How many years ago did man appear on earth?
The most ancient, reliable representatives of the human race are known about 2-2.5 ml. years ago. And a modern man appeared 40-50 thousand years ago.
For many millions of years, human ancestors inhabited a limited area in eastern Africa. Here, on Lake Victoria, 18 million years ago lived a proconsul - our common ancestor with the apes; more than 4 million years ago, the Afar Australopithecus, our upright ancestor, arose here. Here the first representative of the genus Man spent his entire history - a skilled man who appeared more than 2 million years ago, and here 1.6 million years ago an upright man arose. Where our species - a reasonable person - began its journey is not known, but somewhere nearby.
The most ancient of the genus Homo is Homo habilis, or a skilled man, the first representatives of which appeared on Earth about 2 million years ago. Until that time, only Australopithecus probably existed. About 2.5 million years ago, a split occurred in the evolution of hominids, as a result of which massive australopithecines (a dead-end branch of evolution) and the genus Homo separated. In addition to the finds from the Olduvai Gorge, the so-called Rudolf man, Homo rudolfensis, whose skull was found in Kenya in 1972 in the area of Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana), as well as finds from Ethiopia and South Africa. The antiquity of these species is from 2.4 to 1.9 million years. It is assumed that these first people were the creators of the tools of the most ancient Olduvai (pebble) culture on Earth. There are finds that have not found a taxonomic definition and part of the researchers belong to Homo habilis, and the other part to groups of archanthropes (the oldest people) who replaced Homo habilis about 1.6-1.5 million years ago.
The group of archanthropes includes two main species. This is a species of Asian ancient people, Homo erectus, and its African version, a working man (Homo ergaster).
Time of appearance of sapiens
"There are judgments about three possible levels of sapiens lineage: early, middle and late (p. 97).
A more common opinion is about the Middle or Early Upper Pleistocene time of the appearance of the sapiens line. As a probable ancestor in this case, different authors have various forms: either one of the late progressive erectus (Vertessellesch), or early archaic sapiens (Swanscombe), or early progressive Neanderthal (Ehringsdorf).
Finally, there is an opinion about the late origin of sapiens. In this case, the progressive Paleoanthropes of Palestine or even the "classic" Wurm Neanderthals are usually considered to be the ancestor. In favor of the latter point of view, both archaeological arguments (the continuity of the late Mousterian industry of "classical" Neanderthals and the Upper Paleolithic sapiens culture) and morphological arguments (for example, the Skhul type of people, who combine "Cro-Magnon" and "Neanderthal" features) are given.
However, it is known that "classical" Neanderthals were late forms of hominids that coexisted with the first sapiens neoanthropes. To resolve this contradiction, it is assumed that the rate of sapientation in this late short period of anthropogenesis accelerated significantly due to heterosis during displacements.
The processes of sapientation proceeded in different populations of paleoanthropes, but at different rates, and for a number of reasons (for example, habitat conditions) did not always reach the final stage.
Of course, individual features of the "sapient" complex could appear early, even in the Eopleistocene. The morphological variability of hominids is generally very wide, and repeated mutations probably played an important role in it, as in other primates.
Apparently, some features of the "sapient" complex could have arisen in the evolution of individual groups of hominids for a long time and repeatedly. And in this sense, we have the right to say that sapientation has deep roots, although the oldest true "sapiens are still not known until 0.1-0.07 million years ago" (pp. 97--99).
The spread of modern man
More ancient fossils have been found in Africa than on any of the other continents. So, in southern Ethiopia, they found Omo-I - an incomplete skull with many modern signs, whose age is probably more than 60 thousand years. At the mouth of the South African river Clasis, "modern" remains were found, whose age is 100 thousand years, and in the cave of the Border, a "modern" lower jaw was found 90 thousand years old.
Fossil skulls of 40,000 years ago, which are of a completely modern type, are found in various parts of Asia - from Israel to Java. They all have a chin protrusion or other distinctly "modern" features.
Humans first appeared in North America, probably between 70,000 and 12,000 years ago. During periods of the greatest cooling at this time, the sea receded and a wide land barrier of Beringia was formed, which is now flooded by the Bering Strait.
Fossil traces and fossils, whose age has been established, indicate that modern man lived in Australia at least 40 thousand years ago.
Most likely, people first appeared here in the period from 55 to 45 thousand years ago, when the ocean level was 160 feet (50 m) lower than now, and many islands formed a single whole.
