We evolved from Apes... period.
4% (2 votes)
We did not evolve from Apes, but we do share a common ancestor.
30% (14 votes)
We might have evolved from apes, but not without some sort of external influence to help the process along.
17% (8 votes)
God/desses created humanity.
32% (15 votes)
I don't know... I'd like to belive (which?)
6% (3 votes)
Does it matter? We're here now!
11% (5 votes)
Total votes: 47
I know, I know... There are countless blog entries depicting a few opinions regarding the theory of evolution vs. the theory of inteligent design. There are even some people who believe we were brought or spawned by aliens...
At any rate, some new research suggests that what many believe to be the ancestor to both Apes and humans might not be as ape-like as we thought.
Much of this same article, with a few more specifics, is also published here.
Another interesting collection is here, Intelligent Design on Trial, which holds defenses for both theories.
So, whether it's based on faith, religion, old studies, new research... what's your opinion and why?
Hm... perhaps the gods created Apes, and we evolved from Apes - but Aliens influenced or somehow helped the evolution process?
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"when you have nothing else to say, "Fwonk" is always the perfect thing."
"yeah well, fwonk"
--Devon
Fanaile Essence
The idea of originally being adept to tree climbing actually seems far-fetched to me. Evolution typically works from the bottom up, not the top down. It makes significantly more sense for tree-climbing apes to have evolved from ground-dwelling ones than the other way around.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
“You cannot wean away an addict from the drug. It is not possible for me to walk away from Ranjha. If it is our destiny to be together then who, other than God, can change it?”
she's a spaceman, no walker, dreamer...maybe
I have read and gone through so much stuff regarding this question, I have come to realize some amongst actually do know the answers which are related to this question, while these are purposely been withhold from us in order not to lose grip or better say control upon all of mankind.
Simply because it would set each and any of us free!
We are so much more than that which we are all programmed to believe, programmed by those few who enslave us!
The fact most amongst cannot even comprehend the idea of being eternal beings, is a sad example of how we allow ourselves to be molded into systems of limitation and division, systems which program us how and what to believe, while we of course unwarily almost automatically inflict the same limitations upon our own offspring.
The conflicts which rise out of this programming is our daily struggle to overcome dilemma’s and human drama, because we don’t understand the true nature and origins of our suffering, while fear dead like if it could represent EXIT hell, while ENTRY heaven or paradise to others!
It won’t even take another 50 years in order for all to look back upon history, while hardly believe people could feed upon whatever nonsense they were made into believe in!
Once again, all the answers are to be found within one’s own head, one might maybe not be willing to go as far in a single lifetime, while in the next he easily can go further while beyond when accessing knowledge from within to link up with that blue print of what we refer to as life.
Only to realize, there is no limitation, only the illusion of it, while we are all infinite beings, I guess this will become more clear in 50 years or so, lol.
Those who seek might consider to throw a neutral while beautiful peak upon what is explained above.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/cosmos/
This is way cool, like one to watch!
Great question, lol
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all/
I picked the second one but I really wanted to pick the last one as well because, really, who gives a damn!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
people with tails
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/all/
I picked "we probably evolved, but also probably with divine intervention." Sounds like a good compromise to me. Not that we can definitely know either for sure. And technically, the second and fourth options could be interpreted as saying the same as the third, just less specifically.
"Believe" is spelled wrong in the fifth option. Sorry, I'm a spelling and grammar extremist.
In my conception (which I do not hold to be true, simply a personal hypothesis) I believe that we have actually de-evolved, not evolved.
In my assimilation of mythologies and facts that I have encountered, I believe that humans at one time were in direct communication with our Source, and had knowledge that superseded physical or intellectual evidence available at the time. The Egyptians are one example, along with all civilizations that created architecture pointing to influences from the sky, including Atlantis, the Mayans and Aztecs, as well as early inhabitants of Cambodia, and the creators of Stonehenge.
I have searched and searched for a documentary by NOVA that my art history professor showed me years ago, which depicted all pyramidical structures as having inner windows that when the stars were aligned in a specific way, created an identical pattern of light rays within the structures. Included were the sphinxes in Egypt.
All in all, I think that the last option of the poll is best, because it encompasses what is really important, that we start to learn from the position we find ourselves in. to be consistent with my own hypothesis, the goal for humanity now is to find the way back to Eden, where we are equal, and we are all naked. No weapons, no war. No class or race differentiation, just humans coexisting and loving in a beautiful garden.
I think we are on the verge of coming full-circle. We have seen the pain of the choices that were made in the past by people such as Cain against his brother, and King David against Bathsheeba's husband. Slavery is first noted in the Bible in Egypt, which very well might mark where the prevalent civilization lost its potency in history.
I have not found that documentary again, which makes me sad, but what occurred to me when I saw it was there must have been a time when various cultures across the globe, unaware of the existence of others, saw the very same thing in the heavens, and were all inspired to build buildings in the basic structure of pyramids.
If I really use my imagination, Babel comes to mind, and I wonder if the shift of the continents of Pangea was part of that. Biblically speaking, God walked with humans for a time. What if we were born with Divine knowledge that gradually left us as humans delved deeper and deeper into inhuman behaviors? It is quite poignant that according to the Bible the rifts between civilizations is marked with a fracture of common language.
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I like the idea of humanity going full circle and getting back in touch with the Divine, learning to treat everyone equally and put petty differences aside. Hopefully that day will arrive sooner rather than later.
