We did not come from monkeys!

That's right.

freezerman2000 said:

then why do I keep seeing the statement that Evolution means that we came from monkeys?

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lack of understanding / willful ignorance would be my guess.

freezerman2000 said:

then why do I keep seeing the statement that Evolution means that we came from monkeys?

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Your elaboration, or a more precise way of description, does not change the meaning of the less-precise statement. Do not pick on the detail. Consider the true question.

juvenissun said:

Consider the true question.

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Whic would be... why do Creationists misrepresent Evolution or why do they fail to grasp its basic elements?

pgp_protector said:

lack of understanding / willful ignorance would be my guess.

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Or because it's not that inaccurate a statement: we evolved from something that lots of people would call a monkey.

Freezerman wrote:

then why do I keep seeing the statement that Evolution means that we came from monkeys?

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Part of it (for other parts, see previous posts), is likely due to the fact that some of our ancestors, before ape-like ancestors, were indeed similar to monkeys.

I'm talking about ancestors before Proconsul, and well after the K-T extinction, so probably around 30 to 40 million years ago. They would be more ape-like than lemurs, yet more lemur-like than apes (more monkey like than Proconsul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proconsul_(primate)).



I mean, give it wings and a tail, and it could try out for the wizard of oz.....


To most of us common people (except trained biologists), if we could see them alive, they'd appear similar to a type of modern monkey. We could point to one of them, and say to a child: "see that? That's a monkey.", and the child would later, when seeing actual monkeys, recognize them as monkeys.

So when a creationist says "you mean we came from monkeys!?!?", I have to recognize that on a basic level, yes, that is what we are saying - that we came from ancient monkey-like creatures. Thus I'm careful to explain this instead of simply saying they are wrong. After all, on a very basic level, they are more right than wrong.

For those who are ignorant of much of evolution, and are open to learning (and that's a lot of people if handled nicely), explaining it in a simple way allows them to learn. Bashing them with "no, you're an idiot!", when they were honestly asking, leaves them both confused and no closer to understanding than before, in addition to be less likely to openly ask knowlegeable people in the future.

So I'll come down sorta on Juvi's side here. It's not terribly wrong to say that we evolved from monkeys. A simple correction to "yes, we evolved from ancient, monkey like creatures." Fixes the inaccuracy while without confusing the learner.

Papias

P.S. Or, you could just ignore my whole post, and read sfs's single sentence above. Being concise is a virtue.

Papias said:

P.S. Or, you could just ignore my whole post, and read sfs's single sentence above. Being concise is a virtue.

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Yours is better.

Of course we didn't come from monkeys!

I've never even heard of this place called Monkeys!

I descended from Germans.


So how could Germans still exist?

This "immigration theory" is just a theory.


P.S.
Thanks sfs!

Papias said:

I descended from Germans.


So how could Germans still exist?

This "immigration theory" is just a theory.


P.S.
Thanks sfs!

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Sigh! Your logic is getting worse. How is this possible?

juvenissun said:

Sigh! Your logic is getting worse. How is this possible?

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Hardly juvie, it's the same logic as that common Creationist Pratt so it's not even his logic!

juvenissun said:

Sigh! Your logic is getting worse. How is this possible?

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He abandoned logic before he started his fallacious arguments on here, that's probably how he got started.