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Are evolutionists still dodging from the Scopes Monkey Trial?

During the Scopes Monkey Trial it was a common joke to suggest that someone's ancestors were "monkeys" or "apes". It seems some are adopting a Politically correct term: "ape-like ancestor". It wasn't ape-like, it was an ape. How do we know: cladistics and DNA comparisons. Our closest living relative is the chimp, next is the gorilla, next is the Orang and then the Gibbon. If we did not split off from the same ancestral stock as chimps, we wouldn't be so closely related by DNA. Indeed, if the apes grew off one branch and humans from another, we'd be more closely related to Gibbons and furthest from chimps. All the animals that split off from our family tree before us are apes. That means at least one (and much more likely several) of our ancestral species was an ape. Why try to hide it? Our ancestors weren't "ape-like". Circa ten million years ago they were apes. And the closest living relatives to apes, aside from us, are monkeys. Circa 20 million years ago our ancestors were monkeys. Kjelstad: Pre-Cambrian. Circa 500+ million years ago www.talkorigins.com A very useful resource for more on the human lineage.

Public Comments

1. Correct. They were apes. They were not monkeys. This should go quite without saying. WE are apes, after all. ------------------- Eventually you reach an MRCA [most recent common ancestor] that isn't a simian. ;) Prior to the ape/monkey split, you have generic primates. The distinction between ape and monkey does not occur prior to that MRCA
2. What will our future be like? We look like humans. Thus, what will the people in the future look like?
3. Not "dodging" anything -- simply explaining the facts as they are, so you can no longer hide behind your ignorance when you insist we're wrong.
4. If you believe that then it's your choice. However, i dodge nothing. Everyone has a right to honor their belief system. As long as they refrain from their effort to convince me that it would be in my best interest to be compliant and accept their religious philosophy. I cannot understand why accepting evolution is so threatening to them. It make us not less human. Poor things.
5. If you go back far enough I'm sure we are related to the banana. Why can't Kirk just be happy with that?
6. I disagree. Twenty million years ago no living thing resembled what it is today. The animals that most resemble modern humans were not apes, as we know them today. They were ape-like animals. If they were apes, it would mean that in twenty million years they remained the same. What happened to evolution ?
7. Nobody even brings it up except atheists and they bring it up constantly,that and "creationism" - whatever that is (it's never defined). This is only one of the many, many things that make atheists at least as boring as fundies and in much the same way - even the "issues", come to think of it. Orion - you are BORING. Boring boring boring.