The Beginning: Created or Originated?

By K.T.Rajasingham

History is the story of mankind, but still obscured and blurred. The roots of history lie in the pre-human past. It is an interesting topic, also debatable, when we attempt to trace the chain of human descent back from the prehistoric period. To date, one cannot say anything precisely about the last form of recognized, evolved or created hominid, the Homo sapiens - the name of modern man as species.  One has to exercise restraint and caution to arrive at any conclusion regarding the origin, or the creation of human beings. The important question that lies before everyone is:  “When did history began?” Each one has his or her own interpretations, speculations and replies. Indeed, the ready-made answer is, “In the beginning,” similar to the one found in the Book of Genesis.

The response poses another question regarding the “beginning.” Though the beginning is now a certainty, the question is whether we accept the beginning of the prehistoric world, that evolved due to natural process into the planet earth, as referred in the scientific conclusions, or the beginning as mentioned in the creationists’ theory?

The earth is one of the nine planets in the Solar system that came into self-existence, as early as four thousand and five hundred years ago. This is how scientists belief about the earth planet. According to cosmological analysis, for more than two thousand million years, the earth was a burning fireball; followed by incessant rain for the next one thousand and five hundred million years; subsequently, the earth began to cool down. Following the natural cooling process, there was no trace of any living organism in the world, well over a period of one thousand million years.

When the earth was incandescent or molten at the surface, there was no chance for the existence of the sea, during the early periods. The water mass, the sea of today, evolved most probably, due to steam mixed with air in the atmosphere. The molten earth particles solidified and turned into rocks. Speculation about the age of the oldest rocks, by geologists and astronomers varies, between 1,600,000,000 and 25,000,000 years. The chronology of the history of the earth is revealed by its rocks. Geologists divided the earth into several periods and ages. 

GEOLOGICAL TIMESCALE
	
ERA                        	Period		Epoch		Duration		Million	
		(Time)		(Time)		In million	Years	
		OR		Series		Years		Ago	
		System		(Rock)		(Approx.)		(Approx.)	
		(Rock)							
				Holocene				(12000	
				(Recent)				Years)	
		Quaternary	Pleistocene				
				(Glacial)		C.1.5		C.1.5	
CAINOZOIC			Pliocene		5.5		7	
				Miocene		19		26	
(CENOZOIC)	Tertiary		Oligocene		12		38	
				Eocene		16		54	
				Paleocene	11		65	
		Cretaceous			71		136	
MESOZOIC	Jurassic				54		190	
(SECONDARY)	Triassic				35		225	
		Permian				55		280	
			American						
		Carboniferous	Pennsylvanian		65			
			Mississippian					
PALAEOZOIC	Devonian				50		345	
(PRIMARY)	Silurian				35		395	
		Ordovician			70		430	
		Cambrian				70		500	
								570	
		PROTERZOIC						
PRECAMBRIAN	ARCHEOZOIC						

						                                  (The Penguin Dictionary of Geography)	

(Geological time – rocks reveal the chronology of the history of the earth. The hierarchy of time-periods shown in the Geological Timescale is not always strictly observed: there are variations in names and the period used. An epoch (time) may be divided into Ages – 2 – during which a formation (of rocks) may be laid down.)

 Eight hundred million years ago, there was the Azoic or Archaeozoig period possibly without any life at all. Followed by Proterozoic period four about 600 million years ago, a period without any visible traces of living organism, except for the jelly fish, green scum and the like living beings that existed. The Early Paleozoic period that was 360 million years ago was the age of sea scorpions and trilobites and the period was the one before the appearance of the vertebrate animals. 

Later Paleozoic period was about 260 million years ago, the age of the fishes, amphibians and swamp forests. The age of the reptiles were during the Mesozoic period, that was 140 millions years ago, followed by the Cenozoic period about 65 million years ago, which was the age of the mammals, anthropoids, grass and land forests.

