Why can't people who buy into ID understand the difference between "evolving from" and "replacing"?

Question

They keep on asking why monkeys still exist. Why?

Thank you all for thoughtful answers

Answer 1

[giggle]

I know what you mean. They give me an image of a bunch of monkeys sitting around and "pop!" "pop!" each monkey turns into a human.

WRONG!

Yet each poster of that question thinks "I've really got them now!" Even though that very question has been asked gabunches of times on this very site.

Some weeks ago someone posted the question "If Eve was made out of Adam's rib, how come there's still ribs?"

Poor soul had just seen the How come there's monkeys? ONE time too many.

Actually, the real ID-ers don't say that. A few months ago I was on an ID web site that had a list of arguments NOT to use (such as "evolution is just a theory" -- which you see on this site a lot).

They not only don't learn about the theory they're arguing against, they don't bother learning the theory they're arguing FOR.

Certainty -- who needs reason when you've got Absolute Certainty?

Answer 2

I don't ask that question.

I believe in Intelligent Design.

? ? ?

You can breed a new variety of dog within a decade or less. Within the same species, in that sense, evolution occurs constantly.

But you can never, even as an intelligent person TRYING to direct the process, make a dog, a species on the Macro level, into something completely different. Chromosonal problem arise, and other genetic laws that prohibit an animal "kind" from morphing into a completely new life form, no matter how long you're given to attempt to do it, even as an Intelligent Designer and someone interfering in the process.

Creationism? Silliness. I believe the Biblical account of Creation, not in Creationists who misrespresent what it actually says.

Answer 3

They just can't comprehend that both humans and present day monkeys came from a common ancestor, "ancestor" meaning a species that is dead. No longer existant. 2 distinct species evolved from it - one is present day monkeys, the other is present day humans. This is the most simplistic explanation I can give those folks. I guess a lot of them are blooming idiots who can not read. That is the only explanation I can think of.

Answer 4

the vast majority of creationists and other ID people would know the difference

"I like bananas and I can swing from a tree, but you can't make a monkey outta me" from the Evolution Revolution, by Patch the Pirate

Answer 5

I blame creationist websites. They have a mass of sophisticated sounding rhetoric that creationists learn to repeat without fully understanding anything about evolution or the arguments they're trying to challenge it with. You can provide them with any amount of valid evidence and it's very unlikely that they would even think of questioning creationism.

Answer 6

I "buy into ID" as you put it, from the perspective that God used evolution as a tool. And yes, I paid attention in Biology and learned that evolution doesn't say we came from monkeys, it says monkeys and humans came from a common ancestor - I get it, thanks.