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"The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr."
- Lupe Fiasco -
Considering that all assertions of the existence of "divine" beings and forces are based on circular arguments (more formally referred to as the logical fallacy of begging the question), I am sure that many religious people (and I am making no judgements of you personally in this) like the idea of circling back around to the primitive ignorance of natural world which at some point led their sectarian forefathers to conclude that human being just "popped" magically out of the mud.
TTFN,
Blackout
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A question of love.
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Your smackdowns are funny as hell! Even when I have been on the receiving end of them they usually make me laugh.
but since you did it first, I will just concur. :) I do love circles, and spheres and ellipses.
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I'd always wondered what could possibly have forced us evolutionarily to get out of trees (which are a fairly good way to avoid predators) and into caves.
--Mike
There was an under-exploited environmental niche that presented opportunity for certain of our ancestors who had traits that allowed them to successfully exploit these opportunities and pass their genes forwards in a way that reinforced these characteristics.
Why did people get on very dangerous ships to the New World and a very reasonable probability of death? Why did people set-off across the plains in Conestoga wagons? They were motivated by opportunity but in many ways they were genetically programmed with the same urges that caused our ancestors to leave the trees and trek out across the savannah. I hope this same urge someday takes us to space.
I feel that a bumpersticker I've seen often sums up the argument for evolution quite well:
"We have the fossils, we win".
And that's how I feel about it. No matter what you believe may or may not be true about how you got on this planet, the science to back up evolution, the proof that is there, is irrefutable. The specifics may change from time to time as we progress and gather more evidence, but the fact remains that evolution itself is a truth that shows itself many, many times all over the world.
"Intelligent Design" is NOT a science, it's a religious belief trying to masquerade itself to attempt to get people to take it seriously. If you can't prove or disprove something, it's not science but a belief. Period.
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"The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr."
- Lupe Fiasco -
I picked, "We did not evolve from Apes, but we do share a common ancestor."
Ditto, But I was not wild about the choices. I don't think we evolved directly from any of the ape species alive on earth today. I think we evolved from a common ancestor which is why I picked that answer. But that common ancestor was also an Ape of some sort.
The available responses were actually changed. The poll initially had even fewer (and I'd argue less appealing) choices.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that we did not evolve from modern apes, but we shared a common ancestor. Seeing as we are classified as great apes along with chimps etc., wouldn't what we evolved from have been an ape?
"Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos."
Homer Simpson
Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that we did not evolve from modern apes, but we shared a common ancestor. Seeing as we are classified as great apes along with chimps etc., wouldn't what we evolved from have been an ape?
Yes, it would.
Cheers
DB
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If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. - Anatole France
Are the candidates for the "common acestor" (the most recently discovered, I believe is pierolapithecus catalaunicus) categorized taxonomically as an "ape" in the common sense of the word (as in, "great ape")?
Just curious, and glad we have an evolutionary biologist around to answer the question,
Blackout
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A question of love.
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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
(1) Are the candidates for common ancestors apes?
Well certainly not all of them. If we take an argumentum ad absurdum approach we share a common ancestor with present-day apes that was bacteria-like. Obviously that wouldn't be an ape.
(2) What about Pierolapithecus ... was it an ape?
Probably. It certainly shows the features we use to classify apes:
(a) Flat face
(b) The Y-5 molar pattern
(c) mobile shoulder joint
(d) dorsal scapula
(e) ape-like ribcage
(f) less flexible spine
(g) short to no tail
(3) Is Pierolapithecus a good candidate for the most recent common ancestor of humans and present-day apes?
It's OK. But there is no way to know whether or not it is an ancestral species or a dead-end offshoot from the branch that leads to present-day apes. That is a problem with fossils. We cannot possibly know with certainty who is an ancestor of whom. The dominant paradigm in evolutionary biology when it comes to classification is cladistics.
Cladistics doesn't attempt to tell us who is an ancestor of whom. Instead it tries to put relationships in order. For example, here is a cladogram showing the relationship of present-day apes:
This is a branching pattern but none of the nodes are labeled. Since it is impossible to know with 100% surety what was at that node cladistics doesn't even try. The branching pattern shows the nearness of common ancestors. In this particular example chimps and bonobos share the most recent common ancestor. Entering the tree in order are humans, gorillas, orangs, and finally gibbons.
A node in the branching pattern and all of the branches that come from it form a CLADE. Notice in the above cladogram there is no way to get all of the present-day apes into a single clade that EXCLUDES humans. Thus, according to this cladogram, not only are humans derived from apes, humans ARE apes.
Here are pictures of Pierolapithecus fossils:
The first shows a detailed view of the skull. The second shows all the bones of a single individual that were found. It is pretty obviously an ape.
Here is the proposed cladogram for Pierolapithecus
Pierolapithecus and the present-day great apes share the most recent common ancestor and everything in that cladogram that is below that branch-point is not what would be classified as an ape. Thus, Pierolapithecus could be a common ancestor. But perhaps there are other species, as yet undiscovered that would suggest Pierolapithecus is simply a side-branch. Since we can NEVER rule out the possibility that there is an as yet undiscovered species that could fill that role, we cannot possibly know with 100% confidence that it is the common ancestor.
Cheers,
DB
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If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. - Anatole France
---
A question of love.
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Check out Progressive PRIDE, a Gay-Straight Alliance for the Progressive U community.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WBBvyBfm8
Thanks for sharing ;)
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