Do you believe in Evolution?

[toxic_tomato]

i believe in it because yes adam and eve were the first and ONLY people on Earth and they probaly had a son or daughter(i dont really remember)but then what?..did other people just pop up..or did they do what i think they did.. but i do belive there is a higher power that is watching over us..but frankly i just try not to get into this kind of stuff cause then im really confused after words and have no idea what to believe in..

[BigTwinky]

No, we haven't explained everything in 100 years. That is such a short time span.

But look at what we HAVE been able to explain in the last 100 years vs the last 300 before that. Leaps and bounds.

Sure, not all progress is for the better, look at the state of our planet, the wars (which most are based on religious beliefs), poverty, crime, and so on.

But we have learned alot in a very short time span.

Imagine the world and diseases prior to penicillin. Image what those people would have been discussing when talking about religion and evolution.

Its hard to fathom a higher power starting it all off. It sounds like an easy explanation for it. Is it true? Who knows.

People are allowed to have their own beliefs, believe in the gods that they believe in, whatever they are called. If feel the need to have a god that will hold you accountable for your sins and thus make you live a richous life, go for it, its your right.

In the distant past, most things were accredited with the will of a god. As time went on, less was the will of a god, and more was nature being nature. I'd love to see how far these explanations will go.

However, neither of us will be here to know. Kinda sucks, don't it?

[alpha]

There are examples of evolution all around us. Problem is, a single human is not alive long enough to witness the evolution taking place.

actually, you can prove evolution in about a day with 20 minutes of work. Take a petri dish and fill it with some colony of bacteria, there is an easy set of bacteria that glow under UV light. next put some anti-bacterial soap on them. A few will survive due to having mutations that allow them to be immune to the soap, allow them to reproduce for while, count the colonies, then put the same soap on again and count them again, you will see that the bacteria all evolved to be immune to the the soap, and almost none will die.

Thats
genetic mutation
a harsh environment
and survival of the fittest

aka evolution

[minfootball]

my view is obscured because i for one am religious but i also have my own beliefs that differ from my churchs (missouri synod Lutheran).

i believe that what scientists are proving to be true (big bang, evolution,..) that when god made the earth it was in seven days his time, which could be millions of years our time.

i believe that to make us god used evolution and such instead of instantaneous creation he molded us much like an artist starting with a rough sketch and working towards a finished product.

[WhIsKyTaNgO1]

[TheDeadMeat]

No, we haven't explained everything in 100 years. That is such a short time span.

But look at what we HAVE been able to explain in the last 100 years vs the last 300 before that. Leaps and bounds.

Very true. We have made great strides in the past few THOUSAND years but these are inventions and ideas. Necessity is the Motherhood of Invention. Things we cannot explain are sometimes products of our works.

Evolution itself is HORRIBLY flawed but it is a plausible representation of theory and observable facts. Why are monkeys still monkeys? They came from the same apes as we did right? Perhaps they didn't get the memo. Perhaps is a geographical problem. Right place;right time.

Take the brain. We can do great things in neurological medicine. We can explain how the brain works.....kinda. We can make repairs...but not all of them.

The pyramids of Giza were built around 3200 B.C. Do a google on how many different theories there are on building those marvels.

Point is we are not as smart as we think we are or would like to be. The more you learn; the more you realize the little you know.

I love these discussions as long as they don't turn into a pissing match. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

[{CLR} Naillik]

I pressed the wrong button. I meant to say NO.
I'm not religious or anything remotely related to religion, but I believe that we were here from the beginning, but simply adapted, not evolved.

[jaspurr]

Looks like the Ned Flanders brigade are losing this one big style. I don't know how I got here, dad tried to explain once but that was too scary to listen too Serously we evolved, whether from apes of a creature similar to apes who knows. I believe I am only here once so I am off to enjoy it.

Oh yes, deadlyassasin, I don't mean to scare you but there are half man monkeys out there, they are all around us, just look a bit closer. You know that guy next door who scrapes his knuckles on the ground when he walks upright. I think you guys call them red necks

[LIMEY]

Looks like the Ned Flanders brigade are losing this one big style. I don't know how I got here, dad tried to explain once but that was too scary to listen too Serously we evolved, whether from apes of a creature similar to apes who knows. I believe I am only here once so I am off to enjoy it.

