you've been reading.
2006-10-26 12:50:50 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 1⤋
They don't suggest that we evolved from apes. There's your mistake right there.
2006-10-26 12:59:20 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