The origin of the human being is a subject, based on hypothetical conjectures and broad based speculations. Geologists also mention about the wintry phases, namely - First, Second, Third and fourth Glacial Ages, and of the interludes, called, Interglacial periods. The First Glacial Age was approximately 600,000 years ago, and the Fourth Glacial Age reached its peak some 50,000 years ago. The first man-like being lived upon the earth in the midst of the long universal winter. Evolutionary process was determined by the astronomical cycles, as the earth position changes in relation to the Sun, so did the climate.

Anthropologists based their surveys on paleontology, i.e., on the past geological periods and on fossils, genetics, and anatomical studies and began to evolve a theory on the origin of the human beings. Investigation on the evolution of the human beings confirms the first hominid or the human-like primate was Ramapithecus, which emerged 12 million years ago. Followed by Homo Habillus, a large brained specimen that walked erect. The third in the line of the human evolution was Homo erectus, which emerged 1.75 million years ago. It had a large brain and a skeletal structure, similar to the modern human. Last in the line is Homo sapiens, which is considered the last recognized human forms, emerged between 500,000 and 50,000 years ago.

Recently, Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain and a team of Spanish paleo-anthropologists found the fossilized remains of a boy with a remarkably modern face, in a limestone cave in Spain’s central Atapuerca Mountains, during an excavation, which lasted from 1994 to 1996. The Spanish scientists said that they had discovered new species of human beings, in a 78,000-year-old fossil, possibly the oldest known European.

Earlier in Europe, when the Fourth Glacial Age was rising to its maximum, human like species took to caves and left vestiges at Krapina in Croatia, and at Neanderthal, near Duesseldorf, in Germany. Skulls and bones of creatures’ found in those caves were strikingly similar to that of human. They were old as 50,000 years, appeared Homo Neanderthalensis, also called Homo antiuas, but easily passable as human beings.

A team of scientists from Munich, Germany, took a small sample  - 0.4 grams, from the upper born of a skeleton found in 1857, in the Neander Valley, near Duesseldorf, where the first ever Neanderthal skeleton was found. They compared the Neanderthal’s mitochondria DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid – the main constituent of the chromosomes of all organism) that of modern humans. Studying 378 base pairs, they found an average of 27 differences, between modern human and Neanderthal DNA, compared to typical variation of eight between modern humans. Subsequently, the scientists concluded that, there is no sign of Neanderthal lurking in the human family tree. The scientists believed, that the DNA from the Neanderthal skeleton is helping to resolve one of the great debates on the human evolution.

This latest study reveals that, Neanderthals were bigger than modern humans and had bigger brains.  They walked erect, used tools and there is evidence that they coexisted and learned some skills from Cro-Magnon people. (Cro-Magnards were tall people, with very broad faces, prominent noses and astonishingly, big brains.) Scientists source their origins to an early expansion out of Africa of advanced form Homo erectus. Possibly seven hundred thousand years ago. 

Furthermore, the 1998 discovery by the Spanish scientist team, with more than 80 fossils of skulls, jaws, teeth and other parts of the skeleton, would offer a new insight into the mysterious time and place in the human evolution. Those fossils are particularly valuable because, dated well using shifts in the earth’s magnetic field to about 800,000 years ago. In addition, they would fill a big gap in the fossil record of tracing the evolutionary path of modern man.

The unique combination of features with a face like that of the modern Homo Sapiens species and a jaw and brow similar to the extinct Neanderthals, led Spanish scientists to name them – Homo Antecessor.  The name comes from the Latin word for ‘explorer,’ and these species might have originated in Africa, where it caused the Homo sapiens, long before the species migrated to Europe.

Newly discovered fossils led to presume that, Homo Antecessor also trekked into Europe, about a million years ago, and caused the rise of Homo Heidelbergensis, the predecessor of the Neanderthal man like species, that lived in the Ice Age in Europe, until about 28,000 years ago.

In the meantime, “Out of Africa theory,” dealt a new blow, when a recent extensive genetic study had confirmed that the ancestors of all living humans emerged from Africa, some 50,000 years ago, either killed off or out-completed all other human like creatures, who settled across much of the world.  However, two studies published in the first week of January 2001, strongly disputed this scenario and reignited the vigorous and often acrimonious debate about: “From where humans came from?”

