Dude, We Came from Monkeys?????

[c.d.]

Ahhh, the failures of the educational system...

I was in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. They have a new and very extensive exhibit dealing with human origins. As you walk into the exhibit, there are photographs of early human ancestors on either side. I was behind two young girls who appeared to be around 14 or 15. One of the girls looked at the photographs and then stopped and did a double take. She turned to her friend and asked "are those pictures of humans or animals?" Her friend replied "they are pictures of our early ancestors." She stood for a moment considering and then said in total astonishment "dude, we came from monkeys???"

Somewhere Darwin must be rolling over in his grave.

c.d.

[johns]

Problem is that this is how evolution is portrayed in various media.

We evolved from a "common ancestor" has gradually been replaced by "we came from monkeys"

Bit like "black hole"... they're not holes... more like lumps, but black hole sounds better than black lump.

[sdreid]

Our most recent ancestor would be an ape if you are relating to a current animal. Going all the way back to monocharacteristic life then I guess you could say we came from prions.

[Stephen Thomas]

Nobody ever got rich from overestimating people's intelligence as you must surely know (famous quote and all that). We've got a high profile poster here who thinks the world was created by some man in the sky 4004 years ago and he isn't a 14/15 year old schoolgirl. Or, ooh...err, maybe he is.

[c.d.]

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public.''

H.L. Mencken
U.S. Editor (1880 -1956)

Sometimes the quote reads taste instead of intelligence.

c.d.

[Robert]

I wouldn't feel alarmed if we had indeed come from monkeys. What alarms me is the prospect that we'll slide back that way.

[c.d.]

Just think how the monkeys would feel about that.

c.d.

[Robert]

The apes had a nightmare that they're descended from humans, but Bongwi the Baboon soothed their worries :

http://jesuias.blogspot.com/2009/11/roy-campell-1901-1957-and-his-spanish.html

[belinda]

Oh Poor Darwin. As I understand it and I could be a bit wrong but Monkeys are our Cousins.We share a common ancestor. Now where's that smug smillie

Lucy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29

My DNA (Genographic Project)

16069T,16126C,16145A,16172C,16192T,16222T,16261T

They are the highlights as the site won't let me copy my own DNA sequence

Haplogroup
j (Subcladej1b1)

Give it a try! You get to swab yourself!

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html

[protohistorian]

I've been thinking about this Mr. Hand. If I came form a monkey, and you came from a monkey, doesn't that mean, we came from monkeys? Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4ZbEATetg

[belinda]

I've been thinking about this Mr. Hand. If I came form a monkey, and you came from a monkey, doesn't that mean, we came from monkeys? Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4ZbEATetg

Was that Sean Penn

[Adam Went]

Heh, i'd say that the way a lot of 14/15 year old girls are these days, consider it a miracle that they were even in a museum in the first place.

Cheers,
Adam.

[protohistorian]

Was that Sean Penn

It sure was Belinda, the film is "fast times at ridgemont high" Dave

[Victoria]

Our most recent ancestor would be an ape if you are relating to a current animal. Going all the way back to monocharacteristic life then I guess you could say we came from prions.

"Probably all organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from one primordial form, into which life was first breathed." ~~ Charles Darwin ~~

[Victoria]

Nobody ever got rich from overestimating people's intelligence as you must surely know (famous quote and all that). We've got a high profile poster here who thinks the world was created by some man in the sky 4004 years ago and he isn't a 14/15 year old schoolgirl. Or, ooh...err, maybe he is.

" The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being." ~~Isaac Newton ~~


And he is most certainly not, "some man in the sky"