On this scale, the development of all the primitive people of the world is given, starting from the period when the first human-like hominids arose (5 million years ago) and up to 700 BC.
5,000,000-2,000,000 up to. AD
In Africa, the first tree-dwelling hominids appear.
2,000,000-250,000 up to. AD
Homo erectus appeared and settled in Asia and Europe.
250,000 - 120,000 up to. AD
In Africa - Homo sapiens - which are gradually moving north.
80,000 - 30,000 up to. AD
Neanderthals (cave dwellers) live in Europe.
50,000 - 25,000 up to. AD
Modern people are settled in Europe, Asia, Australia, America. Tools are made from bone and stone.
25,000 - 10,000 up to. AD
The first round houses, drawings and carvings.
10,000 - 9,000 up to. AD
Climate change, end of the ice age.
9,000 - 7,000 to. AD
The emergence of agriculture in certain regions of the world. Settlements in Syria, Palestine, Cyprus. Domesticated dog.
7,000 - 6,000 up to. AD
In the eastern Mediterranean, goats, sheep, and pigs are domesticated. Linen fabrics, ceramics are made, copper is used. The first cities are being built.
5,000 - 4,000 up to. AD
In Anatolia, copper and lead are processed. Domesticated horse, donkey. Maize is grown in the Gulf of Mexico, cotton is grown in Peru, and rice is grown in China and India.
4,000 - 3,000 up to. AD
Sumerian civilization. First writing. Products from gold, silver, lead. Irrigation. Sailing ships on the Nile and Euphrates. Stone temples and tombs in Malta and Europe.
3,000 - 2,000 up to. AD
The first pharaohs of Egypt, hieroglyphic writing. The chariot was invented in Mesopotamia. Rise of the Valley Civilization of India. Cotton fabrics. Methods for processing copper and making fabrics spread throughout Western Europe.
2000 - 1000 to. AD
Spread of bronze processing methods in Europe. Stonehenge completed.
1000 - 700 BC
Olmec culture in Mexico. The Celts settled in Central Europe, the British Isles. By 700 B.C. in Europe, the secret of iron processing was discovered. Prehistoric cultures develop in America and Africa.
The origin of man is a mystery. Even Darwin's theory is not considered fully proven, due to the lack of transitional links in evolution. How else do people explain their appearance from ancient times to the present day.
totemism
Totemism belongs to the most ancient mythological representations and is considered the first form of awareness of the human collective, as well as its place in nature. Totemism taught that each group of people had its own ancestor - a totem animal or plant. For example, if a raven serves as a totem, then it is the actual progenitor of the clan, and each raven is a relative. At the same time, the totem animal is only a patron, but is not deified, in contrast to later creationism.
Androgynous
The mythological ones include the ancient Greek version of the origin of man from the Androgyns - the first people who combined the signs of both sexes. Plato in the dialogue "Feast" describes them as creatures with a spherical body, whose back did not differ from the chest, with four arms and legs and two identical faces on their heads. According to legend, our ancestors were not inferior to the titans in strength and skill. Puffed up, they decided to overthrow the Olympians, for which they were cut in half by Zeus. This reduced their strength and self-confidence by half.
Androgyny is present not only in Greek mythology. The idea that a man and a woman were originally one whole is close to many world religions. So, in one of the Talmudic interpretations of the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, it is said that Adam was created by an androgyne.
Abrahamic tradition
Three monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) go back to the Abrahamic religions, going back to Abraham, the patriarch of the Semitic tribes, the first person who believed in the Lord. According to the Abrahamic tradition, the world was created by God - Existing from Non-Being, literally "out of nothing". God also created man - Adam from the dust of the earth "in our image and likeness", so that a man would be truly good. It is worth noting that both in the Bible and in the Koran the creation of man is mentioned more than once. For example, in the Bible about the creation of Adam, in the beginning it says in the 1st chapter that God created man "out of nothing in his own image and likeness", in the 2nd chapter that he created him from dust (dust).
Hinduism
In Hinduism, there are at least five versions of the creation of the world and man, respectively. In Brahmanism, for example, the creator of the world is the god Brahma (in later versions identified with Vishnu and the Vedic deity Prajapati), who appeared from a golden egg floating in the oceans. He grew up and sacrificed himself, created from his hair, skin, meat, bones and fat the five elements of the world - earth, water, air, fire, ether - and the five steps of the sacrificial altar. Gods, people and other living beings were created from it. Thus, in Brahminism, by making sacrifices, people re-create Brahma.
