They want to take mine out for like 20 years now, but I refuse. As long as I don't have them causing any pain, I keep them. Mankind survived for millions of years without them being taken out, but I can't keep em nowadays?
"Mankind" as in our current form of
Homo sapiens is estimated to be no more than 200 000 years old. During this time however, evolution has not stopped and humans have continued to evolve. One of the things that has changed most notably in the evolution of man is the skull, especially our cranial capacity, our foreheads and our
jaws. Just looking at our predecessor
Homo erectus should make that clear.
Top:
Homo erectus est. 1.7 My - 0.3 My
Bottom:
Homo sapiens est. 0.2 My - present
Over the past million years, the 'human' jaw has become notably smaller and thus has far less room for as many teeth. Indeed, Mankind has
not been "doing fine", as as much as 35% of humans do not have wisdom teeth. The fact that wisdom teeth are not always life-threatening and do not become a problem until after reproductive age means evolutionary pressure is low, but I do not doubt that, had we evolved a few hundred thousand years longer before inventing safe pre-emptive surgery, humans would not have wisdom teeth at all.
That said, my dentist has told me that if your wisdom teeth aren't bothering you, there's no real need to have them removed. As such, I also still have mine.