One study conducted in Australia, used genetic evidence that suggested “Mungo Man” – a 60,000 year-old skeleton – is genetically unrelated to the Africans, believed to have evolved 150,000 or so years ago, and later to have settled the world.

Another, published in 12 January 2001 issue of the journal “Science,” analyzed physical features of early human skulls to suggest that there must have been interbreeding among migrating Africans and resident Neanderthals and even Homo erectus species of pre-humans.

“There never was a marauding band of Africans,” said, Milford Wolpoff, anthropologist from the University of Michigan, who published the latest report in Science, along with his colleagues.

Wolpoff said that, his findings and the Australian findings indicated that humans in Europe and Australia evolved gradually from Homo erectus and Neanderthals, with input from Africans, over time. This view contrasted with theories that Homo erectus and Neanderthals were dead-end species. He said: “It is certainly means that the ‘Eve’ theory, the replacement theory, seems to be wrong,” Wolpoff argued, that there is no such thing as a separate species of early humans, despite studies about the Neanderthal DNA, that showed it to be distinct from the DNA of modern living humans.

“Ancient humans shared genes and behaviors across wide regions of the world, and were not rendered extinct by one ‘lucky group’ that later evolved into us,” Wolpoff said. “The fossils clearly show that more than one ancient group survived and thrived.”

Studies released in November 2000 seemed to reinforce the idea that one man who lived in Africa 59,000 years ago, and one woman who lived some 143,000 years ago, are the genetic ancestor of all surviving humans.

Peter Underhill, of Stanford University in California and colleagues around the world did a genetic analysis of DNA samples from the Y-chromosomes of more than 1,000 men, and mitochondria DNA from women to reach their conclusion.

Both types of DNA are believed to be passed down from father to son in case of Y-chromosomes, and mother to daughter in the case of mitochondria DNA. Wolpoff did not dispute these findings, but strongly disagreed with the idea, that they meant modern Africans killed or out-competed earlier human populations, replacing Neanderthals and Homo erectus 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Earlier, it was Thomas Huxley, an associate of Darwin, investigated the origin of man, and assumed that Homo sapiens or men, regarded as an organic species, arise from the now sunken continent called Lemuria. Huxley’s view was shared by Frederick Engels. In his book, “The role played by Labour in the transition from Ape to Man,” Engels wrote, 
“– A highly developed race of anthropoid apes lived somewhere in the topical zone – probably on a great continent that has now sunk to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.” Also, Earnest Haeckel, the great 19th Century biologist, named his hypothetical genus of Primate’s Pithecanthropus, or ape-man, he believed that it had lived in Lemuria and migrated from there North-East to India and South-East to Asia and Westwards to Africa.

This was supposed to be the beginning of the history of humankind, according to scientists, who searched every bit and pieces of evidence so far recorded, to establish the beginning of the human beings. However, no one has come out with the perfect story of the world, we continue to stumble across more emerging evidences, almost at irregular intervals, which helps to update the existing analysis. However, we had for a long time, a blurred story, an obscured one, because the evidences are fragmentary, therefore we cannot be exactly sure of what we are looking for. Anyhow, the humanity has to carry forward into the historical times with certain possibilities that were settled long ago in the remote past than the more recent times.

On the contrary, according to the Holy Bible, in the Genesis, the world was created suddenly, in about 5,508 BC, and what happened before that time, is matter of guess, pure conjecture and speculation. In the Genesis, we find mention of God creating heaven and earth, also describe the beginning of the earth, including the story of the creation of Adam, the first man and the creation of a companion, from one of the ribs of the first man –‘and made the rib into a woman and brought her to the man.’

In addition, in the first book of the Holy Bible, the universal flood that took place during that period is mentioned and Noah on the command of the Lord built the Arc and describes how him and other creatures, which were in the ship were saved from complete destruction from the face of the earth. According to the Holy Bible Genesis 7:17 –“For forty days, the roaring flood prevailed, …” 7: 24: - “And water covered the earth 150 days.”  According to Bible’s detailed chronology, the indications are that the Great Flood occurred in the year 2370 BC.

