Frogboy Frogboy

How the heck did we get here?!

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?
15,426 views 47 replies
Reply #26 Top
Personally I think I relate closest to Paxx's Scientist-Catholic description. I just have a hard time believing all of this is just a stroke of luck. However evolution did (is) happen (ing)and that much is a fact. This I think poses a much more interesting question.

Where the heck do we go from here?

If evolution happened as Brad described and Humans evolved from something less, can we continue to evolve. The reason I ask is that in the above scenario we achieved what we are by propagating through selectivity. The strong shall survive and the weak shall perish. Only the strongest and smartest would live to breeding age thus securing better genes for the next generation and so on. Now through the "miracles" of modern science even the weakest are able to live long fulfilling lives. While this is wonderful for the individual it begs the question if it's best for the Human race. Will we continue to evolve physically? Mental evolution is almost assured. However if physical evolution were to continue what changes would you like to see in your body? I for one would have appreciated not having an appendix, mine almost killed me.
Of course none of this really matters if there is something more powerful going on here...
Reply #27 Top
Hmm. Well I don't mean to say that we evolved from something less. Just that we evolved from something different. Evolution doesn't produce better species, merely species that are better adapted to survive in their specific environment.

The Dinosaurs survived for over 100 million years. When the dinosaurs arrived, there were only reptilian mammals around.

100 million years ago there were no flowers, no grass, no bees, no ants (bees, ants, grass, flowers are all relatively recent, I flinch when I watched "Dinosaur" from Disney as they tromped on grass but I digress).

Evolution for humans is basically over. We now control evolution in our particular species and countless others. Oranges were created by humans. Cows and other livestock are quite different than they once were. Corn did not evolve naturally either. Controlled development will create interesting results.
Reply #28 Top
No one has mentioned (I think) that while you're in your mother's womb, there is a short period where you are actually equiped with gills, and a tail. I find this somewhat disturbing.
I'm lucky enough to have a mother who has a collection of medical books that could rival... um, well its impressive ('specially the old ones). Anyway I'm going to go see if I can (re)find the facts to back this up.

wierd.
Reply #29 Top
Frogboy: "Evolution for humans is basically over. "

Well, there are the little things. Like: we definately have less hair than ancestors, and this looks like its continuing to this day. Have you noticed, for instance, male pattern baldness is increasing? I believe this directly linked to the way we pretty much control our environment to suit ourselves. We're not in the sun all the time. We have air-con. And spiffy clothes.

Ok, so I was splitting hairs here... Forgive me
Reply #30 Top
Like froggy said, it's not about the strong or the smart, but about those who are best adapted. Or the other way around, those that do not go extinct.

So me might want to save the panda, but evolutionwise it's dying. Or not?

As for human evolution: smaller toes, I think we're going to loose some, in time.
Reply #31 Top
Oh, evolution is never over.
For example, I never had any wisdom teeth, my dentist said that some people never have any, part of an evolution thing. We are also taller than our ancestors (and no, it's not just about good nutrition - the first men were no more than 4 feet tall).
In our human world, fittest means smartest. I do think human evolution will work that way and that the humans of the future will me much smarter.
Reply #32 Top
Then its almost reassuring that we only use a small percentage of our brain. Could you imagine what would happen if we were at capacity. I thinking of how Windows spazzes out when the HDD get full.
Reply #33 Top
I agree that we will continue to evolve to some degree. It only makes sense.
I saw a program on the Discovery Channel a few months back that discussed this. Basically saying that certain physical features that are considered "more attractive" will become more common. The example they gave is the "baby face" - we are generally more attracted to people with a round face and younger looking features.

I would like to see humans without excessive body hair (or some body hair altother) and toenails. These are a few of my least favorite things.
Reply #34 Top
you guys all need to go read the readme...

It's called the Bible
Reply #35 Top
I prefer The Lord of the Rings.
Reply #36 Top
That's funny Doreen... I'm running a different Belief System that you are though, so the readme is different as well.
Reply #37 Top
Doreen...are you referring to the Bible as a RTFM?....
Reply #38 Top
Bible == Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

And that is what I believe it is. It explains what we need to do to get to know our Lord and creator so we can go to be with Him forever. I believe wholeheartedly in the Bible and believe the whole thing is inspired by God from start to finish.

