Verified answer

> "ok so i hate getting involved in these kinds of debates."

Don't worry about it. While there is a social issue regarding evolution - there is NO debate in the scientific community (99.85% of scientists accept evolution as true).

> "i know that humans have the same genetic make up as Monkeys and Apes..."

Not "the same", just "very similar"

We have a lot of genetic similarity to chimpanzees, slightly less to gorillas, slightly less again to orangoutans, etc.

(humans, chimpanzees and gorillas are more closely-related to each other than any of the three are to orangoutans)

Also - by phylogeny (biological classification), humans *are* apes: we are members of the Hominidae ("Great apes") family of primates, which includes us, chimps, gorillas and orangoutans.

> "but i need to know...what about the other animals??"

Humans also have genetic similarity to other animals - but to differing degrees. We are more similar to other primates of all sorts than we are to (for example) dogs or donkeys. But we *do* have a lot of similarity to them too.

In fact, we have a genetic similarity to *all* organisms on earth, if you go back far enough. We share 50% of our genes with bannanas, for example.

And - importantly - ALL organisms on earth use the same genetic code (which nucleotide sequences in our genes code for which amino acids in our proteins). This is strong evidence that we are all evolved from the SAME ancestor species (which existed 3.5 billion years ago, and which has evolved and diverged into all life on earth).

Basically, there are evolutionary trees which have been mapped out: originally, they were done by the morphology of the animals, but now we have genetic technology, we can "doublecheck" these trees by looking at the genes too.

Usually they back each other up, but occasionally, there are surprises: for example, it used to be thought that gorillas and chimps were more close to orangoutans than to us, and we now know this isn't the case.

> "yeah i am a christian too. but i am interested in other theories and religions. i dont know why"

It's fine to be interested; in fact it's *great* to be interested

But here's a few important things to remember:

[1] evolution is not an "altertnative" to God. There is no reason why God couldn't have created everything using evolution as his "tool". Since 99.85% of scientists accept evolution, and 40% of them also believe in a personal God of some sort, there is no reason why you cannot both believe in God and accept evolution.

[2] religious ideas for the origin of life are not science: there is zero evidence to back any of them up (no matter what some websites might tell you)

Ok basically, here's how it goes. An incredibly long time ago the Earth was created. Cyanobacteria came and made it habitable. Plants formed post bacteria and after plants came animals. The animals had to wait for the plants in order to have food to survive. As animals evolved we moved from the sea onto land as our bodies evolved; eventually creating vertebra and skeletons that were strong enough to survive out of water and we moved onto land. Over a huge amount of time all creatures began to evolve and change, creating different species. At some point the hominids (apes, monkeys etc) were created. The theory is that both apes and humans had a common ancestor a long time ago and that from that ancestor we diverged and created two different species. We share a lot of genetic similarities, but are NOT genetically identical to apes. So, basically, all tetrapods (things who live on land) and all sea creatures have the same common ancestor. Basically, we all evolved from the same creature which apparently lived in the ocean. We just all split and evolved separately depending on our environment, thus creating different creatures and animals.

How this all started is up to debate, I personally go for the intelligent design theory. Also, I don't know exactly what creature is the father of all life...thus far I know that cyanobacteria made life here possible and that it evolved from there...but I'm sure later on I'll find out.

Everything was made from something. Bacteria formed into animals. One animal formed into another animal. Here are some pictures of some of our probable ancestors: http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/factfiles/primary_ff_...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6...

As you can see, Creationism is the stupidest theory ever invented. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever to back it up. God did not just pop out of the sky and say hey i'm going to create man and all the animals in one day! That's ridiculous. It is a FACT that all organisms evolve. Some people say that evolution is just a theory. The "theory" of evolution is as much fact as the "theory" of gravity.

There should be no controversy on this whatsoever, I am shocked that there are adults out there who still believe in Creationism. People need to get educated and read a freakin' Science book.

Evolution works through Natural Selection and Independent variation. Organisms change to better adapt to their environments. They change through gene mutations in individuals.

People think they are mighty and special and different than anything else in this universe. We just have large brains. Our DNA is only different than a chimps by 2%. (and again, this is FACT) We are just like all mammals, only smarter. We are the way we are thanks to our environments and a bunch of accidents. Anyone that tells you otherwise is ignorant and you should not take everything they say as fact. Instead, you should try and learn things for yourself before believing your pastor or your parents.

The genetic makeup of chimps (including Bonobos - "pygmy chimps") is closer to humans than it is to gorillas. Human genetic makeup is likewise closest to chimps, followed by gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons (in that order). We are next closest to all the old-world monkeys, then to the new-world monkeys, then to tarsiers, then to lemurs, then to colugos, then to tree shrews, then to rodents and lagomorphs (rabbits and pikas). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euarchontoglires After that come a whole bunch of mammals in the Laurasiatheria clade, to which we are equally closely related: including cetaceans, even-toed ungulants, odd-toed ungulants, bats, carnivores and pangolins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurasiatheria Next come armadillos, sloths and anteaters. Then comes the Afrotherian mammals: elephants, hyraxes, elephant shrews, aardvarks and manatees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotheria After that come marsupials, and after that the monotremes (platypus and echidnas).

Saying we are genetically similar to something doesn't imply we evolved from it. It means we and the creature we're similar to both evolved from a common ancestor. Humans and chimps are cousins. Humans and gorillas are second cousins.

> "yeah i am a christian too. but i am interested in other theories and religions. i dont know why"

Nothing says you can't accept evolution and still be a Christian. Most Christians do. http://www.butler.edu/clergyproject/rel_evol_sun.h...

"So it goes something like this: In the beginning we were all fish, ok, swimming around in the water. and then one day a couple fish had a retard baby, and the retard baby was different so it got to live. So retard fish goes on to make more retard babies, and then one day a retard baby fish crawled out of the ocean with its...mutant fish hands...., and it had buttsex with a squirrel or something and made this...retard frog squirrel, and then that had a retard baby which was a...monkey fish frog, and then this monkey fish frog had buttsex with that monkey and that monkey had a mutant retard baby that screwed another monkey, and that made you. So there you go, you're the retarded offspring of five monkeys having buttsex with a fishsquirrel. Congratulations."

I think it has now been proven that we do not have the same genetic make-up as apes and monkeys. Similar but not the same.

It appears that humans evolved on their own and have their own branch on the evolutionary tree.

Different organisms moved to different parts of the world and evolved to adapt to those places.

I believe in creation. God made us all.