How the heck did we get here?!

Depending on your religon (or lack there of) you probably have a belief of how we humans got to be on this earth.

What's your view on it?

Here's mine (based on a collection of reading over the years):

About 4 million years ago in East Africa a particular type of ape lived in the jungle. This ape was the prececessor of what we now call humans and chimps. The climate was changing in that part of Africa to be a lot dryer forcing some of these apes to begin leaving the trees. The ones that stayed became chimps. The ones that went out there mostly died.

They died because they couldn't see the lions and other nasties out there. But a handful of them figured out that if you stood on your hind legs that you could see further. Hence those lived and passed their genes on. As time went on, more and more of these surviors were walking up right. This was important not just because they could see further but they could walk further.

This freed their hands up to do other things and most of them were still dying to lions and other nasties. But some of them were bright enough to throw rocks and they lived, to pass on their genes. Repeat this cycle for 3.9 million years and you have homosapiens. Add some other birth defects in that pushed us alon gin having to obtain a variety of food that chimps don't (humans can't produce Vitamin C, we have to consume foods that have it) and only the smarter ones survived.

Around 60,000 years ago these homosapiens, for reasons I don't know, figured out how to communicate verbally. Perhaps it was a mutation (all humans have a birth defect that causes us to be unable to drink and breath at the same time, this allows us to make a lot more sounds than any other mammal - while we're not choking anyway). Once we were able to start communicating like this, ideas could be passed along and within 60,000 years we went from hunting and gathering to farming (around 8000 years ago) to where we are now.

So what's your view?
15,425 views 47 replies
Reply #1 Top
Evaluation all that way, Baby! But I don't have any problem believing "God" or "Whatever" started the evolutionary ball rollin"
Reply #2 Top
Intentional Evolution for me... There's no denying the fact that evolution is real. However, I also believe in an intelligent architect who orchestrated the whole thing.
Reply #3 Top
"In the begining there were hot lumps...."
Reply #4 Top
I believe in the theory that Brad put forward, however, I also believe that there may have been intervention at some point by more intelligent beings.
There are lots of strange things that can't easily be explained, and I guess I would LIKE to believe that extraterrestrials had a hand in our development. I have never seen a UFO, but my wife has, and if you knew her, you would know that she is not the type who is given to flights of fancy, and she rarely even tells anyone about it. I just hope we are not a large store of food for another species, just waiting to be harvested when our numbers are great enough!
MUWAHAHAHA!!
Reply #5 Top
In the beginning was the word.
And the word was 'Aardvark'.....
Reply #8 Top
What the frog said, with the exception that he is the next wave in amphibian evolution. I, by the way also think that the Neanderthals didn't go extinct, but merged with the more advanced Homo Sapiens to form the people that generally dwell in Europe. Ever noticed how some people look like cavemen?
Reply #9 Top
I'd like to think that we evolved....however, I tend to agree with BoXXi on this topic!!!!
Reply #10 Top
I'm also with Frogboy on this.
Except I still have unanswered questions... Before the apes in te jungle, what was there? Lizards?

I buy the multicellular organism evolving into a fish, evolving into lizards. I can see that. But what's between the lizards and the apes? How did the cold-blooded amphibian become a warm blooded mamal? Any scientific mind in here knows?
Another question, the BIG one, the one nobody can answer: how did it start in te first place? How did it happen that somehow, in the water, a monocellular organism come to be, did did the chain of life all started.
Some say God, some say extraterrestrials, some chance chance. But I can't satisfy myself with any of those 3, although I don't reject any either.
Reply #11 Top
I'm buying into the theory of evolution - it only makes sense. But our conscious thought and our conscience set us apart from all (or all I can think of) other living things. For religious folks, this could be the point where evidence of a higher power really comes in.
Reply #12 Top
The conscious thought is a non-argument to me, it places mankind on a higher level than the rest of flora and fauna. I resent that thought (not aimed at LittleBe, by the way).

Now evolution to humans goes like this:

1. chemical mixture of carbon-chains, oxygen and more fun stuff
2. formation of amino acids
3. one celled organisms
4. multicel organisms
5. specialisation in multicel organisms (think, amoebe and jellyfish)
6. marine organisms with primordial bone structures
7. fish
8. fish in shallow water
9. fish capable of moving on land, development of legs
10. amphibians
11. reptiles
12. small nocturnal reptiles, warm blooded
13. mammals (still night creatures and small)
14. extinction of dinosaurs, rise of mammals
15. tree dwellers
16. protomonkeys in forests
17. drought, so monkeys move to ground
18. biped humanoids (better cooling for brain)
19. humans
Reply #13 Top
The notion that there has been "intervention" at some point along the way betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the theory of evolution. It is convenient for religious people, and others opposed to evolution, to simply the theory, and its incontrovertable scientific basis, to a few catch phrases. "How could we evolve by chance?". Well. . . read a book on current evolutionary theory. Don't expect someone to answer that question in a simple manner, any more than you would expect someone to someone to answer "What is particle physics?".

Simply because it is difficult to fathom the myriad of random mutations and minute changes that occur over hundreds of millions of years is no reason to call the theory into question. The alternative that some people seem to believe is equally plausible is that a non-human super being is floating somewhere in space pulling the strings. People cling to this fantasy even though there is not a single shred of evidence to confirm it.

