(May 20, 2012 at 5:37 pm)Abishalom Wrote:(May 20, 2012 at 1:13 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Humans are apes in the same way that ducks are birds, and for the same reason.
That's not a very good comparison because...well ducks ARE birds...
That's what I said. Duck is to bird as human is to ape, for the exact same reason. It's not, strictly speaking, a comparison, it's a classification. There are five species of great ape, genus Hominidae: orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, common chimpanzees, - and humans. You might not like it but it's a fact. As the old saying goes, you can't choose your family.
All the other Hominidae species have 24 pairs of chromosomes, compared to humans' 23. Thus, if the common-ancestor theory is sound, evolutionary biology predicted that at one time all five species had either 23 (one of which split to give their 24) or 24 pairs of chromosomes (two of which fused together, giving our 23). Since the 'extra' pair exists among four out of the five, it was a reasonable starting assumption that the latter event occurred. Biologists engaged in the research predicted what they ought to find and what it must look like. Some time later, they found precisely what they had predicted ought to exist on human chromosome #2. (ref)
You, me, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, the Pope, - we are all apes. Sorry.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
