[QUOTE="GabuEx"]The tree of life is thought to have begun on Earth approximately one billion years ago, although the exact methods by which life arose is currently a matter of debate, and the field of the origins of life on Earth is in a very infantile state in science at the moment. However, what we do know is that once the most primitive self-replicating forms of life were established on the planet, they began to slowly grow into the complexity and diversity of life we have today over those billion years through the processes of genetic mutation and natural selection, catalyzed at certain points in time through significant changes in the environment. Humans in particular, those being members of the species Homo sapiens, began to exist approximately 200,000 years ago after separating from their evolutionary ancestors, although given the gradual and progressive nature of evolution, illustrated in what is known as the species problem, it would be difficult to definitively point to a singular life form in the past and say "this was the first human being".
Xbot_720
So where are the half-human half-ape creatures? How come we all evolved at the same speed considering people live in very different conditions and environments?You're asking for a common rhetorical phantom that doesn't exist and are attempting to argue against evolution by propping up a straw man, something that evolution has never conjectured to exist, and asking why it doesn't exist. You can no more point at a "half-human half-ape creature" than you can point at a "half-teenager half-adult human". There is no such thing as a transitional species because every species is a transitional form, as evolution is constantly happening. (And, for that matter, humans are apes, so you're basically asking for the equivalent of a "half-apple half-fruit plant".)
As for evolution within humans, look no further than the quantity of melanin in one's skin, the single most major determinant between whether one is considered white or black. There is a distinct correlation between the degree to which a native resident of a location on Earth receives direct sunlight over the course of the year and the quantity of melanin naturally occurring in that human's skin. Melanin protects against skin cancer, but inhibits the natural synthesis of vitamin D from direct sunlight. In areas with a lot of direct sunlight over the course of the year, the protection against skin cancer is more important for survival, so people have lots of melanin in their skin; in areas with less direct sunlight, the synthesis of vitamin D is more important for survival, so people have less.
Evolution is all around us, if we're willing to see it.
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