But according to the Vedas, the ancient scripture of Hinduism, the creation of the world and man is shrouded in darkness: “Who truly knows who will proclaim here. Where did this creation come from? Further, the gods (appeared) through the creation of this (world).
So who knows where it came from?
Kabbalah
According to Kabbalistic teachings, the creator of Ein Sof created a soul that received the name Adam Rishon - "the first man." It was a construction, consisting of many separate desires, interconnected like the cells of our body. All desires were in harmony, since initially each of them had a desire to support each other. However, being on the highest spiritual level, similar to the creator, Adam took on a huge spiritual light, which is equivalent to the "forbidden fruit" in Christianity. Unable to achieve the goal of creation by this action alone, the primary soul split into 600,000 thousand parts, and each of them into many more parts. All of them are now in the souls of people. Through many circuits, they must carry out a “correction” and gather again into a common spiritual complex called Adam. In other words, after the "breaking" or fall into sin, all these particles - people are not equal to each other. But returning to their original state, they again reach the same level, where they are all equal.
Evolutionary creationism
As science developed, creationists had to compromise with natural science concepts. An intermediate stage between the theory of creation and Darwinism was "theistic evolutionism." Evolutionary theologians do not reject evolution, but consider it an instrument in the hands of God the creator. Simply put, God created the "material" for the appearance of man - the genus Homo and launched the process of evolution. The result is a man. An important point of evolutionary creationism is that although the body changed, the human spirit remained unchanged. This is the position officially held by the Vatican since the time of Pope John Paul II (1995): God created an ape-like creature by putting an immortal soul into it. In classical creationism, a person has not changed either in body or soul since the time of creation.
"Theory of ancient astronauts"
In the 20th century, the version about the extraterrestrial origin of man was popular. One of the founders of the idea of paleocontact in the 20s was Tsiolkovsky, who announced the possibility of aliens visiting the earth. According to the theory of paleocontact, sometime in the distant past, approximately in the Stone Age, aliens visited the Earth for some reason. Either they were interested in the colonization of exoplanets, or the resources of the Earth, or it was their transfer base, but one way or another, part of their descendants settled on Earth. Perhaps they even mixed with the local genus Homo, and modern people are mestizos of an alien life form and natives of the Earth.
According to Darwin himself, the genus homo originated somewhere around 3.5 million in Africa. It was not yet our compatriot Homo Sapiens, whose age is dated today at about 200 thousand years, but the first representative of the genus Homo - the great ape, hominid. In the course of evolution, he began to walk on two legs, use his hands as a tool, he began to progressively transform the brain, articulate speech and sociality. Well, the reason for evolution, like in all other species, was natural selection, and not God's plan.
The event of the greatest importance in the history of the earth was appearance of the first people.
It is usually believed that this happened at the beginning of the Quaternary period, about 500 thousand years ago. To emphasize the importance of this event in the history of the Earth, many scientists, as mentioned above, call this period the Anthropogenic, that is, the period of birth, the appearance of man.
Man comes from the animal kingdom. His ancestors are great apes. However, man, unlike all other animals, has learned in the process of collective labor not only to use the benefits of nature, but also to remake nature, to subdue its forces. The remains of the most ancient ape-men - Pithecanthropes were found in the layers of the end of the Tertiary period, numbering more than a million years. The most ancient ape-men continued to live in the first millennia of the Quaternary period. Therefore, it would be more correct to consider the beginning of the Anthropogenic period from the time of the appearance of human ancestors, that is, to add to the Anthropogenic period a part of the Tertiary period - the so-called Pliocene era, which has about 5 million years. The whole history of modern animal species, starting with their immediate ancestors, fits into this period of time.
The remains of the Quaternary ape-men, called Sinanthropes, which means "Chinese people", were found by the Chinese scientist V. Ch. Pei in Northern China in caves near Beijing.
Together with the bones of Sinanthropus, thick layers of ash from fires, fragments of animal bones and coarse fragments of broken stones, which served as knives and scrapers, were found in these caves. Probably, these ancient people used wooden clubs for hunting, but the tree has not survived to our time.
Sinanthropes were significantly different from modern people, but nevertheless they were already people. They already used fire, and this was the greatest conquest in the history of mankind.
The time of the existence of ape-men ended approximately 500 thousand years ago and was replaced by the "Paleolithic", or in Russian, the ancient stone era (or the ancient stone period). The Paleolithic, as this era (or this period) is sometimes called, in turn was replaced first by the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, and then by the Metal Age.