In the first verse of Genesis, it is recorded, “- in the beginning, the Gods (elochim) created …” etc., as the opening sentence of the book. The usage of the word Gods, to refer the plural number, is available in the old Hebrew versions, as the first verse, as of above. No exegetic subtlety could efface this clear indication of the polytheistic outlook of the author of Genesis (Breshith).

This indicates that, the author of the book was not such pronounced monotheist Moses and this legend were born amongst the polytheistic people. The first book of the Pentateuch of Moses, or the Book of Genesis called Bereshith, from the first word of the Hebrew text, which means “in the beginning.”

Although, tradition ascribes to Moses the authorship of Pentateuch, and is very likely that some of the chapters were written by this remarkable man, but it is difficult to accept the authorship of the whole Pentateuch. This applies more specially to Deuteronomy, which describes the circumstances of the Moses’ death, which could have been hardly narrated by him.  A careful study of the comparative chronology of Bereshith and Egyptian sources, also limits the range if Moses’ authorship.

For many centuries, Christian’s world considered Beresith to be the oldest written document, but there was no doubt that humanity has possessed documents of even greater antiquity. One such oldest book was the Book of Enoch. The word ‘Enoch’ in ancient Hebrew means, ‘initiated.’ Among the patriarchs mentioned in the Bereshith is Enoch. According to tradition, Enoch wrote cosmogony known under the name Book of Enoch.

Moses learnt a lot from the Book of Enoch, which was given to him by Jetro, his father-in-law, the Ethiopian priest-magician and the former must have incorporated some of the knowledge thus acquired into the Bereshith. Perhaps, the Book of Enoch served as the prototype for all other version of Bereshith.

It is a remarkable fact to note that, almost all the ancient tribes in the world possessed approximately similar versions, regarding the origin of the man and that of the great flood. Such parallelisms in the versions of such widely separated nations concerning the same calamity, lead us to deduce a common denominator source for all these legends. 

Detail analysis shows that, according to theory of the creationists, the God (or Gods) considered unique in the minds and thought of human beings and hold a unique position in the creationist theory of humankind.

The Holy Qur’an, the holy book of the Muslims, in Surat 2A – 21-22, states as follows, about the creation of the earth and human beings.

21.	O, ye people!
Worship our Guardian Lord,
Who created you
And those who came before you
That ye may become righteous.
     
22.	Who has made the earth your 
Couch
      And heavens your canopy
      And sent down rain from the
      Heavens;
      And brought forth therewith
      Fruits for your sustenance
      Then set not up rivals unto Allah
      When ye know (the truth).

The Islamic concept of the creation of the mankind and earth according to their holy book is by Allah (let peace be with him) – the Almighty God. The theory of the creation of the world found in the Holy Bible is prevalent in almost all the religious scriptures. These scriptures have their own form of interpretations regarding the origin of the world, human beings, as well as that of the flood.

The oldest theory of the creation of man and the subsequent flood that submerged the world is also found in the Hinduttuva books. According to Hind beliefs, ‘Creation has no beginning – anadi, and it is eternal.’ Brahma is the Creator of the universe in the Hindu Trinity.

At the end of each Kalpa – a unit of time equal to a day of Brahma, amounting to 4,320 earth or world years, each time a new universe is recreated. At the end of the last age, there was a great deluge or destruction, which destroyed the universe. The present Age is the eight kalpa called Swetavarah. Brahma believed to have meditated at the dawn of this age, and then the God Almighty appeared in the form of sound of OM (AUM), also known as - Pranava – the origin of the entire Vedic absolute pronouncement, and AUM is the most sacred symbol, absolute in Hinduism. Brahman prayed God Almighty for the knowledge to create a new universe.

