Red Sky at Morning
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I bet it's not being taught as a theory? They only started to let slip some of the 'just so' stories by the time I finished the last year of my degree!!!
Did Evolution Really Happen?
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Aero
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Yeah there are clear dangers in putting blind faith in what the scientific community is telling us. That's why I use my own senses to determine what's what. Fire is hot, Ice is cold. A basketball hoop is generally 10 feet tall, and the ball wont bounce forever no matter where you drop it. And you can't throw the ball to the moon no matter how strong you are. Or even out of the earths atmosphere, but we can launch rockets there. And they don't come back.
As far as macro evolution goes. I can see how primates are kind of like us. There's species that go to war, and they don't take it easy on each other. Sometimes they even deploy complex strategy. Like using weapons, forming units. Their reaction to stimuli is very human like, unless you are just choosing not to look. I know that's not solid evidence but come on. Subtract like 3,000 years of recorded history and our species was pretty damn primitive. I mean, there clearly weren't department stores.
As far as macro evolution goes. I can see how primates are kind of like us. There's species that go to war, and they don't take it easy on each other. Sometimes they even deploy complex strategy. Like using weapons, forming units. Their reaction to stimuli is very human like, unless you are just choosing not to look. I know that's not solid evidence but come on. Subtract like 3,000 years of recorded history and our species was pretty damn primitive. I mean, there clearly weren't department stores.
mecca
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It is called the "theory" of evolution.
Red Sky at Morning
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The only time I got that was in the first lesson ;-) truthfully, Creation and Evolution are both untestable, unrepeatable and metaphysical. You can look for circumstantial evidence and take an educated decision. I'm not going to badger this tread but is a healthy thing to do when a new 'science fact' comes out to look at alternative explanations.
When something comes out which looks bad for evolution, e.g. the biochemical pathway whereby creatures create electric shocks evolving about six times in different unrelated organisms and you read something like 'isn't evolution ingenious' -
Pause for thought ..
P.s. the topic I noticed... http://dailym.ai/ToOX3Q
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Aero
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I tend to think of evolution as a mechanism by which God has arranged. Kind of like programming code. And I think this way because of patterns that exist in nature. There is clearly structure where there could be a lot more chaos. Few species deviate from the essential needs of all species on Earth.
grateful servant
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God created humans distinctly from the rest of animal kingdom. Unlike apes, humans have the free will to choose right from wrong and are responsible for that choice.
Trenton
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The difference between apes and man are few. But one thing is distinct. Chimpanzees and humans for instance...
10,000 years ago or even earlier, humans appear to have been very primitive. However using rudimentary tools, and creating organizations with complex social structures.
Chimpanzees at times use primitive tools, sticks and things. And have similar structures in their social heirarchy.
But fast forward to the present. Chimpanzees are the same as they've always been, and man keeps progressing and improving upon his skills.
We as a species are able to create religion, science, computers, autos, space ships, recipies for new foods, gentic alterations.
We are able to create a social construct, use it for thousands of years, and then break it back down to build a new one that can improve the lives of modern humans.
Chimps are still just chimps.
Have humans "evolved" since prehistoric times? Doesn't seem like it. Simlar statures, similar skull sizes... Just been alive long enough in earth to develop.
Why don't chimps? Who have arguably been on Earth longer than us.
10,000 years ago or even earlier, humans appear to have been very primitive. However using rudimentary tools, and creating organizations with complex social structures.
Chimpanzees at times use primitive tools, sticks and things. And have similar structures in their social heirarchy.
But fast forward to the present. Chimpanzees are the same as they've always been, and man keeps progressing and improving upon his skills.
We as a species are able to create religion, science, computers, autos, space ships, recipies for new foods, gentic alterations.
We are able to create a social construct, use it for thousands of years, and then break it back down to build a new one that can improve the lives of modern humans.
Chimps are still just chimps.
