If we evolved from monkeys and evolution is true, then why are there still monkeys today?

reply to post by MrXYZ


As far as taking the bible literally, to do so is pure folly! There are so many layers upon layers, it is impossible to just look at those words and think that they mean just what was written in black and white. It is history and mystery all wrapped in an enigma, to be honest about it. I'm sure that I can spend the rest of my life studying it and it will always say something different each time. That's the beauty of it, for me at least!

Originally posted by jennybee35
reply to post by MrXYZ

 

As far as taking the bible literally, to do so is pure folly! There are so many layers upon layers, it is impossible to just look at those words and think that they mean just what was written in black and white. It is history and mystery all wrapped in an enigma, to be honest about it. I'm sure that I can spend the rest of my life studying it and it will always say something different each time. That's the beauty of it, for me at least!

And that's fine, because technically it allows you to analyze things rationally, to a certain extent at least.

It's the crazy fundamentalists who take everything literally who are the crazies of this world. They are harming people, and putting the "normal" Christians into a bad light with their insane literal interpretation of the bible.

reply to post by Hoppinmad1

Every species on earth has it's own niche and skills. Our prime asset is using our brain and intelligence. That is OUR evolution and we rule (a part of) the world because of it, at this very moment.

Now, thinking you are so special because of that and claiming yourself to be the creation of a higher being is just plain arrogant towards mother earth...

* Blindfold yourself and a dog and let someone take both of you a sniff from a piece of meat. Guess who will find it first when that person throws it randomly away?

* Put yourself and a cat in a dark, dense forest. Guess who will have the least trouble of walking around in it?

* Take the mates for a swim in the ocean between some whales. Guess what creature will have the best communication skills?

* Dare a cheetah for a 300 meters sprint. Guess who'll win?

* Expose yourself to severe toxic radiation companioned by a cockroach. Guess who'll die?

etc. etc. ...

In other words: Leave your life long cocooned urban life and bible behind and go live with the real wildlife as long as you can. Let's see how 'special' you'll feel then.

reply to post by MrXYZ


I agree. There are so many more things to focus on than the enmity between humans and their personal beliefs. I cannot imagine trying to tell someone what they should feel in their own soul. I have never lived inside of you, how could I presume to say what you should believe? YHWH's word has been so distorted and abused, used by unscrupulous persons to cause harm and gain power, I just cannot see how it could ever be spoken by men and have any true power in this day and age. As for me, I can only read what He shows me and let him interpret for me.

I wish that those members on ATS who claim to be "Christians" would not be so rabid and confrontational. I've seen a few who understand the truth, but the majority think it is necessary to beat everyone about the head and neck with bible quotes and hope that the bruises turn into faith! YHWH does not need them to cause more dissension here, He needs them to shut up and listen to Him. He can tend to His own business just fine!

[edit on 3/14/10 by jennybee35]

Originally posted by Staafke
reply to post by Hoppinmad1

 

Every species on earth has it's own niche and skills. Our prime asset is using our brain and intelligence. That is OUR evolution and we rule (a part of) the world because of it, at this very moment.

I just want to add our intelligence may not be just about a skill to survive,Like the others Staafke mentions in his post.

A good example of this is music and dance both have little to do with survival skills of our ancestors. Think about it even having a complete speakable language is not even that helpful to someone gathering berries or hunting. What music, dance and language does help out with is .. errr . for lack of a better phrase .. They help get you laid.

Okay, I could have just said "Sexual selection", but where is the fun in that

Sexual Selection
en.wikipedia.org...

Runaway Brain
en.wikipedia.org...

Another hypothesis is the social brain .
Basic idea here is as social groups got bigger, remembering and communicating would become much more useful (needed for survival). Obviously this is a over simplification but I thought it was important to point it out.

Dunbar's number
en.wikipedia.org...

The Social Brain Hypothesis
psych.colorado.edu...

[edit on 14-3-2010 by nophun]

Wow....

All of these pages of posts and

NO ONE has critically thought this out.....I have no clue why there is LOL when the mention of Anunnaki or whatever name you'd like to give them but

YES we were genetically engineered by the use of primate DNA and Exterrrestrial DNA ( you all call it a 'higher being')

That explains why primates are still around....because only a selected group of primates were chosen for the 'Genesis Experiment'

What do you all think was meant in Gen 1:26 (God said "Let us make mankind in our image")

That is an exterrestrial speaking to the others proposing the idea of DNA splicing

[edit on 3-4-2010 by ButterCookie]

Originally posted by ButterCookie
Wow....