From the vibration sound of AUM, the Almighty God conceived the four Vedas – Holy Books and which are compiled from divine revelations, are – Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda, and Atharva Veda. God taught these four Vedas to Brahma, who in turn, with the acquired supreme knowledge of Vedas, created the present universe. In the Hindu scriptures, “Manu” is the appropriated name for man. Manu means, the one who can think.  In addition, the name Manu provided a generic base for manava, meaning ‘humankind. 

The name Manu also denotes the fourteen progenitors of mankind and the rulers of the earth. There are several theories put forward in the Hinduttuva scriptures. The first is that, Manu’s, who were Swayambhuva (self-existence), who sprang from Swayam-bhuva (self-existence). Brahma, the creator in the Hindu pantheons of Gods, is identified as self-existent. He divided himself into two forms, male and female, and out of this pair emerged the male Viraj, from him sprang the Manu Swayam-bhuva. Manu describes thus about Viraj, “having divided his body into two parts, Brahma became half a male and other half female. In her, he created Viraj. Know that I Manu, whom the male Viraj himself, am the creator of all things in this world.”  

According to another account, Manu sprang from the incestuous intercourse of Brahma with his daughter, who was his wife - Satarupa. Brahma created himself as Manu, born of and identical with his original self, (may be something similar to the present days’ Cloning) and the female portion of himself, he constituted Satarupa, one of his creations and whom Manu took to be his wife. Manu the male half of Brahma, supposed to typify all male creatures and Satarupa, the female half, of all female creatures.

The legend of the deluge was connected with the seventh Manu, named Vaivaswata. The first account of this is found in the scripture book ‘Satapatha Brahmana.’ This book is connected with the White Yajur Veda. Following is the summary of the story of the deluge:

Manu saw a fish in the earthen vessel of water brought for him to wash his hand. When he attempted to catch the fish, it began to address Manu: “Take care of me and I will preserve you.” Manu asked: “From what you will preserve me?”  The fish replied, “A flood will carry away all living beings. I will save you from that calamity.” Manu kept the fish in the earthen vessel alive and removed it to a river, as he grew larger, eventually to an ocean. The fish rapidly grew larger and larger and again addressed Manu: “After so many years, the deluge will take place; then build a ship and pay me homage and I will rescue you.”  Accordingly, Manu built a ship and paid homage to the fish.  Suddenly, a big calamity struck, the flood rose and Manu hastened to fastened the cable of the ship to the horns of the fish. The ship was dragged by the fish, passed over the Northern Mountains, Himalayas. The fish then ordered Manu to fasten the ship to a surviving tree and go down to the shore with the subsiding waters. He did so, and found that the flood has swept away all the living creatures. Desirous of an offspring and other worldly creatures, Manu produced a woman with whom he lived and produced offsprings, which are the “children’s of Manu” and all the living worldly creatures. In addition, the same episode is recorded in Mahabarata, another Hinduttuva epic, with a slight variation. In the Hindu scriptures, the age of the world is called Kalpa and now we are in the eight Kalpa. It is subdivided into Yugas. The Yugas are four in numbers and their duration is first composed as the ‘years of the God.’ Subsequently calculated that a year of God is 360 years that of men. Therefore, the age of the world, according to the years of the men are as follows:

Yuga is the age of the world. Each of these ages is proceeded by a period called its Sandhya or twilight, and followed by another period of equal length called Sandyansa – ‘a portion of the twilight,’ each being equal to one-tenth of a Yuga. Years are four in number, and their duration is first compiled by Years of Gods: -

1.	Krita Yuga 					4000
	Sandhya 					 400
	Sandhyansa					 400
	                                                                       -------
								4,800
2. 	Treta Yuga 					3000
	Sandhya 					 300
	Sandhyansa					 300
	                                                                       -------
								3,600
3.	Dwapara Yuga 				2000
	Sandhya 					 200
	Sandhyansa					 200
	                                                                       -------
								2,400
4. 	Kali Yuga 					1000
	Sandhya 					 100
	Sandhyansa					 100
	                                                                       -------
								1,200
								--------
									12,000
A year of the God is equal to 360 years.

