This is one of the most hotly debated subjects around which has absolutely no bearing on day to day life either way. We are here it doesn't really matter how we got here but I'm gonna write about it anyway.
The fact that things is evolved is obvious, well documented and for all intents and purposes proven to be fact. However, this does not automatically disregard a theory of Creationism or Planned Evolution. How so? You may ask well I'll explain. Just because we all evolved from goop that became monocellular lifeforms and then primitive multicellular organisms and so on doesn't mean that some all powerful deity didn't start it all.
If we all came from some freak occurence on our little ball of dirt and that little ball of dirt came from the Big Bang which, it is suspected was as a result of a concentration of all the stuff that makes up the galaxy in a very small ball, there is no reason why a deity or deities couldn't have snapped his or her fingers (or tentacles or whatever) bringing that ball into existence.
As for Planned Evolution (eg. Aliens or a deity took an active role in causing specific mutations and then selective culling of the heard which resulted in us) this is a theory which is delightful to propose because it can't really be countered in a significant way because our evolution is a very strange thing. A VERY unlikely thing. Evolution is unlikely for the following reason: suppose a super human who can withstand extreme temperatures and go without food, sleep and oxygen but he or she gets struck by lightening before they can reproduce and pass on their super genes.
So as you can see, it is possible for all these theories to coexist as long as creationists don't keep saying that humans didn't evolve but instead just appeared because fossil records discount that as being not at all likely.
Thanks for reading, as usual my email address is on the bottom of this page. Feel free to email me.
Update : Okay, so basically everything I said (especially : "our evolution is a very strange thing. A VERY unlikely thing.") is TOTAL BULLSHIT. Evolution is extremely sensible likely and plausible. It isn't limited to biological but in all things. Things progress over time to more and more orderly states. I'm not removing this essay because I did believe that at one point and hey: why would I destroy something I created? Also, the way I went from the original essay to this update over time is a fine example of evolution. Besides, it does me good to know that this very stupid thing and it's correction is in the public domain... not that this is a high trafic site. And it's not like I've never made a mistake before, but I won't make this one again since it is a BLATANT DENIAL OF REALITY. Thanks.
Oh, yeah. Evolution has everything to do with day to day life. Only by understanding how we got here and where we came from - how our genes and society evolved can we understand where to go. There is an obvious tendancy in the progression of the reality process and once this is understood we can direct our will in accordance with it and instead of opposing this wave we can be carried along with it.
