They were amazing..happy they made it..

My favorite speculative fiction author is Neal Stephenson, and he wrote this by way of introducing a milquetoast, geeky, physically unimposing protagonist to one of his novels:

“Like every other creature on the face of the earth, Godfrey was, by birthright, a stupendous badass, albeit in the somewhat narrow technical sense that he could trace his ancestry back up a long line of slightly less highly evolved stupendous badasses to that first self-replicating gizmo---which, given the number and variety of its descendants, might justifiably be described as the most stupendous badass of all time. Everyone and everything that wasn't a stupendous badass was dead.”

The novel is Cryptonomicon and while it's long and a bit meandering in its explorations of geeky subjects, it's a massively enjoyable read. (Other principal characters are, in fact, stupendous basasses by more traditional metrics.)

I like your logical thinking , Charles Darwin was a smart man it's too bad more people don't believe in what he figure it out many years ago.

I've always found it a little strange to be proud of yourself or other people/beings for things they had absolutely no control over.
I'm grateful for their existence in that it has allowed ours, I just don't think pride is what I feel for them.

Having not known my very early ancestors I cannot say I am proud of them as I did not know them,but natural selection allowed them to succeed otherwise I would not be here today.

I like the site ancient origins. You can register for free, and be commercial free. Getting back to the point, my favorite study is the age of man, but I never thought about being proud of them. However you do make a good point, and will consider being proud of my ancient ancestors as time passes.

I too feel the same about our ancestors. It's remarkable that the human race managed to survive all those years ago. Little or no food, tribal battles for land and food etc, terrible mortality rates. Yep, God was certainly testing the human race ??
Having recently started doing my family tree etc, I have been pleasantly surprised where my ancestors came from. Having my DNA tested has opened up a new way of looking at my past.

Incidentially, I am English born and raised and currently live in New Zealand. A little more to put on my family tree.
Alan

Mine came from a galaxy far away and not that long ago so I don't know who you talking about.

Ah but they gave us our suspicious and superstitious nature, You`re feeding on the savanna and you hear a noise in the rushes. It could be a lion or just the wind. Do you stay and feed or do you run? We are descended from those that ran!

You're right that religious people love the idea that they (humans) were god's special project. They find the idea of evolution so distasteful. I'm with you in thinking that it's actually really cool. Way more impressive than being formed out of mud, or a rib from a guy made from mud.

Meh.

Yes. At times when I feel down, if justifiably so, I’ll try to remind myself what it took to be here … envisioning one of my distant ancestors having clawed their way home to protect their children.. so there could be me… In many ways, we owe it to them to persevere, to live because they’d have wanted us to. And, they’d likely both understand and respect our desire, or lack of, to reproduce. They were once here, and I respect them immensely.

They did not give that to you, its not their merit for what they passed to you. Was a natural proces of survival and unconscious adaptation of the organism. I think makes more sense to be proud that you read and are interested in things. We are "victims" of our nature, not creators. There is nothing to be proud of. Its fascinating to learn about it? yes. But nobody has the merit for that.

I posted a pic of my Great Great Grandad. He was a very successful ancestor of mine.

I'm not sure I'm proud of my ancestors, but I'm glad it all worked out for them.

You have reason to feel proud of well-grounded beliefs, and of your independence.

Cool to know.We all are descended from those furry creatures.

I am proud to be a great ape!

Yes it's fascinating to me.