	4800	X 	360	= 	1,728,000
	3600	X	360	=	1,296,000
	2400	X	360	=	  864,000
	1200	X	360	=	  432,000
				-------------
	Total				4,320,000 (years)

According to the Hinduttuva books, already Fivethousand and one hundred years have elapsed and now we are in the 5,101-year (in 2000-2001 AD) in the Kali Yuga – the period of degeneration of virtues. By the end of the Kali Yuga, according to the Hinduttuva books, the world would be doomed forever. The exact date of the Great Flood is very hard to determine, but it is believed that it occurred during the beginning of the Kali Yuga.

The world owes much debt to the Hindu mathematicians and astronomers, whose knowledge was conveyed to the Arab and Greek worlds. The concept of zero or suniya, an abstract concept of numbers, algebra, and decimal system, all owe their origin to the ancient Hindus. The Isavasya Upanishad taught as a philosophical concept, the revolutionary mathematical truth that, infinity divided by any number, continues to be infinity. Jyotisha, the science of astronomy, and astrology, is the fourth Vedanga – the explanatory limb of the Vedas.  Astronomy was the more important branch of the science - Jyotisha. Early Hindu scientists with their advance theories were able to explore the intricacies of the universe. The ancient Hindu astronomer, Aryabhatta, born 476 AD, declared that, it was not the sun that moved around the world, but earth, which on its axis, rotates the sun.

Eduardo Matos Motezumma, the Director of the Archeological Museum in Mexico, writes of the Gods’ responsibility to carry out acts of creation. “Six hundred years after the birth of our four brother Gods, the son of Tonacatecli (Tonacatechutli), all four came together and said that, it was good that they order what was to be done and the law that they should have. They all committed themselves to Quetzalcoatl and Uchilobi (Huitzilopochtli), so that, they two should order it and these two by the commission and countenance of the other two, made fire and half the Sun, which because it was not the entire Sun and did not illuminate much, but rather little. Then they made a man and a woman. The man they called Uxumuco and her they called Cipastonal, and they ordered them to work the earth and that she should spin and weave and from them would be born Macehuales. Then they created the heavens beyond the thirteen, and they made water and in it they raised a large fish, which is called Cipoa Cuacli (Cipactli), which is like an alligator and from this fish, they made the earth.”

In the Popol-Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiches tribes of Mexico, find records, how the duality Tepu-Gucumatz, created the earth and separated it from the waters, but its main concern was the creation of man. The book further states: “there will be neither glory, nor greatness in our creation and formation, until the human creature exists and until Man is formed;” said the Gods and then they created a pair of elders called Ixpiyacoc and Ixumucane.

Another scripture, ‘The Book of Chilam Balam,’ one of the most sacred Mayan Indian manuscript’ so far discovered, especially written in Latin alphabets, instead of hieroglyphs. The document represents a collection of texts from various epochs, written in various styles, compiled and translated by an American Indian, Juan Jose Hoil, a native from the locality of Chumayel, in Mexico. The book is said to be written in 1782. The fifth chapter of this book, speaks of the universal flood, moreover of the cosmic changes that occurred. An enormous meteorite fell upon the earth, violent earthquakes occurred and the surface if the earth underwent a series of changes. Large mass of earth, flooded with lava, also covered with volcanic ashes and in the end, all the firm lands sank, which caused the great tidal waves of waters of the ocean to flood and the submerge the landmass. This book reminds us of the words in the Book of Genesis, where it was stated that, the rainbow shone at the end of the flood as a sign that Jehovah promised not to send anymore of such calamities.

There is always a high possibility to assume that the story of the Great flood must have been the adaptation of the Babylonian story of the Great flood and rendering nativity.  King Gilgamesh, the greatest Sumerian who ruled from Uruk, becomes a legendary hero and has an epic written about him. This is one of the oldest stories in the world, known to have been written soon after 2000BC. Uta-nipishtim tells the story of how King Gilgamesh survived the Great Flood – a first story of this kind about flood. The story of flood and Noah in Genesis might be a successful adaptation of the Babylonian epic.

