But… But…. Why are there still apes?

By Mike Mandell

Strong theists cannot get over their preoccupation that evolution is not a strong and valid scientific theory.  According to their various infallible doctrines, the earth was created (in short order) by god, and all the animals and plants that are and ever were in that day.

That’s fine, I don’t argue your BELIEF.  You are entitled to your belief.  What I am writing about today is one particular argument that you theists like to use to “prove” evolution as completely and utterly invalid.  And that argument is…. ready for it??

IF MAN EVOLVED FROM APES, WHY ARE THERE STILL APES!!

Usually the only people that are validated from that statement are the theists themselves.  That statement shows a profound lack in understanding in the theory of evolution.

So what is evolution?  Well, I’ll give you the gist.

Basically it is any change in inherited traits from generations of a particular animal or plant.  The changes are passed down from parents to offspring via their genetic code. These changes can occur due to mutations, and environment. When these changes become more frequent, or less frequent, in the specific population, this is evolution.

This leads to natural selection.  A species with traits that give them certain advantages will be more likely to survive and be more likely to pass their genes down to the next offspring.  Traits that give disadvantages will have the opposite effect.

That’s a very generic, basic description of evolution.  The information used was gained fro the general blurb about evolution in Wikipedia, to learn more click here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution

So now that we’ve done a basic overview of evolution, let’s take a look at why there are still apes.

Scientists believe, through research, that one particular group of apes started evolving in response to their environment that eventually lead to the evolution of human beings (and other primates too, some of which are now extinct).  That does NOT mean that the apes disappeared, in order for that to happen there would have to be only one group of primates in one very small section of the world, this is simply not true.  The earth is a big place, and there are many places where primates thrive.  The same evolutionary pattern is not going to take place in all of them, even with the same ancestor.  Primates move around, evolution takes different paths in different places.

To put it in perspective, asking why there are still apes around is like saying “I descended from Italian ancestors, why are there still Italians around?”  The point being, is whatever happened to your Italian forebears did NOT affect the Italian population. 

So there you have it.  In this article, I’m not trying to discredit intelligent design beliefs, I’m not trying to prove evolutionary theory as an absolute fact.  I merely am responding to the common theist question of why are there still apes.

So, proponents of intelligent design, I hope you now know why evolutionists don’t take that argument seriously, and you can safely drop it from your repertoire during debates.

Mike Mandell