Natural Selection

[Raven of Odin]

Wow it's been quite some time since I actually lurked on this website (well, at least considering the fact that I'm in front of the computer for a substantial amount of time everyday )

Well, anyways, this thread is more of a request than anything else, and I fear it has nothing to do with the Political left, but still it is a bit philosophical
Basically, the problem is that my dad is refusing to believe that evolution consists of the fact that us and other primates (chimpanzees, gorrillas) are related by a common ancestor. In fact, today he pointed out to me that evolution is wrong, because it says that we came from monkeys. He went on and further stated that some Arabic scientists (he must have heard something from his co-workers in Saudi Arabia) actually discovered the idea of a common ancestor before anyone else. He also claims that the world has only recently accepted this idea. Now what I'm trying to prove to him is that Charles Darwin talked about common ancestry all along, and he lived hundreds of years ago. However, the origin of species doesn't relate much to man and I can't seem to find an actual quote of Darwin saying that man and monkey have a common ancestor in the Descent of Man, also written by Darwin. So, basically can any of you help me prove that Darwin (or any other scientist of some time ago) actually stated that man and monkey were linked through a common ancestor.
Thanks

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

This should be in Science.

[x371322]

Here are a couple quotes.

There can, consequently, some hardly be a doubt that man is, an off-shoot of the Old World simian stem ... the Simiadae then branched off into two great stems, the New World and Old World monkeys and from the latter, at a remote period, Man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded.

-- CHARLES DARWIN, Descent of Man, ChapterVI, p. 181.

LAMARCK was the first to formulate the scientific theory of the natural origin of all organisms, including man, and at the same time to draw the two ultimate inferences from this theory firstly, the doctrine of the origin of the most ancient organisms through spontaneous generation; and secondly, the descent of man from the mammal most closely resembling man - the ape.

-- ERNST HAECKEL, Evolution Of Man, Vol. I, p 85.


Common ancestry is hardly a new idea. Hope this helps.