• Question: I would like to ask how do you think the human race started and what are your beliefs about it.

    Asked by Tom+Alex to Aaron, Abbey, Keith, Natalie, Pete on 13 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Aaron Boardley

      Aaron Boardley answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      The way evolution works is that each time someone has a child, they are every-so-slightly different as their DNA has mutated slightly. Over time, these mutations build up and people start to look and act noticeably different from their great-great-great-(—–)-great-grandparents. Some of the differences are a disadvantage, and these people are less likely to have children to pass them on to. Some of the differences help, and so these people have children and pass them on.

      All this means is that there isn’t a ‘sudden’ start point where you can say a race started – as each generation is ever-so-slightly different from the last. Looking at fossils and DNA, we can see that humans as we know them descended from creatures that looked and acted a bit more like apes. There’s still lots of gaps to fill in, but that’s what the evidence points to.

      A scientific way of thinking isn’t so much about having ‘beliefs’ (although you can have those too) but testing your ideas. You have theories, and you test these against evidence. If the evidence fits, the theory is strengthened. If the evidence disproves the theory, then it needs adapting or throwing away. So I wouldn’t say so much that these are my ‘beliefs’ about the human race, but rather they are ideas which I accept based on the evidence.

    • Photo: Peter Burgess

      Peter Burgess answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      To massively over-simplify:
      nothing > single celled organisms > invertebrates > fish > reptiles > tiny mammals > primates > hominids > humans.

      Evolution by Natural Selection is one of the strongest scientific theories we have.
      Sometimes you’ll hear “It’s just a theory” used to throw science into doubt, often that’s evolution or climate change. It’s a tricksy sentence because theories are what scientists develop to describe the world. The ones we keep are the ones that don’t get proved incorrect by new analysis or information. So “The Moon is made of Cheese”, nice theory but we’ve been now, and it turns out… rock. “All life on Earth has evolved from its ancestors through random variations under the influence of their local environment”, overall pretty solid.

    • Photo: Natalie Garrett

      Natalie Garrett answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      I personally believe in evolution – there’s just so much evidence for it. I know some people are creationists, and they have every right to their own opinions on the matter too. Based on the overwhelming genetic, biological and forensic evidence, I think modern humans evolved from the same common ancestor as shared by modern day apes.

Comments