Also the thing about apes "figuring out " how to stand on their back legs and then passing this advantageous trait to offspring was proposed by Lamarck in 1801, and is incorrect you cannot pass on acquired morphological changes to offpring. Whether it is standing more erect or cutting your hand off, neither will be passed on

Oliver
3rAd|k8er
Reply #14 Top
I know how I got here!
my Mom & Dad hooked up in Brooklyn New York on one of those full moon, clear night by the Ocean type nights and here I am! hehe

actually the truth is:

God is the Alpha & the Omega...

1. God said "let there be light"
2. God said "Let there be expanse bet waters to sep water from water"
3. God said "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear & let there be land to produce veggies & stuff"
4. God said "Let there be lights" (That cool Moon & Sun)
5. God said "Let there be fishes and birds & other stuff"

And here it is...
6. God said "Let let there be Male & Female

7. Then God took a break
Reply #15 Top
Now one one page it's "on day six, god created man and woman" and on the next it is "on day six god created man, then took a break on day seven and later on when Adam was lonely, he knocked him out, took his rip and turned that into a woman". One of the things that never made sense to me.
Reply #17 Top
Nice to see ogomez got here... This thread wouldn't be complete without someone trashing the beliefs of those of us who are religious. I'll never get how Christians are supposed to be the "intolerant" ones when atheists have no problem getting in your face and dismissing your belief system as a "fantasy."
Reply #18 Top
well it says:
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created "them"

it does not exactly state that they were "both" created on that same day...

just that he created "them"
Reply #19 Top
yeah it does! crae why you gotta get so techinical! hehe

well yeah that is confusing well maybe "later on" during the six day Adam got really lonely and that is when the rib thing happened? really later on in the day??? hehe

I really believe by "Faith" in my heart not by "interpetations" on paper...
(that is the only way, too many diff Bibles and interpetations and opinions and rationalizations etc)
Reply #20 Top
yeah there it is... it was later on in the day!

see you guys can't even make it through one single day w/o us females! HA
Genesis Chapter 2 which is the summary of days 1-7

I'm sure T-Man can help me out here... hehe
Reply #21 Top
Going a step further, will throw in a half baked theory of "self" Each of us are a unique combination of plumbing and wiring which produces a sense of self. Even though the chances of such a unique combination being duplicated are slim, there may be others in the world like us(maybe 3 or 4 other frogboys with different names). When we die, we may have a long long wait until it the combination repeats.
Reply #22 Top
Earlier this year at a family reunion, I had the chance to talk to two atheists (who both have degrees in philosophy and who both used to be Christian). They are both monalists (sorry if I'm spelling it wrong), which means that they believe that there is nothing more than the physical, that emotions are merely firing synapses. Basically, that humans are little better than machines. Because one of them was my cousin and the other was another cousin's boyfriend, it was a civilized discussion. Unforunately, me and my cousins who do believe in God weren't able to argue as well as the other side because we didn't have the education to pull it off. We would have gone all night if we weren't in someone else's hotel room. As it was, I left the conversation feeling rather frustrated. People who believe in the intangible have the harder argument because it's much harder if not impossible to prove empirically. Logical, scientific people can sit there and point out all the inaccuracies in the Bible. The accuracy isn't really the point. The Bible is a collection of works written by people who were struggling to describe something that was too big, too intangible for words. When it comes down to it, faith is a personal experience. Parents can drag their children to Church, read them children's Bible stories and do everything they can into brainwashing their children into believing in a religion, it doesn't stick when the child grows old enough to think for him/herself unless the child experiences faith. It could be a big thing, or it could be a small thing, but unless something speaks to a person, his/her faith will not thrive. Yet, too often when the faithful try to share their experiences, they are denounced as liars, frauds, or labeled as delusional, because it's not something that the skeptical can understand: it's not in their experience. I can only feel compassion for the people who have not experienced faith. Perhaps someday they will, and then they will know what they are missing. When you are a child, reality doesn't scare you very much because Mommy and Daddy will take care of it. When you are an adult, whose hands can you put your worries in if not God's? You can argue that you can depend on yourself, on friends, on family, but it is not the same as the absolute trust that a child has for his/her parents. So go ahead. Mock us. Tell us that we're credulous, illogical fools. Whatever. It doesn't matter. We know what we know and you know what you know. I am happy. Are you?

Reply #23 Top
Wel about 2 or 3 months ago, I had some friends over and we started talking about religion, or the spiritual. We soon realized that among the 5 people around the table, not two people believed the same thing. Once was a scientist-catholic (believed in evolution and in God, and argued that the Bible was only humans trying to write down God words, which leads to inacuracies and fables), one was a reincartionist, one was a pure catholic (the Bible should not be interpreted, but followed to the letter), one just believed there was something there but believed in no specific religion, and there was me saying I don't think there is anything there but who knows... It was quite a facinating discussion. We were all adults and we all listened and talked calmly. A memorable evening.
Reply #24 Top
"Walking with Dinosaurs" appears on the Discovery channel. In essence the Dinosaurs were dominate and then an asteroid hit and wiped everything large out. The mammals were in that period a galaxy of rodents which evolved in all kinds of directions. Rodents to protomonkeys. Protomonkeys into true monkeys.Monkeys to apes. Apes to human beings.

These theories do not replace the belief in a higher power. Evolutions doesn't conflict very much with Genesis.
Reply #25 Top
still takes faith to believe in these odds. in order for this to happen a lot of unimaginably unlikely things had to happen first. monkeys and apes and humans are the only animals with arms that are so flexible. the hands were already properly ready to be used. if a cow had stood up on its hind legs what good does that do? it can't move its arms and it has no hands.