All of these pages of posts and

NO ONE has critically thought this out.....I have no clue why there is LOL when the mention of Anunnaki or whatever name you'd like to give them but

because the claims are absurd and have zero evidence.

YES we were genetically engineered by the use of primate DNA and Exterrrestrial DNA ( you all call it a 'higher being')

so why is it that all of our dna matches pretty much up with chimp dna? why do ERVs match up? what proof do you have other than poorly translated sumarian creation myths and cherry picked images?

That explains why primates are still around....because only a selected group of primates were chosen for the 'Genesis Experiment'

no it doesn't, we mapped the genome and it fits right in where we would expect it to on the cladistic tree

What do you all think was meant in Gen 1:26 (God said "Let us make mankind in our image")

That is an exterrestrial speaking to the others proposing the idea of DNA splicing

[edit on 3-4-2010 by ButterCookie]

it was a pagan reference to elohim a plural name for YHWH.
i'd love to hear how an alien with no DNA in common with earth life could splice with any form of life on earth.
magic?

Originally posted by Hoppinmad1

Evolution cannont exist.

I know someone who thinks the same.
And every year he takes a flu shot.
Now why would he do that, if evolution does not exist?

I do not agree with a post I read here earlier. African people never had anything until it was brought to them.They lived like they did for thousands of years inventing nothing. So I do not believe it was the sun that caused their black skin. White skinned people in almost everything invented most every thing and gave it to the african's. There is quite a difference in white skinned people and black people. I am not a racist either. It is just a fact.

The funny thing about the entire debate is that micro evolution is a FACT and proveable, but from that they make the humongous leap of FAITH and assume that macro evolution is true...

The FACT is macro evolution has NEVER been observed EVER and NEVER will be lol.

Every species that still exists does so because they can compete and have a niche to fill in their environment- if as you say only the most advanced species should remain then there would be only humans, no apes, no monkeys no lemurs no deers no aadvarks no cockroaches etc. There are no other near Homo Sapiens species left like Neanderthal, Robustus, Habilis etc. because they were direct competitors, some disappeared fairly recently like 30-40,000 years ago. Actually most human evolution has gone into brain expansion and upright walking (still a weak point!) not that advanced. But no reason why other species shouldn't exist.

Originally posted by MinisterFortson
The funny thing about the entire debate is that micro evolution is a FACT and proveable, but from that they make the humongous leap of FAITH and assume that macro evolution is true...

The FACT is macro evolution has NEVER been observed EVER and NEVER will be lol.

Macroevolution (speciation) has been observed countless times:

ecolocalizer.com...

www.talkorigins.org...

www.dbskeptic.com...

www.talkorigins.org...

www.talkorigins.org...

www.talkorigins.org...

..enough?

Originally posted by Hoppinmad1

If evolution is true wouldn't nature seek out to make these creatures more like us since we are the most highly evolved species on earth. These species such as apes have been in existence longer than humans for the most part. Why is there only one advanced species on earth out of the billions there are?

There seems to be a lot of confusion of "Origin" on ATS these days.
What the average user doesn't understand is it's all a stage act. To quote from Shakespear: "Life is but a stage, ... all of us merely actors", to get the jist of it.

The question and conclusive answer in itself determines one's genre of act/dress/buddies/culture.

Your apesters like to use spirit ether to paste fur on themselve and race around on camera acting a primordial fool. Godlike seem to jib at the three piece, because then you are of the 'body', and can get away with murder; after all, just confess and you're 'clear'.

SyFy'ers like flashy: Bang, flash, no batteries needed. Ultima in that, where them computers will most certain generate yet another 'eye grabber' that will dictate the Superior Nature of 'other than self'.

Abstincia is another realm, whereas nonexistence is a certainty, because as one dictates the belief system, 20% or more of the audience hits the snooze button.

Myself, well I fall in the Progressionist niche. Where, there's no certainty, nothing is guaranteed, the warranty is void, your lecture is moving faster out the other ear, and last but not least, 'knock yourself out' with your "Larger than Life" talk...


[edit on 4/15/2010 by passingthought]

***Darn keys slipping'''"***


[edit on 4/15/2010 by passingthought]

We evolved from a branch which had the primates in them. That's to say, we and the apes/monkeys evolved from a common ancestor. We aren't evolved from monkeys or apes. Please try to understand the basics of the theory, before attempting to debunk it.

