• Question: do you believe in evolution? Why?

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      Asked by Aoife to Aoife, Brian, Conor, Louise, Matthew on 10 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by 585newg35, Illya Is Ruski.
      • Photo: Matthew Kitching

        Matthew Kitching answered on 10 Nov 2016:

        Hi 836newg36

        Interesting question – I sure do! the theory of evolution is pretty neat – it basically needs three things:

        1) There must be variation in population (i.e. every animal of a species is a little bit different)

        2) There must be a selection pressure (i.e. you’re more likely to survive and reproduce if your really strong)

        3) This characteristic can be passed to your children (i.e. if you are big and strong, then your children are more likely to be big and strong)

        With these three rules in operation, a species will become more and more successful in coping with the selection pressure thats applied. If this happened in animals, we would be able to see in the fossils that have been preserved lots of the “in-between” animals as the species changes – and we do!

        Now – its possible that some of our understanding of how we evolved could be wrong – maybe we will get new evidence that shows something else can explain it better – but right now, evolution is the best explanation for all the data we see.

        Hope this answers your question? let me know if you want to know more 🙂

      • Photo: Louise Mc Grath

        Louise Mc Grath answered on 11 Nov 2016:

        Hi 836newg36!

        Do I believe in evolution? Why yes I do. It is a really interesting theory and its great for starting debates with friends and family (yes I am that nerdy!)

        The reason I believe in evolution is because there has been evidence found over the years which satisfy the requirements for evolution. I was in Belgium in a museum last year and they had a whole section devoted to evolution which I found highly interesting.

        In the museum they had 3D and life sized models of remains found over the years where we can see how primates evolved over millions of years, and I got to look at Lucy. Lucy was discovered in 1974, and her bones showed evidence that she walked upright like us.. What an amazing discovery!
        Here is a documentary which I found interesting which explains evolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txtOIV_EEks (It is an hour long but I think it explains things very well)

        I think this link explains gives good evidence to support evolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIEoO5KdPvg. Thankfully it is explained simply with interesting facts about whales, dolphins and many others! It keeps me entertained! For example did you know that whales have arm wrist and finger bones in their front flippers? I didn’t, but it means that whales are more closely related to humans, bats, etc more than they are to fish!

        Both links are worth a watch, and if you are ever in Belgium then you should go to the Natural Science Museum (https://www.naturalsciences.be/).. It was amazing plus it has tons of dinosaur skeletons… I was like a little kid I was so excited!

      • Photo: Aoife Lucid

        Aoife Lucid answered on 11 Nov 2016:

        Yes I believe in evolution. It’s a scientifically proven theory with a lot of evidence. Monkeys are definitely our ancestors!

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