I dont understand Evolution?

Question

I was just reading some ones answer and it said:

"The human body is evolving....we're losing wisdom teeth....we're losing the pinky toe of the foot...the appendix is a vestigal organ now...."

So My Dentist pulled my second molars and I have my wisdom teeth in my head right this second. My pinky toe is still in tact. OH and I just had a baby and he has both of his too and so does everyone else I know....so When is all of this supposed to happen? Im thinking if a large number of people were being born with out pinky toes it would be in the news or something.

Answer 1

I think according to their calculations, it is suppose to happen over a period of millions of years or so

so no worries about waking up and finding that little toe laying in the bed beside ya

Answer 2

First off, i'm an evolutionary creationist.

that is not how evolution as natural selection happens. Humans as the current form will still exist, but sooner or later there will be some humans who don't have wisdom teeth because they don't need it or because they inhibit humans. Then these humans will become more different until they are a new species. There won't be a large number of people without a pinky(if that is really happening).

Consider this, there is a nerve(that connects to nowhere, but performs a function in the great apes), that some humans have and some don't. There are actually a good number of obscure body parts that some people have and some don't

No one notices though.

Answer 3

WHAT?!?! Someone has been telling you (and the person who wrote that) a lot of bunk about evolution. You should read up on Natural Selection...
Organisms (or rather-groups of organisms) evolve under stress from environment etc. - not just because something is no longer used... It would need to advantage humans to lose the pinky toe. I've never heard of anyone dieing from having a pinky (and therefore not having offspring) which is what needs to happen for them to go- unless they evolve into another form that is useful in some way.........
That said- over time if mutations occur where pinkies are small or gone and no-one dies for lack of it- it could vanish- but this would take a long time!!!

Answer 4

This statement speaks to the fact that unless you have some of your other teeth pulled (as you did) the jaw is no longer large enough for the wisdom teeth to fit properly. We no longer have a use for the pinky toe (Which is why they are so small and every few generations, they get smaller), the appendix is no longer used (the spleen along with it) which is why it can be removed without causing health issues (I know, mine is gone). Evolution is not an over night process. It takes hundreds of generations to acheive even the smallest change. You might not see that change now, but if you were to look at the bones of our ancestors (more than just the last 2000 years) you would see a definite change. Our decendants will be able to look back and see the same types of changes with us. We are in a constant state of evolution and growth, though we don't always see it.

Answer 5

I only had two wisdom teeth, and I asked my dentist is I were some sort of freak. She said that wisdom teeth used to push our teeth forward, so when our front teeth were ground down, they would be replaced. As our eating and hygiene habits have changed there is no need for for wisdom teeth. It is more likely for those with 4 wisdom teeth to be the freak these days.

Organs like the Spleen and the Appendix used to support the immune system, but again, our hygiene habits have changed, and we now have medication. There is not need for either, which is why the removal of them is a fairly standard procedure.

Something else which is evolution is people are becoming more androgynous in shape. Women are less likely to have wide child-bearing hips, or large breasts. This is of course a generalisation, there are many women who do have these features, but as a whole, the female race is becoming more masculine. The reasons are that we are no longer producing children for our entire life. The average family is now only 2.4 children and that is decreasing.

That is how evolution works. It changes living things so they are best suited for their environment.

Answer 6

Whoever said that doesn't have correct grasp of the process of evolution; the only way humans will lose the pinky toe and wisdom teeth is that if only babies born with progressively smaller and smaller pinky toes and wisdom teeth are allowed to procreate when they're old enough and the other 'normal' people are not allowed to breed. It is a slow process but it is evidenced in selective breeding in farm animals and pet dogs and cats. It really does work. One can only deny it if their beliefs are so strong that they have to deny truth in order to keep those beliefs.

Answer 7

Wisdom teeth and pinky toes...hmmmm....Well that is news to me, however....

One of the most notable evolutions humans have undergone, besides intelligence..... is height. Human beings are MUCH taller today, than they were just a few hundred years ago. Now go back 1000 years....many say Jesus was about 5 foot 1....which would have been considered fairly tall at that time.

I think the only exceptions to this evolutionary process would be asians.. lol

An example of "de-evolution" for humans....some scientists argue that people today have worse eyesight, weaker sense of smell, and poorer hearing than we used to have.

It all comes down to what senses/physiology.. humans/animals rely on most for survival.

an example of hyper evolution...would be.... how animals are bred for certain purposes. We can breed race horses to be faster, dogs to be smaller or larger or bred to be used for hunting. We breed cows to produce more milk, or to be beef cattle. We've humans have managed to do this in a fairly short amount of time....roughly a few hundred years, we've done things that would normally take thousands to occur naturally.

Answer 8

I hear stuff like that too and I take it with a grain of salt. I credit it to overzealous amateur paleontologists. In fact, you might see, say, the appendix disappear but when it does it will be because people with smaller appendixes tended not to die before reproducing. There is a causal relation between a variation and selection, we just don't know what it is before selection actually happens (like maybe the appendix will prove to be beneficial if there's another ice age - we just don't know. Yet.) Paleontology has never been a good predicter of the future, just a really good explainer of the past. Hence - predictions are nearly useless.

Answer 9

When they talk about evolution and losing the little toe or something else like that-they're talking about over a very long period of time. Think about the caveman. We dont look a lot like them-do we? But-unless I'm mistaken-those are our ancestors. Maybe your great great grandchildren will be born without little toes. Give your children a hug for me and be glad they were born with all of their toes.

Answer 10

Evolution is a process of change/mutation and rebirth over millions and millions of years. Much in the same way that you can't watch your child grow by staring at him, you cannot watch evolution from within a single lifetime.

Not once have I ever noticed a change in my son that wasn't there the day before. Yet when I look at pictures that were taken of him a year ago I'm amazed at how much he has grown right under my nose. Certainly you don't need this explained to you?

Answer 11

Wait a minute...I asked a question (I'm a Christian) on the same subject, about the evolution of humanity. I mean, if we evolved from the beginning, there is no reason to believe we would stop...

I was told that we would evolve into half-man and half-machine...

You're so wrong on this whole evolution thing...we're most definitely going to be half machine...

(Note: This is sarcasm...evolutionists cannot answer this question...kind of like the whole "where did we come from" debate.)