Primates

• Many people believe that man did not evolve from apes at all, we were created by God in His own image. That God gave man a human soul that makes them individual.
  
  
• The only other option is a theory called evolution, by which over billions of years, the whole earth and everything in it was formed by hydrogen, which spread through the universe at the Big Bang, an explosion in which the hydrogen was formed.
  
  
• Human beings (homo sapiens) related faintly related. Humans and other apes might share a common ape or ape-like ancestor.
  
  
• A species only evolves to help it in its survival. The apes' ancestors could survive being an ape so they didn't continue to evolve, whereas our ancestors kept evolving to help them stay alive. Survival of the fittest is what drives evolution, and our ancestors just happened to "need" evolution more than the apes. Evolutionary process is performed by mutations, which are usually harmful or fatal. For evolution to occur, an incredible chance happened so that the mutation would not harm or kill the new creature.
  
  
• Apes and humans evolved from an unknown common ancestor. This ancestor split up and evolved into different species, one became erect and the other continued as it was.
  
  
• Humans didn't evolve from apes; rather, we and apes evolved from a common ancestor (who is no longer with us, we have no fossils proving this fact, but we believe it anyway). The relationship is more like cousins than parent-child.
  
  
• By a very great chance, humans developed a brain that allows them to think, love, and be individual persons. Christians call this a soul. It elevates us above beasts.
  
  
• There are still apes because some apes did not evolve into people. If rocks are crushed into stones, why are there still rocks? There are still rocks because some rocks did not get crushed into stones.
  
  
• Different species have evolved according to the conditions and ecological niches they find themselves in. Speciation occurs when a subtle change confers an advantage on a given population.
  
  
• It is also important to remember that not all changes of animals mean it has evolved. Animals have great genetic variety, to suit different environments. This is called natural selection.
  
  Let's think of a simple example of changes by natural selection:
  
  If the world were suddenly covered in snow, and polar bear-type predators invaded everywhere, it stands to reason that they'd be more likely to eat dark-colored animals which they could see more easily.
  
  That would give an advantage to animals which, by chance or design, happened to be white. Animals of a usually black type which happened by chance to be *partly* white might also escape the bears. They would then be most likely to breed, passing on the white genes to their offspring.
  
  Over time, through breeding in a selective group, all animals would become white, as the ones least suited to their environment were weeded out. Some species which were unable, by chance, to adapt, would go extinct as the polar bears ate the lot of them.
  
  So, humans have evolved in a different way than chimps, gorillas and orangutans because the requirements of the environment we found ourselves in were different. It was an advantage for us to go in the direction we went, just as it was for the other apes.
  
  Evolution works randomly. Natural Selection works towards the animal's specific needs. The mutation to create more hair in a cold environment would be in a specific population so some humans in the group would have more hair by nature (genetically). These individuals would in turn have a greater chance for survival in the cold environment. As they are selected for by nature their percentages will increase. More of the hairier humans will survive to reproduce and their children will be genetically driven to be hairier. That is just one of the marvelous and logical ways evolution in our nature world occurs.

• Natural selection is variations in genetic genetic variety that changes a species within itself. For instance, say a tribe of fair skinned people traveled to a very hot climate, those people with darker skin would be more likely to survive thereby passing on there dark skinned genes and eventually weeding out the fair skinned people.

• Evolution only occurs when it is necessary. Some apes evolved into man because either they moved to a new environment or their existing environment changed, making evolution necessary for survival. So, the apes who needed to adapt to their new environment through evolution to survive either did so or were wiped out (apparently, they changed, creating the human race), or stayed in a friendly environment, making evolution unnecessary and therefore, nonexistent (the apes in these conditions remained apes).
  
  
• Technically, humans are apes.

• Science never said humans evolved from apes. Science said that humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor. That makes humans and apes related species. And those who abhor the idea of humans evolving from apes may be even more incensed to learn that we did not evolve from apes, but from a more primitive species.

Culture is defined as knowledge that is passed on from generation to generation. Therefore, non-human primates do have culture. Chimpanzees are a very good example because, just like humans living in different parts of the world, different communities have different ways of doing things. Some Chimp communities use rocks as hammers and anvils to bust open nuts, others use twigs to fish for ants or termites. There is even a community that hunts with spears and cools off in caves! Another good example is the Japanese macaque, the light brown monkeys with pink faces that are often photographed lounging in hot springs. They became famous during the 1950s when one female was observed washing a sweet potato in water. This technique eventually caught on as new innovations are usually adopted by the younger generations and passed on to their own children later--this is an important point that can't be stressed enough. Some years later, one of these macaques started washing their potato in salty sea water. This is a common practice today because they apparently like salt just as much as humans do.

A paper published in 2007, "4,300-Year-old chimpanzee sites and the origins of percussive stone technology," found that Chimpanzees have been using stone tools for at least 4 millennia. Tool use probably goes back much further than this. Man was thought to be the only one capable of using tools until researchers in the 1960s first witnessed Chimps using stone anvils. (Such tool use was actually recorded as far back as the 16th century but forgotten. See "Reports of Chimpanzee Natural History, Including Tool Use, in 16th- and 17th-Century Sierra Leone"). So if both man and Chimps, our closest living genetic cousin, both use tools, our common ancestor who lived around 7 million years ago most likely used tools as well.

A good book for learning the difference between a Chimp's genetically engrained behavior and behavior that is learned (i.e. culture) is Prof. Frans de Waal's The Ape and the Sushi Master (2001).