I have seen a lot of misinformation, confusion and outright ignorance towards this topic in other debates. I'm not really sure what's causing it, but I think it's about time we figure it out.


Do you believe in the theory of evolution? Why or why not?

I do believe in evolution because it has pretty much been proven as a fact by empirical evidence. It can be seen everywhere.

Natural selection makes sense even if you don't know a thing about science and are just going by your common sense. The only question is, does genetic mutation take place during this process? Fossils and such show us that, yes it does. Even dog breeding could be considered proof of this.

How can we come from monkeys if there are still apes alive today?

Why did we evolve into humans but our common ancestor also evolved into less intellectually complex apes than us?

That 2nd question is something that I genuinely wonder about sometimes.

Quote from Automaton

How can we come from monkeys if there are still apes alive today?

We didn't come from monkey's. We are just closely related to them.

"It's just a theory."

I've heard this quite a lot. People misinterpret what this word exactly means or place too little emphasis on it. Some people also oversimplify the theory due to not having a good understanding of it. For example the big bang theory. They don't understand it (I admit that I haven't tried to learn it myself), and the furthest they can get is the definition. Yet somehow, they still believe that they can argue its in/validity (maybe out of a combination of ignorance and stubbornness). A definition is not sufficient to convince someone. The evidence is. But the evidence for these theories can be too complex for them to understand, so they favour a different side that they can comprehend.

Some of these debates are also emotionally fueled, where they see things from a subjective rather then an objective standpoint. Instead of accepting that the other side is right, they deny it and "try" to find evidence that disproves the theory instead of looking at why they are correct. It may be that people just don't know how to debate and see the logical side of things. People should learn to form opinions when they actually have an understanding of the subject and evidence.

But yes, I do believe in it. Because it makes sense, and more importantly there is evidence for it.

Quote from Preserve

We didn't come from monkey's. We are just closely related to them.

Yeah, what about the second question?

Quote from Automaton

Yeah, what about the second question?

We evolved differently, because we lived in a different enviroment and needed different skills to survive. Human children are very vulnerable and we don't reproduce fast. Our species was almost extinct before we learned how to use our hands for things and before we developped to be intellectually superior to the other species. Apes didn't need to be smart in order to survive as things were for them. Just like how spiders are different depending on where they live in, we evolved to survive in our surroundings.

Any specifics on what was so different that could produce such a difference in outcome?

[edit]
And by the way, I do believe in evolution, and I know that it is true that the reason for there being apes and humans is that we evolved differently from a common ancestor. Was partly playing Devil's advocate, and partly wanted to know the answer to the question there ^^^

I believe that it is due to chance. Like environment, genetic mutations and so forth, probability also plays a significant role. It could have just been that our ancestors picked up a stick before before the others, thus engaged in activites that required a greater cognitive function first.

Our common ancestors may not have required a great deal of intelligence and therefore did not evolve to become more intelligent. I don't see it as them evolving into less intelligent apes, its's just that they werent exposed to the correct stimuli that allowed them to reach a greater intellectual development. But as we can see now, they faced extinction, which suggests that intelligence allowed for our survival.

EDIT: I'm a little rusty on my biology, so what I say may not be completely correct.

Quote from Automaton

Any specifics on what was so different that could produce such a difference in outcome?

Geographical divergence could do it, physically separating a species prevents breeding between the groups, which creates two gene pools that accumulate mutations separately. If that didn't happen, the last common species could stay together and still undergo sympatric speciation.

Whatever specific event triggered it, no one knows. We don't even have a fossil of the last common ancestor. There are theories, but it's hard to be specific about an event that occurred ~8-10 million years ago.

if evolution is true then why arnt humans and other animals continueing to evolve please explain and give evidence pleas and thankyou

Debates, somehow they always transform into something religious...

Quote from Xave14

if evolution is true then why arnt humans and other animals continueing to evolve please explain and give evidence pleas and thankyou

They are.

This question isn't entirely about evolution but is kinda linked to it:
-Why do Asian people have distinct eyes compared to other humans?
I just really wanted to put that out there.

okay. Time for my facts.

The universe apparently started 13.5 billion years ago.
As a fact, it takes 1 billion years for a single celled organism to evolve e.g. an amoeba. THATS JUST ONE
So, the Theory of Evolution is wrong FULL STOP