Have humans "evolved" since prehistoric times? Doesn't seem like it. Simlar statures, similar skull sizes... Just been alive long enough in earth to develop.
Why don't chimps? Who have arguably been on Earth longer than us.
Loki
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That's the thing, the theory, that something suddenly set us apart and our brain began to develop far faster than our primate cousins. I don't believe anyone has a reason for why, though I like the stoned ape theory. It's equally possible that a god intervened, that aliens intervened, that mushrooms caused it, or that a specific group of apes wandered into a specific area where predators were limited and so they had more time to focus on developing tools, once they learned to use tools it made their lives far more efficient and they had more time to do other social things, then boom a million years later and our brains have been growing while our muscles aren't as necessary. We really don't know, but science has the best guess IMO, though I see no reason why you can't merge it with spiritual and religious beliefs if that suits a person's mentality better.
Paranoia Daily
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grateful servant
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Ya know what's funnier? You being on VC forums during highschool science class!
Red Sky at Morning
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At university we were told that we were more than 99% similar genetically to apes...
...but that was not the whole story!
http://www.icr.org/article/human-chimp-similarities-common-ancestry/
Aero
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Consciously we have evolved, and are evolving. And other animals do too. Has the dog that learned not to poop on your floor not evolved? Were cats not evolving when they decided to domesticate themselves? I mean your dog still has the free will to poop on the carpet. If it really has to it probably will.
I just don't see how extra contemplation for instinctual behavior is considered free will. I'm kind of in the camp of thinking free will is an illusion. I mean it's not free will to say I could go rob a bank, when I never would. Humans had to learn so much from each other, our fates are literally all tied together.
I just don't see how extra contemplation for instinctual behavior is considered free will. I'm kind of in the camp of thinking free will is an illusion. I mean it's not free will to say I could go rob a bank, when I never would. Humans had to learn so much from each other, our fates are literally all tied together.
Not one complete set of transitional fossils seen within the link.
For the love of the Most High folks please read your own links before posting the first link in your Google search.
Mr.Grieves
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The chimpanzee fossil-record is really poor; we don't have a good idea what chimps looked like back in the early hominin days, but its true that in the past few thousand years - a minor blip on the evolutionary scale- we've progressed and advanced leaps and bounds beyond them intellectually. However, as stated before, from the standpoint of our functionality as animals, we only have three real tangible advantages: we stand upright consistently, we've got better hands, and we're way more clever. Chimpanzees are stronger than us, they're more durable than us, they're generally faster, more agile, more dexterous than us, they resist the elements better than us, they're less prone to illness than we are. The presumption that we're 'More evolved' than chimpanzees is a misconception. It's not a race, and there is no finish-line. Chimpanzees just aren't evolving in the same direction as us, likely because of entirely different conditions/challenges/diets/necessities.
It's probable that at some point, early humans- already at least as clever as other primates- found themselves in a 'do or die' situation where they had to start hunting consistently to survive, in conditions and facing prey where 'run after it and pounce on it' simply wasn't cutting it anymore. We needed to be clever, we needed to use tools, and those early humans who excelled at this over others got to succeed in their hunt, feed their families, and become 'alphas' in their social structures, doing the most breeding. Hunted meat as a dietary staple means way more protein, which we know is essential to brain development from an individual standpoint, let alone on an evolutionary scale. Protein contains the amino acids like seratonin and tyrosine which make up our neurotransmitters.
Thousands of years of sneaking up on animals, hucking rocks at them, and reaping the protein-rich rewards- allowing the cleverest, most accurate rock-huckers to excel could easily have led to increasingly clever humans with increasingly robust and protein-enriched brains, and eventual epiphany moments over further thousands of years like 'pointy stick is better than rock', 'can use rock to make stick more pointy', 'rock and stick can be be combined, even better for hucking!' the whole time working out things which aid in their efforts like specific vocalizations to communicate more and more precise information over long range, eventually leading toward things like basic language.
