The one question I have always pondered
@desireewilbanks (9)
United States
April 7, 2011 11:32pm CST
So, according to Darwin, we evolved from monkeys. Okay, that's plausible. We have some similarities, I will admit to that. But, and this is a big but, if we evolved from monkeys, why are they still here? I don't see them evolving into monkeys. I mean, it only makes sense, right, that if we evolved from monkeys, why don't we see them evolving into us. Evolution is a survival thing, right, so if they evolved into humans to survive, then it makes sense that monkeys would no longer be here, because they wouldn't have been able to survive what ever made them evolve in the first place. I don't know, maybe I just have put to much thought into it. Any thoughts?
1 person likes this
10 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
8 Apr 11
Darwin did NOT say that humans evolved from monkeys (or that monkeys became human).
First, the word 'theory' has a very different meaning in scientific terms to that which it has in popular terms. Evolution is a FACT; the exact method and path that it takes is THEORY, because we cannot reproduce those evolutionary changes in the laboratory. We know from the fossil record, however, that humans and the apes had a common ancestor and that, even further back in time, all mammals (of which humans, apes, mice, horses, kangaroos and the rest are a part) had a common ancestor. Even further back, we can see that ALL life - microbes, algae, plants, fish, animals and humans - had a common ancestor and that everything has become what it is by a process of gradual differentiation.
Evolution is not 'a survival thing', though survival comes into it. The ape-like creature did not evolve into a human-like creature 'to survive' but it survived because some of the individuals were better able to adapt to a changing environment than others and were able to exploit different environments. Apes and monkeys still exist because their line was able to live successfully amongst trees; humans survived because they were able to stand upright and to exploit open spaces and plains.
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@id_peace (14005)
• Singapore
17 Jul 21
Mutation is a random event that causes living things to be out of the norm in a way that is not out of the need. For an example, a human can be mutated to have no thumb, it does not fit into evolution as we need our thumbs to perform many tasks to survive.
Evolution is the pushing of the living things to have an additional ability to grow or stop the possibilities of an existing function. For an example, wisdom tooth were used for chewing in the past as human teeth tend to drop off towards some part of their life and wisdom tooth can step in to perform the chewing function. Because of the fact that our teeth are now taken care by dentists, the wisdom tooth had no longer had any use, some of the younger generations do not have any wisdom tooth at all.
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@Chiang_Mai_boy (3882)
• Thailand
8 Apr 11
If you think about the traditional illustration of evolution, the tree of life, you follow one branch and find where it splits to form two branches. At the end of one branch are modern monkeys. At the end of the other branch are anatomically modern humans. Both monkeys and humans have continued to evolve after they separated into separate species. Neither are the same as they were at the time the separation occurred.
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@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
9 Apr 11
I've thought that to. Also...monkeys/apes that we supposedly evolved from are not white, nor are they latino nor are they basically any color but black and brown so where'd all the races come from? And if they only had apes like themselves to mate with...how could they have reproduced anything but what they were?
Frankly, if anyone wants to believe they are from an ape...that's their choice but me...I choose to believe God created me. Look at it this way..which is more "out there"...being created by a heavenly being, or being created by an ape?
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
10 Apr 11
If we are moving closer to our creator as we evolve...who created apes?
@wrkrbe (24)
• United States
10 Apr 11
The short answer is God created apes...and ants, and anteaters, and birds, and deer, etc, etc. In Genesis, the Bible specifically states that, "each after his own kind," (evolution put in motion by God, perhaps?))the animal kingdom was created by God on the sixth day. For me, the true philosophical question is who created the creator? For the student of philosophy, that creator is identified as the "prime mover"--the one who set all of this in motion to begin with. The point I am making is this; Christian, Philosopher, Agnostic, or Atheist, beyond a cwertain point we all operate on faith. There is nothing absolutly irrefutable that any of us can latch onto mentally that we can predicate our existence on beyond all question. I prefer to believe in God--without proof of his existence--(faith) because I choose too (free will.) I believe in God because the alternative is to believe in limitations, meaning that my personal existence stops at the grave. I do not believe in limitations because I believe God set evolution in motion so I wouldn't have to. (salvation) Obviously this is circular logic, but what isn't? It's kind of all we've got at the end of the day--no pun intended. Comments anyone? Life truly is an awesome mystery from a metaphysical viewpoint. I think about it a lot.