Historians acclaimed King Gilgamesh, as the first individual and the first hero in the world literature. Most striking part of the epic is the coming of a great flood which obliterated mankind, except for a favored family, who survive by building an ark; from them spring a new race, to people the world, after the flood has subsided.

American Indians possesses numerous legends concerning this prehistoric calamity. The Paraguayan and Brazilian Guaranys posses’ cycle of legends concerning their national hero Tamanduare, who with his family were the few survivors spared by the catastrophe, that destroyed the “City of the Shining Roofs.” Almost all the ancient tribes possess reasonably similar traditions concerning the Great Flood. The ancient Greek legend tells us about the terrible inundation that occurred during the reign of Phoroneus, the King Pelasgi of Argos, and about Deucalion and his Pyrrha. The ancient Egyptians had their own legend concerning the Great Flood. According to the Egyptian legend, the God Tem (otherwise Temou, Atem or Armou) drawn waters out of the abyss and inundated the earth to destroy the humanity, ultimately everybody perished, save those on the boat of God Tem.

The above brief account shows that, the origin of mankind and the universal flood are not only recorded in Genesis, but also in almost all the sacred books of the prehistoric world. Most historians agree that the Jewish compilers of the Jahvist Genesis must have borrowed their data about the flood from other sources. The Genesis dates the creation of the world at 5508 BC, while the Egyptian chronology begins, with its’ first dynasty at 5004 BC. The coincidence of certain chronological dates of Bereshith with Egyptian ones could easily explained by the education that Moses received from the Egyptian priests. Thus the differences in chronologies, probably introduced by Moses, must have been aimed purposely for reasons of a political and religious character. On the other hand, Jews compiled some of their sacred books, during their captivity by Babylonians; therefore, the profound influence of Summero-Babylonian prevalent in the Jews-Christian texts is almost an understandable factor.

Men in the present age have not seen their origin. Living things on the earth today are not evolving into something else. Instead, they are complete in form and distinct from other types.  Thus, the living varieties of things now alive, offer no support to the theory of evolution. That is why the fossil records become a very important factor. Fossils would provide confirmation of the origin and evolution. Fossils are the remains of the ancient forms of life preserved in the earth’s crust. These may be skeletons or parts of them, such as bones, teeth or shells. Fossils may also be able to be considered as some trace of activity of what was once alive, such as an imprint or a trail.

Again, the creationist theory on fossils sharply differs from that of the scientist. The creationists emphasize that, if fossils record is allowed to speak, its’ testimony would not be evolution oriented. Instead, the testimonies of the fossil records are creation oriented. It shows that, so many different kinds of living beings suddenly appeared. While there were great varieties within each kind, these had no links to the evolutionary ancestors before them. Furthermore, did they have any evolutionary links to different kinds of living things that came after them? Creationists categorically emphasize that the fossil history does not agree with the evolutionary theory. Creationists emphasize that, fossil records tells that, plants and animals are created on their basic forms. The facts of the fossil records support the creation and not the evolution.

In conclusion, reflecting on the theories of origin, put forward by the scientists and that of the theists, they vastly differ from each other. The evolutionary theory of the origin of the world and that of the human beings, is being focused beyond the theistic theory of creation many hundred millions of years ahead.  Views regarding the creation and the theory put forward by the scientists are still polarized, remains evasive to reach any positive conclusions, but the lives of human and other beings continues, whilst the world remains a planet of wonder, amazement, mystifying on nature and one beyond any sort of comprehensible imagination.

To understand the ancient past of the universe and of the human beings is an exercise similar to going through the memory lanes of our great grand ancestors, who made the earth the right place of abode for all of us. As writer William Fulkner put it, “The past is not dead. It is not even past.  Therefore interacting with the past would bring on the future, a more lucid vision and precise details of the origin of the world and the human beings.” 

Hence, it is safe to conclude that, History is one subject, where one cannot begin in the beginning, as it lays well beyond human limitation and imagination.

Courtesy: Weekend Express – 2-3 January 1999.

A Revised Version