As our brains become more and more robust, as we start developing language, we start having increasingly complex thoughts, and eventually develop the capacity for abstraction. We start having thoughts like 'What is this?' 'Why is this?' 'What am I?' 'Why am I?' and as we learn to relate these abstract thoughts to each other, we start dreaming up answers, which allows us to start structuring our societies in ways no animal has before, creating bonds and rules around ideas, rather than just pure animal necessity, a sapience which unleashed the power of our intellect, and allowed us to build simple social structures up into communities, communities up into civilizations, the rest, as they say, being history.
That, at least, is the most plausible scenario to my mind; more so than alien statues and finger-stretching god-things, and there's a fair deal of (to my mind) compelling evidence to support it.
Lisa
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Looks like your playing the new game started in the lounge, about finding pictures?
Mr.Grieves
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Have you never climbed a tree...?
It's a good time, man!
Lisa
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It's all fun and games until you fall from the tree...
Aero
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Exactly, our primate cousins brains never had to evolve like us. They were thriving just fine in their own environments. Their superior strength and durability was enough for them. Plus one must consider that species that were human like, but not as advanced were probably wiped out by us. Because at some point the biggest threat to humans, became other humans. And as they fought for territory, naturally the most intelligent force wins.
The chimpanzee fossil-record is really poor; we don't have a good idea what chimps looked like back in the early hominin days, but its true that in the past few thousand years - a minor blip on the evolutionary scale- we've progressed and advanced leaps and bounds beyond them intellectually. However, as stated before, from the standpoint of our functionality as animals, we only have three real tangible advantages: we stand upright consistently, we've got better hands, and we're way more clever. Chimpanzees are stronger than us, they're more durable than us, they're generally faster, more agile, more dexterous than us, they resist the elements better than us, they're less prone to illness than we are. The presumption that we're 'More evolved' than chimpanzees is a misconception. It's not a race, and there is no finish-line. Chimpanzees just aren't evolving in the same direction as us, likely because of entirely different conditions/challenges/diets/necessities.
It's probable that at some point, early humans- already at least as clever as other primates- found themselves in a 'do or die' situation where they had to start hunting consistently to survive, in conditions and facing prey where 'run after it and pounce on it' simply wasn't cutting it anymore. We needed to be clever, we needed to use tools, and those early humans who excelled at this over others got to succeed in their hunt, feed their families, and become 'alphas' in their social structures, doing the most breeding. Hunted meat as a dietary staple means way more protein, which we know is essential to brain development from an individual standpoint, let alone on an evolutionary scale. Protein contains the amino acids like seratonin and tyrosine which make up our neurotransmitters.
Thousands of years of sneaking up on animals, hucking rocks at them, and reaping the protein-rich rewards- allowing the cleverest, most accurate rock-huckers to excel could easily have led to increasingly clever humans with increasingly robust and protein-enriched brains, and eventual epiphany moments over further thousands of years like 'pointy stick is better than rock', 'can use rock to make stick more pointy', 'rock and stick can be be combined, even better for hucking!' the whole time working out things which aid in their efforts like specific vocalizations to communicate more and more precise information over long range, eventually leading toward things like basic language.
As our brains become more and more robust, as we start developing language, we start having increasingly complex thoughts, and eventually develop the capacity for abstraction. We start having thoughts like 'What is this?' 'Why is this?' 'What am I?' 'Why am I?' and as we learn to relate these abstract thoughts to each other, we start dreaming up answers, which allows us to start structuring our societies in ways no animal has before, creating bonds and rules around ideas, rather than just pure animal necessity, a sapience which unleashed the power of our intellect, and allowed us to build simple social structures up into communities, communities up into civilizations, the rest, as they say, being history.
That, at least, is the most plausible scenario to my mind; more so than alien statues and finger-stretching god-things, and there's a fair deal of (to my mind) compelling evidence to support it.