As to the subject: I do not believe in evolution as it is described by Darwin with people evolving from monkeys etc. I believe the story of Genesis fully and see no contradictions there. But I do see contradictions with that account and the theory of evolution. Maybe this isn't the place to really go into that but I have read around the subject and there are some astounding facts which seem to be overlooked by many scientists.

crae: The first account is of the creation of the world and contains the references to the days (which I believe to be normal days). The second centres on the Garden of Eden specifically. The first describes a specific order. The second just says that these things happened and centres purely on the man, woman and the garden. I don't see any reference in this second account to days or anything like that in my Bible.
Reply #39 Top
Actually, I'm reading a book right now. Highly interesting. I'm learning that the Bible had way more than 4 Gospels until the 5th century. It was then decided that only those four were to be released "to the public" while keeping the only Gospels for the more initiated, the christian expert so to speak, because the other books didn't exacly tell the life of Jesus the way the early church wanted to. One of those book was the Gospel of St-Thomas.
I also learned that noen of those 4 Gospels were written by anybody who had known or met Jesus directly; in fact, the first 3 Gospels were not the work of one person, but a group of people, adding or removing parts of what others had written. Experts can easily see that the styles and sytnax vary greatly whitin each book. The only Gospel that appears to be written by one person, is the book of St-John, and then again, it's not the same St-John as the apostle, but somebody who lived about 50 years later.

BTW, the book I am reading is writen by a Christian, who still believes in God and Jesus. He has only found in his reasearches that men have done a very poor job carrying His words and actions on paper. He says that he believes in God within his heart and needs no book to meet with his Lord.

I think that's beautiful, and if I believed in God, I think i'd be like him.
Reply #40 Top
The bible has been through so many translations and editions (yes, parts have been taken out, or modified) over the years, that I find it very reconcile basing my like on it. That, and many other reasons are probably a large factor in my atheism (Jafo, I don't think that was spelled right..).

Ok, I'm gonna go sit in my fallout shelter for a bit.
Reply #41 Top
Add to that the fact that every religion claims to be the Righteous One, not good for credibility. Anyway, I don't know the bible inside out, but there's plenty of weird stuff in there.
Reply #42 Top
I too believe in evolution very much along the lines of what Frogboy has mentioned...

A lot of people are saying, well how could everything just fall into place so well? and aren't the odds for the exact conditions for life and evolution are just too great to be simply a coincidence?

Well, if you think about it there are billions of billions of stars out there which may or may not have planets around them, and we are finding new planets all the time, so the odds are that at least ONE of those planets would have the right conditions for life, and that planet was ours...

However even though I am an atheist I am also a little spiritual in my own way... I believe in a conciseness or a 'soul' that separates us from most material things in this world, and I think science still has a very long way to go to fully explain the things we see around us.
Reply #43 Top
If there is a god, and it's reading, I have decided to put together a wishlist of things that I would like to evolve:

1) Earlids. Yes, much like eyelids, but they allow me to block out the problem of noise pollution, which includes "pop music".

2) A brain better suited to multitasking. It's not that I don't listen to people on the phone, I'm just busy, maybe a better brain would help. Many people seem to already posess such a thing. They can usually be observed driving large SUVs, shaving/applying makeup, talking on the cellphone and eating or drinking at the same time.

3) A regenerative nervous system. Nothing could be more useful in the event that I lose a limb.

4) No nipples. They're lovely, really, I just have no use for them.

5) Internal "family jewels". I know they're outside for a reason, but they're a bit of a liability, how about keeping them somewhere safe?

That's about all I can think of that falls into the category of "useful" and not just "cool". Anyone else have any requests?

AJ
Reply #44 Top
* self healing chocolate bars
* self filling bags of donuts
* all the humans to start realising other people are also people, so that they would be nicer to each other

well you asked, and i think all would be very very useful
Reply #45 Top
where is it all going?

if anyone has ever read arthur C Clarks "2001 - a space odecy" (<- that is my third attemp, and its spelling is getting worse *sigh*) will have encountered one interesting take on where "people" may be going long term.

people moving their conciousness into machines, and then eventually into pure energy over a very long time. it does sound like the sort of thing that some of todays technology obsessed humans would love to do.
Reply #46 Top
craeonics - 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?

/me thinks back, and recalls rumor that crae also lives in europe

i suspect you may already be familiar with the theory that Neanderthals had larger brains and stronger bodies than modern humans.
Reply #47 Top
"2001 - a space odecy"

Pure poetry, feline....


'odyssey'....Spell checker

I guess, sometimes, looking up a dictionary to check the spelling is not an option, because you cannot find it because you cannot spell it....Catch 22...