Why do you say that we have evolved from monkeys?

Question

i don't know but to me it sounds kinds silly, cuz monkeys are dumb, and ugly, and it's just like insulting ourselves to be like "my ancestor is a monkey!"

yo momma is a monkey, so tell me why you think we've evolved from monkeys.

Answer 1

When you say that "we" say we have evolved from monkeys, who is this "we" you refer to?

The only people who think that evolution says humans came from monkeys are creationists and they're flat wrong.

If you'd like to brush up on what the theory of evolution really says, check out these sites:

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/

http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list....

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life...

http://www.gate.net/~rwms/EvoEvidence.ht...

Answer 2

Technically, you and your mother were apes. Humans belong to the family Hominidae or "great apes", as they're sometimes called. The other members of this family are chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.  

Answer 3

Why does it sound silly that humans came from apes when intelligent design people think it's not silly that we came from two people inbreeding over several generations to make the 6+ billion people on this planet...if that were the case then why are their 6 distinct races...wouldn't we all be the same if we came from the same two people?

Think about it if Adam and Eve were the true starters of the human race, then several people had to have relations with their sister/brother/mother/father/cousin(s). to get to where we are today. Which doesn't really work out as seen in the closed Amish communities. Genetic problems and diseases start arising after several inbred generations.

Yeah yeah, I know...divine intervention, Tower of Bable bla bla bla.

Why even bring up these questions - you are going to believe what you want to believe.

Answer 4

Saying we evolved from monkeys is a gross oversimplification of how the process of natural selection and genetic mutation works.

However, if you put aside your bias and look objectively, you would realize that primates and humans have many characteristics in common just from a sociological and anthropologic level.

Beyond that, the genetic code contained in the DNA of primates and humans is over 97% exactly the same - so with over 30 thousand nucleotide base pairs in sequence, we share about 29,100 identically with primates.

It certainly is a lot more believable than the idea that we all were born from a single man/woman pair about 6000 years ago in some mystical garden of eden.

Answer 5

We did not evolve from monkeys: we share a common ancestor with monkeys. You and you cousin share a common ancestor, this does not mean that your cousin is your immediate biological predecessor.

While you may not like the close association the fact remains that at the genetic level we are ~98% the same as chimpanzees, our closest living relative who we diverged from chimps about 9 million years ago. These genetic similarities include gene synteny, gene structure, protein sequence, etc.

If it makes you feel better chimpanzees are not monkeys either. Our closest "monkey" relatives are the Old World Monkeys who we diverged from about 20 million years ago.

Answer 6

Saying we evolved from monkeys is a gross oversimplification of how the process of natural selection and genetic mutation works.  It is a scientific fact that species are becoming extinct at a rate of ten times faster than they are coming into existence.

However, if you put aside your bias and look objectively, you would realize that primates and humans have many characteristics in common from a sociological and anthropological  level.  We "mate for life" just like the goose does.  You might be related there.

Beyond that, the genetic code contained in the DNA of primates and humans is over 97% exactly the same - so with over 30 thousand nucleotide base pairs in sequence, we share about 29,100 identically with primates this is only 110 less than we share with the common Fly.  Maybe you are related to a fly.

That you come from a fly, a goose, or a monkey certainly is a lot more believable than the idea that we all were born from a single man/woman pair made in a mystical garden of eden produced and controlled by a loving father, and you only came about because after an undetermined amount of time in paradise Somebody lied and caused your great great... Grandparents to be punished.  Come on, that is only plausible if you believe in god, love, and the sanctity of marriage.

If you believe god then the biblical account is the only one you would be able to believe.  If you believe his creations, there is no god, no loving father that hurts when you hurt, and no way you are anything but an animal that thinks.

Answer 7

The genes that are passed on to an organism's offspring produce the inherited traits that are the basis of evolution. Mutations in genes can produce new or altered traits in individuals, resulting in the appearance of heritable differences between organisms, but new traits also come from the transfer of genes between populations, as in migration, or between species, in horizontal gene transfer. In species that reproduce sexually, new combinations of genes are produced by genetic recombination, which can increase the variation in traits between organisms. Evolution occurs when these heritable differences become more common or rare in a population.

But I don't believe in the Theory of Evolution. I believe that we're created by God.

EDIT:

Additional Info:

There are two major mechanisms that drive evolution. The first is natural selection, a process causing heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common in a population, and harmful traits to become more rare. This occurs because individuals with advantageous traits are more likely to reproduce, so that more individuals in the next generation inherit these traits.