bjornostman

If God made humans from dust, why is there still dust around...? Checkmate!

That is a viable hypothesis. Some people (e.g. Stephen J Gould) think that nothing like humans would evolve if the we "replayed the tape of life". However, I personally predict that if we find life on other planets, then it will resemble some species from Earth in some ways, perhaps even as much as there being creatures with 4 limbs (which I think is not coincidental, but because it is a highly versatile solution to locomotion). In other words, I think convergent evolution is a very likely outcome.

The old adage is that there are no dumb questions, but that is honestly something professors say in order not to discourage students from asking questions. That being said, most questions that people have are not dumb, even when the person with the question is afraid of it - most other people won't know the answer either, so always ask, even if you think the question is dumb. But ok, with that disclaimer, one of the dumbest questions ever is "if humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes around?" Jeez! The apes - humans, chimps, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons - share a common ancestor that we can also call an ape. That ancestral population diverged, creating two new species, and this process then happened several times.

Evo psych is a field of psychology which uses evolution to generate hypotheses. Sometimes evolutionary psychologists have overreached and made strong statements about how and why this or that human behavior or instinct evolved (e.g., mating strategies such as polygamy vs. monogamy), which can be very difficult to test, and this is why I and many biologists are skeptical of the veracity of their findings. However, that is not to say that the human mind has not been subject to evolutionary pressures the same as other traits.

Edit: not

That it explains our origins. Where we come from. I studied astrophysics and cosmology as an undergrad, and in hindsight I think I was interested in that for the same reason.