The Ancient Stone Age, or Paleolithic, is divided into two unequal parts: the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, which lasted about 300 thousand years, and the Upper Paleolithic, which lasted no more than 100 thousand years. The duration of all other epochs is no more than 12-15 thousand years.
During the Lower Paleolithic, the direct descendants of the ape-men lived - primitive people, or, as they are usually called, Neanderthals.
They were still significantly different from modern people and retained some features of their ancestors. The remains of their camps, as we said above, were found in the lower layers of the Crimean caves, in Central Asia and in many other places.
Neanderthals were not tall (155-156 centimeters), but they were distinguished by considerable strength. A large, elongated head with a low forehead receding back and an overhanging brow, under which small eyes were hidden, sat on a thick short neck, which, from the back, seemed to be one whole, with a flat nape. A wide nose and a chin slanted back, like apes, and not protruding like ours - such was the portrait of our ancestor.
The gait of the Neanderthal was extremely clumsy. The heavy, short torso sat on strong legs with a short lower leg and wide, massive feet. Powerful hands had wide hands with thick short fingers, which, however, could make rough stone wedges (axes) and scrapers. The club in the hands of this primitive strongman was a reliable tool for defense, attack and hunting.
The favorite habitats of Neanderthals were river valleys and caves.
The huge advantage of the Neanderthal, as well as his immediate ancestors, over other animals was upright walking, as a result of which the hands were free to make various tools, and this expanded, first of all, the possibilities of hunting. Hunting at that time was, together with the gathering of fruits and edible roots of plants, the main source of livelihood.
For about 300 thousand years, the Neanderthals perfected their primitive art of stone processing. Gradually, as a result of labor, their appearance changed. More and more they became like modern people. By the time the Great glaciation of the Earth reached its greatest extent, man was able to adapt to the new conditions of life, and he himself had already become completely similar to modern man. At this time, a very important improvement was made in the manufacture of tools for labor and hunting. Man learned to make tools not from a whole piece of stone, hewing them with rough chips, like a wooden wedge, but from specially chipped stone plates; at the same time, he learned how to get thin and long, like a knife blade, flint plates. People began to widely use for all kinds of crafts and bone. Dartheads, piercings, awls, carefully crafted scrapers, knives, cutters for carving bone, bone needles with ears for sewing clothes, and the like appeared.
This stage in the development of human society is called the Upper Paleolithic.
At the sites of that time, in addition to various household items and hunting tools, female figures carved from mammoth tusks or carved images of various animals used in magical (witchcraft) rites are sometimes found.
Hard-to-reach caves sometimes served as sanctuaries for our ancestors, various religious rites were performed in them. On the walls of some caves, drawings made with red and black paint have survived to this day, depicting bison, mammoths, deer pierced by darts, drawings of hands with chopped off fingers, as well as incomprehensible witch signs.
Upper Paleolithic people - "new people", or, as they are usually called, "reasonable people", physically did not differ in any significant way from modern people.
Upper Paleolithic people did not know how to make pottery; they did not know the bow and arrows and used darts. They did not have domestic animals and, of course, did not even know the beginnings of agriculture. Hunting was still the main means of subsistence, and in it they achieved considerable success.
The "new people" were nomadic hunters. They already knew how to get such large animals as a bison, a rhinoceros and even a mammoth, but they also willingly ate the corpses of these animals if they found them in the eternally frozen soil - in the place of a melting glacier. Smaller and more easily accessible animals, especially reindeer, and from birds - white partridges, they exterminated in huge quantities. We find many thousands of bones of various animals during excavations of their sites. But especially many bones of mammoths and reindeer are sometimes found there, therefore the Upper Paleolithic people are also called "hunters for mammoths and reindeer."
Many tens of millennia passed, and now, on the verge of modernity, about 15 thousand years ago, mankind was enriched by a new wonderful invention: man invented the bow and arrows. This immediately expanded the possibilities of his hunting, which was still the main source of human existence. Rhinos and mammoths have long since become extinct. The huge ice sheet was rapidly melting. Its southern border was already near present-day Leningrad. The climate was getting warmer.
There was a new era in the history of mankind - the new stone, or Neolithic.
The most important discoveries and inventions follow one after another. Man is gaining more and more power over nature. Almost simultaneously with the invention of the bow, man tamed the wolf in some places, and the jackal in others, and thus received a domestic dog. Then a remarkable property of clay was discovered: when fired, it gives a waterproof and fairly refractory material. From clay began to prepare vessels for cooking food. People have learned, moreover, to process hard stones more skillfully - to drill and grind them. There were wooden boats made from a whole tree trunk.
