WONDERFUL WORLDS

As tI:lis book goes to publication in early 2012, we learn of it sensatlonaJ find of fossils. from South Africa thatsparksdeb.ate .over bow we tame to be .buman.(Source: SdeDtificAmerican, Aprl'2012). R~~cfJscovered fossils from a site ~ of Johannesburg, South Atrial represent a ~reviQt.lsJy unknown species of human with both an amaJpm of Australopithedne and Homo traits that suggests it coukt be a direct forerunntr of Homo. Sometime between tb~_ and two biftjon years ago our ancestor became recognizably human. For more than a miltron years their Australopithecine predecessors, -lucy" and her kind, who walked .upright like us, had thrived, but their wortd was changing. Shifting climate favored the spread of open grasslandl and early Australopithecines gave rise to a new lineage. One of these offshoots evoIved·1onger lap, nan. able to make tools, and a larger brain. The new species was assigned the name of Australopithecus sediba; Thisiind may cause paleoanthropologists to rethink where, when, and how Homo started. The fossils were unique insights into the order in which key homo traits appeared, and would be ancestors to Homo erectus. Some paleoanthropologists however remain unconvinced. Some anthropologists contrast the new findings with conventionat wisdom arising from other" possibly conflicting archeologist interpretations, in features of fossils from the period. Geologic evidence indicates that Homo sediba fossils formed about the same time Earth was undergoing a geomagnetic reversal in ~hich our planet's polarity flipped, and'magnetic north became magnetic south. The coincidence in timing may reveal whether, and·how, change in mankind's development was caused by a geomagnetic reversal some 1.9 billion years '~go:' . .- In this book you wiH be exposed to numerous originat ideas, some you may believe are unfounded, yet logical. Some ideas run contrary to conventional wisdom of learned men of science, phRosophy, evolution, and men of various religions. Our only defense against the unwavering hoklings of conventional wisdom is in recognizing the ability of modem humans to reason, to be logical, and to displace myth by fact, told, for example, in Homer's tales of "nad" and "Odyssey" as mere stories, fifted with man's ability and desire to exaggerate to an unbelievable extent. Much the same applies to certain stories reported in early manuscripts, questionably reported as the word of God, but more likely dreamed or created by humans of the period. The world was ph.ysicaUy much the same 10,000 years ago as it is today. This cannot be said of man's beliefs. Ancient Egyptians placed the physical careot man's living of the beating heart, with the brain material actually picked out by tools and discarded or placed in canopic jars. The ancient world was believed controlled by the panoply of gods, held as the cause of nearly all actions and reversals happening on Earth. During the agrarian period man transitionedfrom the Pleistocene cave dwellers to dwellers in first constructed houses, and in weU-peopled communities, with an intricate society developing. Even as late as 2,000 years ago forerunners of Greeks, Romans, and others believed in an extensive panoply of spiritual beinp before the advent of Hebrew, Christianity, and later Islam who believed in one God, whether caJledJehu,. God, Allah, or some other manifestation of a SuperiorBeing. Today the scientific,anthropologic, and ,philosophic worlds still have not fully agreed on man's development. Jt is advocated here that the soul in man, or sometimes referred to as the IIspirit" in man, originated 600,000 years ago, within the species Homo erectus, with an original set of elementary emotions. Magnitude of emotions expanded extensively, probably with each generation, over'the 600,000 years to the present state of modem man. The author attempts to show a comprehensive and inter-related analysis of all the factors present over the eons of time that went to make us as modem humans. These factors include the original energy gases of the cosmos, the Big Bang, expansion into the unive~e, creation of stars and galaxies, formation of our Sun, then Earth and the planets, cooling, tirst life, physical deVelopment, first of fish, then plants, animals, and amphibians, and first mammals. Primates evolved to man-like species. Homo erec.tusspecies developed from Homo etectus, after tjtany udead-end" species, having a first sPirittiaJ soul, mind, and mental ability to search and question, througl) ·sub-species of Neanderthal and HOmo sapiens, to Modern Man. With this development, a culture of agriculture and animal husbandry grew7 followed by first kingdoms in Egypt and the Mideast of Mesopotamia, migration spreading eastward through Asia, China, and the Far East, and leading to the time of Christ. This is a momentous presentation, an effort of more than 10 years, that should not be missed by any person who seeks answer to the question of, What Makes Us Human?