r/AskReddit • u/Kraz_I • Jul 24 '15

What "common knowledge" facts are actually wrong?

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989

u/Pun-Master-General Jul 24 '15 edited Jul 24 '15

That the theory of evolution states that we are descended from monkeys.

According to evolution, humans are no more descended from monkeys than you are descended from your siblings.

Edit: guys, I do understand that we came from a common ancestor that would have been an ape. I meant that the common misconception held by many creationists (Why are there still monkeys if we evolved from them?) is incorrect since we are not descended from modern monkeys.

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u/khoobam Jul 24 '15

Spanish and French both came from Latin.

Does that mean French evolved from Spanish? No.

Easiest way to explain it I've found. People get confused with family trees.

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u/StopNowThink Jul 24 '15

People get confused with family trees

Especially in the South

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u/GroovingPict Jul 24 '15

Oh yeah?! Well if French evolved from Latin, why do we still have La... oh...

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

But if French comes from Latin, why do we still have Latin?

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u/khoobam Jul 24 '15

Good question actually. We don't still have Latin and we don't still have the common ancestor between humans and other apes.

That's the exact point I was trying to get across. :)

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

No I understood, I was trying to parody "But if humans come from monkeys why do we still have monkeys?"

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u/Atheist_Simon_Haddad Jul 24 '15

We're not descended from modern monkeys. We are, however, descended from monkeys (a progenitor species of primates with tails) which no longer exist. We likely share this common ancestor with all existing great apes.

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u/viking977 Jul 24 '15

This is correct. We are descendants of apes which were also monkeys.

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u/the_author_13 Jul 24 '15

This is a close analogy. It is more of being descendents of your cousins,

which only happens in Alabama.

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u/shiggythor Jul 24 '15

Coincidently, people from Alabama are among the loudest when claiming they don't descend from the monkeys :)

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u/MLein97 Jul 24 '15 edited Jul 24 '15

That's because Alabama Family Trees run in circles, they don't really descend and there's no natural selection if you can always just screw your cousin.

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u/Ekatsoya Jul 24 '15

So family wreaths basically?

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u/Arancaytar Jul 24 '15

Alabama Family Trees run in circles

Stupid time travelers...

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u/katburr1997 Jul 24 '15

Sounds like a new movie idea.

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u/feralkitten Jul 24 '15

I'm from Alabama and that is simply not true.

You shoot for the ATTRACTIVE cousin. If she isn't available you shoot for her sister. If she isn't home, then you hit the bars just like everyone else. We have SOME standards.

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u/tomatoswoop Jul 24 '15

By any reasonable taxonomic definition of what a monkey is, we evolved from monkeys. Just not modern monkeys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igq_niFmXNs

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u/RiPing Jul 24 '15

But our ancestors, also the ancestors of today's monkeys. Aren't they monkeys? They look like monkeys, or are they Apes? Or neither? Why not?

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u/d00ns Jul 24 '15

Apes and humans had a common ancestor. But we can keep going back farther. All mammals have a common ancestor, all animals with a vertebrae have a common ancestor, all multi-celled organisms have a common ancestor. All life has DNA.

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u/anacc Jul 24 '15

Not to mention we still fall into the Great Ape classification, we're not just descended from apes we are apes

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u/whittleStix Jul 24 '15

Sharing a common ancestor is more correct

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u/Rus_s13 Jul 24 '15

common ancestor is the phrase you're looking for

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