@wrkrbe (24)
• United States
10 Apr 11
The thing to understand is that all species are constantly mutating in response to adaptive environmental necessity. As noted in other related posts on this topic, the process of evolutionary adaption takes place over long periods of time. As a short-lived species, we humans are simply not in a position to observe any significant changes in other species. We simply do not live long enough. As for skin color, in the distant past, certain evolving members of our human community were being exposed to more sunlight as the moved from under the shade of the jungle canopy and out into the open plains; correspondingly, they adapted by producing darker skin pigmentations as protection from ultraviolet radiation. Also in the distant past, gene pool mix/availability resulted in some pretty interesting characteristics specific to different groups of humanity which found themselves isolated or otherwise cut-off from the mainstream. This would have been especially pronounced when the earth's population was small and a "little bit when a long way," genetically speaking. This accounts for the different physical features that we use today to classify ourselves as "white's, "Latino's," etc., etc. Genetically, we truly are not very far removed from our Simian cousins, but as a species, we are as different from them as night is to day. We mutated along certain lines that they did not and as a result we evolved into a different classification of animal. I personally do not have a problem with any of this as a part of God's perfect plan to have all of his creatures progress each according to his own gifts and adapt to this wonderful world he created and placed all of us in together. I prefer to think that as all creatures evolve they are merely moving closer to their creator. Science and religion need not be irreconcilable in my opinion. Hope this helped.
@wiggles18 (2506)
• Canada
8 Apr 11
Evolution doesn't happen overnight- it takes thousands and thousands of years. You do not just wake up the next morning to find chimp-humanoids being born. It could even take them thousands of years to even evolve to the point where they don't have hair on a certain area of their body.
Plus, the apes we evolved from are gone(because they evolved into us).
My favorite quote from a creationist to date:
"Like how can an African American person... evolve from... a white person? We're different skin."
1 person likes this
@rebelann (112770)
• El Paso, Texas
17 Jul 21
Mutations do happen to a lot of species but that doesn't mean it takes thousands of years, it could only take a couple hundred depending on the type of mutation.
@leon3000502000 (1564)
• Philippines
8 Apr 11
that is only a theory, it's not being proven. there's no proof that we came from monkey. it's very clear that someone created us. someone who is outside from space and time who is invisible, who is almighty and powerful who lives forever and ever. there's none like Him.
@id_peace (14005)
• Singapore
17 Jul 21
Darwin did not put we evolved from monkey. It is one of the conditions that he do not have any knowledge on. He cannot based on assumption as if he do that he could not publish in Europe as this view is in contradiction with the religious view that human are created from God.
There is also a missing link on how human can be evolved from monkey. In the evolution theory, it is called the missing link.
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
8 Apr 11
You can never put too much thought into it! We all need to seriously ponder and research questions like this.. questions about any theory.. "evolution" or "intelligent design" behind it.. Science is "observation". What do you see? Does matter and all things improve? Or does it all move toward falling apart? Darwin said if there was one thing anyone could show him that couldn't come about from a series of slow changes, his theory would be proven to not be true. That was before dNA and before we looked into the common cell and found it was a busy metropolis and communications network more complex than a major city..
- The theory has been amended from we evolved from monkeys, to we and monkeys have evolved from a common ancestor. It's also been changed from millions of years to billions.. (I'm guessing because that's how long it takes for nothing to evolve into everything, and for matter to evolve into life..)
- The question I've always pondered is, if all life forms evolved their survival mechanisms, how did they survive all the while they were evolving them? breathe before evolving lungs for hundreds of years? and if all things evolved from one (the first life was 113 perfectly lined up amino acids) that's a whoLe lotta transitional life forms, should be zillions of transitional fossils and animals, etc..
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
17 Apr 11
From what i watched in the discovery channel or history channel, we have some similarity with monkeys and apes,but no it is not Possible for us to have evolved from them because if that was the case, there should at least be a little something to link our dnas. But according to their studies, there was no link,and not the slightest of similarity, they are not even that close.
@uath13 (8192)
• United States
8 Apr 11
Not all monkeys were subjected to the same situations. It's usually the environment that causes evolutionary changes to occur. The jungle monkeys were never put in the same situations our ancestors were so they remained relitively unchanged. The ones we evolved from started moving out of the jungles & exploring the plains. Out there the extra height from standing fully upright allowed our ancestors to see over the taller grasses & thus see any predators or food in the area. Later on our ancestors began spending more & more time around the water. This caused our hair to become more streamlined & our noses to turn downward ( to prevent water from being forced into them as we swam ). We evolved to fit our situation, the jungle monkeys already fit in theirs.
@jazzsue58 (2666)
•
15 Apr 11
Every creature evolves to fill a niche. Certain apes (don't say the M word) evolved to the top of the evolutionary tree in their environment. They're as good as they're going to get, and survive. So they stay there.
Some species disappear when their environment changes.
Man is one of the few species on this earth to adapt its environment to suit its own needs. Hence we fill every niche - and make other species extinct. But why would an ape want to evolve into something that can't swing through trees to escape from danger, relies on Tesco's for its bananas, and (on the whole)fails to reach its own bottom with its tongue?
Actually, skip that last one ...
