Evolution Quesiton?

[BucsGuru]

If humans evolved from apes, or vice versa, why have we or they stopped evolving?  Why haven't apes started making wheels and discovering fire?

[alldaway]

Evolution seems to have stopped from our perspective but reality is we only live for a short time period on this world.   So the changes are taking place but at such a slow gradual pace our simple mortal minds can not comprehend such a huge stretch of time. 

Apes already have the ability to communicate using sign language taught by humans.  So there is potential for them to learn to use tools (some animals already do use tools) assuming it would be advantageous for them for survival. 

But it would take a long, long time for them to reach our level unless a mutation occurs.  Quite honestly mutations are very rare compared to what Hollywood tries to portray. 

[ZenBuc]

Common misconception about evolution...We didn't evolve from apes. Humans and Apes evolved from a common ancestor.  The species as we know today just took different evolutionary paths from one another

[cyberdude557]

We havnt stopped evolving. Evolution takes millions of years....a process far to slow for us to notice.
We however see evolution in bacteria. They go through a generation in 20 minutes, sometimes less (while a human generation takes 20 years). So over the course of 40-50 years....we suddenly have superbugs like MRSA which have grown resistant to our antibiotics. But it also can be seen in humans on a minor scale. They recently discovered that there are some prostitutes in Southeast Asia that have grown immunity to the HIV virus.

The theory as to why our brains grew more intelligent was because we needed to develop tools in order to aid our survival. So the cognitive areas of the brain began to get bigger. We still have processes in the old part of our brain that is exactly the same in many, many species such as the hypothalamus. The vast majority of mammals have a hypothalamus that is nearly identical and it controls the same things such as hunger, thirst, and sleep cycles.

[alldaway]

Common misconception about evolution...We didn't evolve from apes. Humans and Apes evolved from a common ancestor.  The species as we know today just took different evolutionary paths from one another

Our long, lost cousins are starfish.

[ufojoe]

Zen is right. Common ancestor.

[VTBuc]

Evolution isn't goal-oriented. Monkeys don't "know" that it's adventagous to discover fire and make wheels or be free-thinking. It has to happen entirely by random mutation, and then outcompete it's unmutated relatives and occupy the same niche.

[BucsBullsBolts]

There's an interesting novel about this by Greg Bear called "Darwin's Radio" .... Not great but a nice read.

[ufojoe]

Evolution isn't goal-oriented. Monkeys don't "know" that it's adventagous to discover fire and make wheels or be free-thinking. It has to happen entirely by random mutation, and then outcompete it's unmutated relatives and occupy the same niche.

That's the theory.

Then we have the issue of micro-evolution vs. macro-evolution. Macro has some big holes.

[rocketspeed]

Show me the TRANSITION in the fossils then we can talk about evolution.

[Rusty]

One of life's great mysteries: What is the functional purpose of breasts on men? Semms very odd that we have them and they seve zero purpose as far as i'm concerned.

[Skull and Bones]

Zen is right. Common ancestor.

I figured you for a Sitchinite.

Show me the TRANSITION in the fossils then we can talk about evolution.

Well, you can start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transitional_fossils

However, I'm not really interested in talking about evolution with you.

[BucsGuru]

One of life's great mysteries: What is the functional purpose of breasts on men? Semms very odd that we have them and they seve zero purpose as far as i'm concerned.

This is to open ended; somebody is going to turn this into an ugly in 3, 2, 1....

[ufojoe]

Evolutionary theory has become a religion just like creationism. Neither side is willing admit
that their theory is full of holes.

Skull, I am open to some kind of intervention. But (as somebody on this site pointed out
to me) there are some who have looked at Sitchin's work and pointed out the problems
with some of Sitchin's translations. Still the "correct?" translations are just as interesting.
Christians would appreciate them. Instead of ET, they may have been talking about
negative entities aka demons, that took physical form. So, inner dimensional? Higher
dimensional?