I've read all of these supporting statements, and so far every evolutionist has beat around the bush. Every defensive line involves some ridiculous analogy that makes no sense whatsoever and does not defend evolution. We could sit around all day and fabricate all these elaborate phrases and still you wouldn't prove a dang to me. Just because 90% of dna is similar between apes and humans does not mean that we came from apes. Just because you say we came from Europeans and they did not disappear does not prove to me how a being almost as perfect as us has lived on this planet for just as long as these other creatures and yet somehow we completely surpass their abilities. Every evolutionist keeps bringing up this transgenic species that has yet to be discovered as their most solid argument.... this is ridiculous. Take a look at the night sky for a while and tell me this all was an accident. Try to delve deep, in your self aware existence and really ask yourself how we could have 'evolved' at such an accelerated rate compared to a species that is "90% similar" to us. Even the ancient man was able to pick up a stick and depict drawings of everything he perceived. Our abilities are much greater than any mere animal, and I refuse to believe that we magically grew faster than other species who have been alive for far longer.

reply to post by Caji316

I do not agree with a post I read here earlier. African people never had anything until it was brought to them.They lived like they did for thousands of years inventing nothing. So I do not believe it was the sun that caused their black skin. White skinned people in almost everything invented most every thing and gave it to the african's. There is quite a difference in white skinned people and black people. I am not a racist either. It is just a fact.

It is within the realm of possiblity that this comment is not racist.

But there is no possibility that it is not mindbogglingly ignorant.

Africans had rich empires and knowledge far beyond the Europeans you are embracing. Most of the scientific knowledge that fueled the European ascent out of the "Dark Ages" was specifically expropriated from the African. Europeans destroyed these empires, hid their existence, and propogated the lie you are espousing in order to fortify their own delusions of superiority and justify the slave trade. This travesty continues to this day with hateful interpretations of scripture, much of which originated in the cultures of Africa and the Near East.

How can you, in this day and age, contend that skin color has anything to do with anything. Of course the sun did not 'cause' black skin, but lack of sun gave lighter skinned people an advantage when the Africans got to Europe (lighter skin allowed more vitamin D to be generated). A very simple evolutionary response. Lighter skinned people have an advantage in the weak sun of Europe, so their descendants came to dominate.

Humans and chimps had a common ancestor. There was a split where humans and chimplike creatures spawned spawned. Human males interbred with the chimp females. The male children were sterile and the females could bear young. There was another split and apparently the two species were far enough apart on an evoloutionary scale that no further intermingling occurred. Which is why we have chimps and humans today.

And I'm not the slightest bit racist, but some of what I've read here is inaccurate. White men have an average brain size of about 1441cc estimated by autopsy and endocranial capacity measurements, about 135cc (10%) larger than the 1306cc average of African Black men, i.e. of pure Negroes in their autonomous environments. The average brain size of American Blacks is larger than that of African Blacks, due to the approximately 25% White ancestry of the African American population and to the superior nutrition provided by White largess. American Blacks have an average brain size estimated by autopsy and endocranial capacity measurements of about 1365cc, about 76cc (5.5%) lower than that of American (and European) Whites. (The data is less complete for women, but shows a similar disparity.)


www.charlesdarwinresearch.org...

Originally posted by Myollinir
I've read all of these supporting statements, and so far every evolutionist has beat around the bush. Every defensive line involves some ridiculous analogy that makes no sense whatsoever and does not defend evolution. We could sit around all day and fabricate all these elaborate phrases and still you wouldn't prove a dang to me. Just because 90% of dna is similar between apes and humans does not mean that we came from apes.

But the analogies still work fine, when people don't seem to grasp even the simplest statements about evolution. Even you don't seem to get it - We did *not* evolve from apes, and no one ever said so!

Every evolutionist keeps bringing up this transgenic species that has yet to be discovered as their most solid argument.... this is ridiculous.

What 'missing' transgenic species are you refering to? If you mean "the missing link", then it is more or less established - By fossile evidence - that it is a fact.

Take a look at the night sky for a while and tell me this all was an accident. Try to delve deep, in your self aware existence and really ask yourself how we could have 'evolved' at such an accelerated rate compared to a species that is "90% similar" to us.

Again, you don't grasp the basics of evolution. All species are evolving at all times. Some evolve slower, since they fullfil a niche, but that still doesn't rule out speciation. Bacteria evolve faster than we do, and there's like 8.000.000.000 species of those, so your argument doesn't make sense.

Even the ancient man was able to pick up a stick and depict drawings of everything he perceived. Our abilities are much greater than any mere animal, and I refuse to believe that we magically grew faster than other species who have been alive for far longer.

So, because we can paint, we are a magical creation?