I'm not too sure where to post this ridiculous question I've been thinking about. Biology is my best guess. There is a theory that humans evolved from apes. (I myself am a Catholic, and don't belive this theory, but that's besides the point) If this is so, why are there still apes? I know it sounds so stupid and there's probably an easy logical explanation, but I never claimed to be a genius Just something I wonder from time to time.

ebaines

[quote=mountain_man]What evidence besides I assume archaelogical supports the theory of evolution in the past several hundred thousand years? /QUOTE]

Here is some good information on the evolution of the Genus Homo:

Human evolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Why do you want to exclude archaelogical evidence?

firmbeliever

An interesting read..
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http://www.islamtomorrow.com/science/
Is There Creation? Or Evolution? Or Both?

Quran Teaches - BOTH!

It says, "Allah is - Al Khaliq" (The Creator)
It also says, "Allah is - Al Bari" (The Evolver)

For the Muslim there is no need for separation between religion and science. It is understood from the Quran, revealed over 1,400 years ago, that there is both; "Creation" and "Evolution." And in both instances, it is only Allah who is "Able to do all things." In fact, it was the Muslim scientists, more than 1,000 years ago, who set the stage for the adancement of learning, technology and disciplines in science that we know today.

Allah has explained how He created everythng in the universe and brought all life out of water. He created humans from earth (not monkeys) and there is no need to attempt fabrications of "links" to the animal world in Islam.

Origin of man in Islam: Creation or Evolution

ISLAM EVOLUTION CREATION

The Christian Bible says that Adam & Eve were both created here on Earth, less than 10,000 years ago. The Quran says that Adam & Eve were created in Heaven, and NOT on Earth. When they disobeyed God, He expelled them from Heaven, down to Earth. The Quran does not say when this happened. Also the Quran does not say whether Adam & Eve were physically transported from Heaven to Earth, or just their souls were put into the already living homo sapiens.

Muslims believe that souls are assigned to humans 40 days after the human inception. The Quran says that angels retrieve human souls on two occasions. One occasion is when humans die. The other occasion is every time humans fall asleep. When humans wakeup, the angels release those souls back to them:

(Quran 39.42) It is Allah that takes the souls (of men) at death; and those that did not die, during their sleep: those on whom He has passed the decree of death, He keeps back, but the rest He sends (to their bodies) for a term appointed. Verily in this are Signs for those who reflect.

So, according to the Quran, humans can be alive, breathing, with fully functional bodies (hence perfect DNA), but still without souls.

Homo sapiens had the same bodies and DNA as humans, but what about their souls? Were the souls of the first humans (Adam & Eve) put into those evolved homo sapiens? To answer this question, we need more information about souls and spirits. But Allah clearly bans all information about souls and spirits:

(Quran 17.85) And they ask you about the Spirit, say: "The Spirit concerns only my Lord: The knowledge of which only a little is communicated to you"

So all the information that will answer whether or not the souls of the first humans were put into homo sapiens, is banned. Muslims don’t venture into this topic simply because God ordered them not to.

However, this is not the case concerning animals. The Quran agrees with science that all life started in water, and not on dry land:

(Quran 24.45) And Allah has created every animal from water; of them there are some that creep on their bellies; some that walk on two legs; and some that walk on four. Allah creates what He wills: for verily Allah has power over all things.

So the Quran agrees with science on the evolution of animals. But for humans, the Quran stops short of answering whether it was transportation from heaven or just homo sapiens with human souls.

DNA research point to the later scenario; but why couldn’t God use for Adam & Eve the same DNA as homo sapiens? Isn’t this DNA of His own creation in the first place? And how difficult is it to copy?
------------------------------------------------

Blastoff

Well, I'm not a biologist, but as I understand it, humans are not believed to have evolved from what we know as the modern ape. Instead, humans and modern apes are thought to have shared a common ancestor. Scientists estimate that, between 5 and 8 million years ago, the earlier species split into two at least two lineages, one of which were the human or human-ike species. The other evolved into the African great ape species we know today.

Fr_Chuck

Well after looking around at the mess man has made of this world are we sure tht apes did not evolve from man?

Capuchin

Hehe. "Evolved from" does not mean "Better for our planet"

asking

I'm coming in late on this thread, but I wanted to comment. I thought the original question was a good one, not "silly" at all. A lot of evolution is about one species branching into several. So even though we are descended from something that might resemble an ape, that exact kind of ape might have evolved into 6 different ape like animals over several million years. They are all related, like cousins in a big family.

As for whether human beings are still evolving, they definitely are. Evolution just means change with a genetic basis. It doesn't mean getting better, and it doesn't matter whether the change is caused by competition or by lack of competition or anything else. The existence of medical advances etc. doesn't prevent us from changing over time. Also, the fact that we are taller than in Lincoln's time is more likely a result of better nutrition than genetic change. Not all change is genetic. We are MUCH fatter than we were in the 1950s, but that's not because we evolved in 50 years. It's because we eat, on average, an extra 800 calories a day more than we did in the 1950s. Hope this helps. (And I AM a biologist! )
Cheers,
JustAsking

sovaira

its more biological than religious
we shudnt bring them both together
otherwise we wont end the debate going on.



evolution is taking place all thetime
thats another thing that its span is very hard to find out............takes more than ten million years for just a micro change ..........

gallivant_fellow

My friend told me he read that chimpanzees and humans were able to mate as little as one million years ago. Just an interesting piece of knowledge. I'm not completely sure if it is true but I imagine that it would have been possible around that long ago, whether it would create fertile offspring or not.

Here is something you may find interesting: Can you find the similarities between a great ape's teeth and a vampire's? The vampire was invented to strike fear into people. It's teeth are considered scary and dangerous. An apes way of threatening something is by bearing it's teeth, which look exactly like a vampire's. Is it possible that we have a left over survival instinct? I saw it on a show once, I thought it was cool. Also, why did God give us these silly tail bones and hands suited for climbing trees?

inthebox

Our so called " tail bone" or coccyx is the anchoring point of many of our pelvic and pubic muscles, so that when we stand or cough our innards don't herniate out. So it has a functional purpose and is not a vestigial "tail."

Same can be said for our hands. They are suited not only for climbing trees, but for typing, grip, using tools, etc...perhaps God knew how much we would depend on our hands.

Just curious -- what is the common ancestor that humans have in common with apes and other primates? Where is this ancestor in the fossil record?

If modern man, especially Americans are taller, heavier [ some would say fatter ] etc.. this is evidence of micro-evolution, not macro evolution.

What has always been humans evolutionary advantage has been our ability to reason, use tools, alter our environment, so in that respect we are "evolving." { iuse that term very loosely ]





Grace and Peace

Capuchin

The Americans arent evolving to take into account changes in the abundance of food in their environment, they still have the primative "eat as much high fat food as you can" mentality. But really it's not evidence against it, as the fat americans are having less children and dying earlier, leaving the more fit ones to survive. But it hasnt been long enough to see if there are any effects here. Our medicine interupts evolution, making humans a tricky thing to study the evolution of.

I personally see no difference between micro and macro evolution. Micro leads to macro, and by believing that one happens, we must conclude that the other does too.

There are plenty of things that we have that are vestigial, muscles to move our ears? (some people can move their ears, others can't, because it's a useless trait and we are no longer selected for it). Same with our sense of smell. These things we used in prehistory, but now have no use for because predators are such a small threat so they are diminishing. Surely god would not let these things diminish, in case we needed them in future? Right?