Oh yes, deadlyassasin, I don't mean to scare you but there are half man monkeys out there, they are all around us, just look a bit closer. You know that guy next door who scrapes his knuckles on the ground when he walks upright. I think you guys call them red necks

I take exception to the idea that anyone religious is Ned Flanders like, I myself am a Christian and I do not think I am anything like Flanders, I am more like Mr. Burns

[TheDeadMeat]

Oh yes, deadlyassasin, I don't mean to scare you but there are half man monkeys out there, they are all around us, just look a bit closer. You know that guy next door who scrapes his knuckles on the ground when he walks upright. I think you guys call them red necks

I beg to differ Sir!! I am a certified Red Neck and my knuckles do not scrape.

Scuff perhaps.

[omfg karl marx]

Why I don't believe in evolution is simple.

If we came from monkeys, how come they are still around? And how come there are no Half man Half Monkey's out there?

Different areas of the world have different conditions. Certain areas may not have had conditions to optimally support life. Homo habilis, for example, had to create tools to survive. That doesn't mean that every member of the habilis species possessed that ability. The ones that could survived and later evolved into Homo erectus and then into Homo heidelbergensis and finally into Homo sapiens sapiens. We are the result of the best of the best of various prior beings.

Also, there may not be proof in a god, though I believe in god, but where's the proof in evolution? The fact that we look like monkeys? Act like monkeys? Don't dogs act like wolves? So big mean fierce wolves suddenly evolved into a lil poodle?

Fossils. We can trace a line from the great apes to Australopithecus to Homo habilis to Homo ergaster to Homo erectus to Homo heidelbergensis to us, Homo sapiens sapiens.

I don't believe that a big godly hand touched earth with a few zaps and suddenly appeared a naked dude and a naked chick, infact I don't believe in many things that are in the bible, but I just don't see how evolution exists.

Your loss. You should know better. Many, many years ago, The Flying Spaghetti Monster came down, and created a hill, a tree, and a Midget.

I believe in Adaptation however. Asians have those "tiny eyes" because of many assets in Asia, and also grew the pigments if they live in the USA or other places besides Asia. They didn't evolve into being "tiny eyed"

How is adaptation different though? Evolution would just be a more long term form of adaptation.

[thedeadlyassassin]

I'd really like someone to explain to me however how there are still monkeys out there and practically none are endangered or near endangered yet humans have been around for what 200 million years or was it?


Again I believe in Adaptation, not evolution.

[Trooper110]

Because the monkeys we evolved from are not around any longer. You could go along the lines of saying that the anaconda is the biggest snake and that it evolved from smaller snakes, so why are smaller snakes still around? They're around because the anaconda was a different species of snake that evolved to it's current size because of environmental, floral, fauna, many factors.

If you compare homo sapiens sapiens DNA to the DNA from various species of monkeys, we have parts that match up and are similar, but aren't the same. You get the same thing if you compare a gorilla's DNA to that of a chimpanzee, or a lemur, or a baboon. They all have similar DNA, which matches up closest to ours compared to any other mammalian species, but none of it is exactly the same.

[TheDeadMeat]

Ape-like not modern monkeys and apes. They came from the same line as we did. We are a new breed just as the other breeds of modern monkeys. Just like other animals, some are smarter than others. Some developed a skill that they needed to survive just as they changed coats or color.

Plus again, the theory is flawed and will probably never been fully explained unless we build a time machine.

ooooo that's a good topic. TIME TRAVEL!!

[omfg karl marx]

I'd really like someone to explain to me however how there are still monkeys out there and practically none are endangered or near endangered yet humans have been around for what 200 million years or was it?


Again I believe in Adaptation, not evolution.

Don't think of monkeys as being one group. Say for example, monkeys are grouped in three areas. Group 1, as a result of climate change, finds themselves living in the jungle. They adapt to that lifestyle. They eat only foliage. Now suppose, Group 2 lived south of Group 1. As a result of changing weather patterns and climate, the area has become very dry and desert-like. Group 2 now faces a problem, how to get food and water. They can't figure out a solution, so they die off. Group 3 which lived to the west of Group 2, was also facing droughts. They, however, adapt by losing their hair, starting to eat meat, and store water inside of hollowed eggs. They survive unlike Group 2. Group 1 does not face these challenges and remain unchanged.

You might call that adapting to your surroundings, but that's pretty much what evolution is, many adaptations to a group that aren't common to the whole species. Therefore, they become a "new" species.