[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

A few days ago at a hotel during breakfast, I found myself talking to a Morman from South West England touring my country. At first glance he seemed like the stereotypical Brit: his name was Clive, was drinking tea with milk, and partaking in sausage and baked beans with flawless eating utensil etiquette.
His group was debating evolution with a group that was seated adjacent to them. He said something to the effect of "if we're descended from apes, why do they still exist?".
In a moment of rare rudeness, I decided I needed to be a part of this discussion in some capacity, saying "because not all apes evolved under the same conditions. The apes we evolved from were in the Great Rift Valley, and in this dry, barren, dangerous mountain-locked region they were forced to survive in, the conditions were such that the ones best at problem-solving were the ones that lived long enough to multiply. They were the ones that were successful at hunting, cultivating, seeking drinkable water, and self-defense. Over the course of several million years, their problem-solving abilities got more and more sophisticated, eventually evolving into humans. Am I figuring it wrong here?

[Bored chemist]

It might have been entertaining to see their reaction to being informed that they are apes.

Your big problem is assuming that a religious group will pay attention to evidence.

[Petrochemicals]

He said something to the effect of "if we're descended from apes, why do they still exist?".

We've nearly got the rest of them, don't worry. By using that logic we are also descended from the great auk

Being able to sit on 2 feet freed the hands that had opposable thumbs, the hands led to greater brain mass over generations. Maybe the environment of the rift valley led to the hand being more dexterous than that of west africa.

[alancalverd]

Fact is that we aren't descended from any extant ape, any more than you are descended from your brother:  we share a common ancestor.

[Bored chemist]

If your ancestors came from Ireland, why are there still people in Ireland?

[alancalverd]

Funny bunch, Mormons. Those I've worked with have been extremely pleasant, very clever, very hardworking and successful engineers and business people, exemplary in their humanitarianism, and unbelievably gullible. It's almost as if they acquire moral and intellectual strength through a shared belief in the absurd.

[paul cotter]

The gentleman in question could not have been a real Mormon, they do not drink tea or any other caffeinated beverages. In general it is pointless arguing evolution with religious types as they see their dogma to trump all scientific theory and observation.

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

The gentleman in question could not have been a real Mormon, they do not drink tea or any other caffeinated beverages.

He was clearly drinking tea (perhaps non-caffeinated). He and his group were Morman, they made that fact clear as pepsi clear.

[paul cotter]

De-caffeinated?, why did I not think of that. Maybe it was "Mormon tea", a decoction of the plant ephedra nevadensis which pharmacologists cannot agree as to whether it contains ephedrine or not.

[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

De-caffeinated?, why did I not think of that. Maybe it was "Mormon tea", a decoction of the plant ephedra nevadensis which pharmacologists cannot agree as to whether it contains ephedrine or not.

I knew a person that overdosed on ephedrine.