Trailblazer
Veteran Member
That is only your personal opinion since you cannot prove it as a fact.
We all have personal opinions.
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poll: are you an ape?
- Thread starter Eddi
- Start date
We all have personal opinions.
No… they are much hairier.
If you'd have said 'primate', yeah.
But when I think of apes I think of a specific kind of primate, which we can't successfully breed with.
We're humans, unable to reproduce with any other species of our kind except humans.
It's more a question of semantics, as I'm not denying our primate nature, but 'ape' brings to mind for most people something like black apes with which we cannot breed. That might be why some folks are saying 'no'.
But when I think of apes I think of a specific kind of primate, which we can't successfully breed with.
We're humans, unable to reproduce with any other species of our kind except humans.
It's more a question of semantics, as I'm not denying our primate nature, but 'ape' brings to mind for most people something like black apes with which we cannot breed. That might be why some folks are saying 'no'.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Are you a giraffe today? You can't be human.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Other apes can go bald too. It is nothing to be ashamed about.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
My parents were human, so I am a human. My grandparents and my great grand parents and great great grandparents were also human.
If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
That’s a bit like asking if dogs descend from wolves, why are there still wolves, or if land vertebrates evolved from fish why are there still fish? Evolution doesn’t require elimination of preceding stages. In addition, the ancestral animals also keep evolving so that the current wolves or fish are not the same as those that existed before.
The primates we see today are not the ones that we descended from. Our closest relatives are the great apes (large primates without tails, as opposed to monkeys, which do have tails), but extant apes are more like cousins than ancestors: we are part of the same extended family and share an ancestor.
Anyone who believes that the human race is the end product and goal of evolution, would indeed think that once we appeared on the planet all other animals could just dropout of the race. But no biologist sees us as an end product or goal. Evolution is non-directional. It is a process that never ends, and our species is only one of the many that it has produced. It is also one of the many that may go extinct if we are not careful.
If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Humans are not apes, humans are humans, and yes, there are noticeable differences to anyone who is not so biased that they have their eyes closed.
To make it a religious matter of faith to actually doubt or deny such obvious facts is... well, it is just weird.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I was only pulling your leg about the credentials.
Yes, of course he only said he did. There were some witnesses to this message-receiving, but how could they know where the messages were coming from?
Nope. That is not the matter here. At all.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
It is perfectly rational, since it is impossible to have tangible evidence of spiritual things.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Some other animals are able to reason in a fashion, but only humans discover the realities of things and become cognizant of their peculiarities and effects, and of the qualities and properties of beings.
When is the last time you saw any other animals enrolled in a university?
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Does that mean you can prove what you said is true?
If you can't do that it is not a fact, it is only a personal opinion.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
What does it mean to be human?
How does evolution explain complex organisms like humans?
Evolution doesn’t happen all at once, especially in complex organisms such as human beings. Modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes that go back more than 3.5 billion years, to the beginnings of life on Earth. We became human gradually, evolving new physical traits and behaviors on top of those inherited from earlier primates, mammals, vertebrates, and the very oldest living organisms.
How are humans and monkeys related?
Humans and monkeys are both primates. But humans are not descended from monkeys or any other primate living today. We do share a common ape ancestor with chimpanzees. It lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. But humans and chimpanzees evolved differently from that same ancestor. All apes and monkeys share a more distant relative, which lived about 25 million years ago.
Did humans evolve in a straight line, one species after another?
Human evolution, like evolution in other species, did not proceed in a straight line. Instead, a diversity of species diverged from common ancestors, like branches on a bush. Our species, Homo sapiens, is the only survivor. But there were many times in the past when several early human species lived at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does evolution explain complex organisms like humans?
Evolution doesn’t happen all at once, especially in complex organisms such as human beings. Modern humans are the product of evolutionary processes that go back more than 3.5 billion years, to the beginnings of life on Earth. We became human gradually, evolving new physical traits and behaviors on top of those inherited from earlier primates, mammals, vertebrates, and the very oldest living organisms.
How are humans and monkeys related?
Humans and monkeys are both primates. But humans are not descended from monkeys or any other primate living today. We do share a common ape ancestor with chimpanzees. It lived between 8 and 6 million years ago. But humans and chimpanzees evolved differently from that same ancestor. All apes and monkeys share a more distant relative, which lived about 25 million years ago.
Did humans evolve in a straight line, one species after another?
Human evolution, like evolution in other species, did not proceed in a straight line. Instead, a diversity of species diverged from common ancestors, like branches on a bush. Our species, Homo sapiens, is the only survivor. But there were many times in the past when several early human species lived at the same time.
Frequently Asked Questions
It's been a while since I've posted this scene from the movie Gettysburg which depicts some Confederate officers discussing the new Theory of Evolution. What struck me about this scene was General Pickett's great indignation and offense over the very idea of humans "descended from the ape." He may have seen it as someone casting aspersions on his family or his ancestry.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Seriously?
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Okay. your source screwed up a bit here. We are not descended from modern monkeys. But by cladistics were are descended from monkeys. If both New World Monkeys and Old World Monkeys are monkeys then so are we.
Chimps, orangutans, and gorillas can't interbreed either, but they're still apes, and each a "specific kind of primate."
It's a question of taxonomy and ancestry, not connotations or emotional associations.
No argument, but the rational thing, in the absence of evidence, would be to defer belief, would it not?
Rational implies accord with the evidence. Belief without evidence is pretty much the definition of irrational.