Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

The concepts in the OP have been addressed a number of times by evolutionary theorists (Stephen J. Gould is one that comes to mind).

The biggest concept that throws people off is the concept of "deep time" with regard to considering the mechanism and outcome of the process of natural selection. It boggles our minds to think in terms of long spans of time considering that we operate on cycles of 24-hours, 7 days, ~30 days, and 365 days, and have a lifespan of anywhere between 40 years and 80 years, give or take.

Tell a child that they have to wait until next year before doing something they're obsessed about and see the reaction. Tell a lover that you'll see them in 10 years, and watch the reaction. Now consider that WWII ended 65 years ago. To those who are still alive, this is a distant memory and society has changed greatly since the '40s, both socially and technologically.

Now consider that the United States of America was recognized as a sovereign state over 230 years ago. That's several lifetimes. Ponder that a moment, and then consider that China has a culture dating back nearly 4,000 years. Woah, right?

Now consider that Neanderthals became extinct approximately 30,000 years ago. This means that they've been extinct 7.5 times longer than the existence of one of the most ancient cultures in the world. Take your time. Think about that.

Now consider that the genus Homo appeared around 200,000 years ago.
Now consider that the dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago.
Now consider that mammals appeared around 200 million years ago.
Now consider that multicellular life appeared around 1 billion years ago.

Now consider that the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.

Do you see a pattern? The "milestones" of evolution dating back from your 6-year-old's temper tantrum about "next year" all the way to 4.5 billion years tend to space out exponentially and through mind-boggling spans of time.

Most people today can't sit quietly for 10 minutes without stimulation, and we're talking about billions of years of evolution here.

And people question the existence of complex lifeforms and geology?