But hunting, as before, still remains the main source of human existence.
Along with hunting, fishing and hoe farming also began to develop.
The Stone Age ended about 6-7 thousand years ago. People learned how to mine metal and make hunting and household items out of it.
The age of metal has arrived. Knives, spears and arrows were the first metal products. At first they were made from pure copper, then from bronze (an alloy of copper and tin), and finally from iron.
In addition to hunting and fishing, cattle breeding and agriculture were added, the beginnings of which, apparently, arose at the end of the Neolithic. From the appropriation of the finished products of nature, man moved on to their conscious increase.
To our Soviet scientists P. P. Efimenko, S. N. Zamyatnin, M. V. Voevodsky, S. N. Bibikov, P. I. Boriskovsky, G. P. Sosnovsky, O. N. Bader, M. Z. Panichkina and many others have a great merit in the discovery and study of the most ancient settlements of the Stone Age on the territory of the USSR.
M. M. Gerasimov managed to develop a technique for restoring the appearance of people from the skull, and now we have the opportunity to see portraits of our ancestors who lived tens of thousands of years ago. Foreign scientists have been unsuccessfully working on solving this problem for many years and declared it unsolvable.
Today I will cover the topic that I promised in one of my previous posts, namely, where did a person come from on Earth?
Looking ahead, I will say that I have found an unequivocal answer to this question. With evidence.
First, consider what stories about the origin of man are. It is officially accepted that they say from a monkey. Believers, relying on the sacred Talmuds, sincerely believe that God created everything, including man. The trick is that both of these options are THEORIES, not supported by facts. Today I will break both of these theories and give a couple of facts. Get comfortable, it will be interesting.
Exposing the theory of the origin of man from apes
Let's start with the fact that Darwin himself, who came up with this theory, at the end of his life himself renounced it. But the right people liked her so much that she was elevated to the rank of a scientist during her lifetime. Without having any real scientific evidence (at that time there was practically no scientific equipment). It is worth noting that even at that time there were many people who understood how blasphemous ideas religion preaches - and they were actively looking for real answers to questions. The monkey theory turned out to be very convenient in this regard, it was given to people who were not satisfied with the church theory.
Now let's go over the facts.
Archaeologists have such a thing as a “cultural layer”.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cultural layer - a layer of earth at the site of a human settlement, preserving traces of human activity. Depending on the life expectancy of people in the settlement and their activities, the thickness of the layer varies from a few centimeters to 30-35 meters. In order to study the traces of human activity and restore the history of the settlement along these traces, archaeologists carry out excavations.
It is believed that the thickness of the cultural layer is proportional to the amount of life activity in the areas where the layer was deposited. The cultural layer extends in depth to the mainland - strata that do not carry traces of human activity.
Visually it looks something like this
Agree that, unlike the theories and conjectures of scientists, the data taken during the analysis of cultural layers have a logically sound scientific evidence.
So, during deep excavations, traces of a Neanderthal are found. Moreover, they are very ancient from 600 thousand years BC to 40 thousand years BC.
Then the traces of the Neanderthal completely disappear. This suggests that the Kramanien completely replaced the Neanderthal in a relatively short period of time.
« Before entering the evolutionary arenaHomoSapiens - modern man - his ecological apartment was occupied by a humanoid species called by anthropologistsNeanderthalMan (Neanderthal), who thoroughly mastered this "ecological apartment" for several hundred thousand years of its development. Moreover, Neanderthals ousted all other humanoid species from this ecological niche and the only ones reigned on Earth, and at the same time, they populated the WHOLE EARTH, all its climatic zones, but, nevertheless, for all these millennia, different races of Neanderthals did not appear . Only ONE RACE OF NEANDERTHALS reigned on the whole earth, each of which physically significantly exceeded
Cro-Magnon man, was covered with thick hair, which they never got rid of, and most likely did not even try. The saber-toothed tiger was the only serious enemy that gave them some trouble. Neanderthals ate their own kind.
Moreover, for them prey, food was everyone who was not a member of their clan, herd or tribe. Of course, it is difficult to judge the intelligence of the Neanderthals, but there is also no evidence that they were smarter than the Cro-Magnon. And so, they reigned calmly for hundreds of thousands of years, until, about forty thousand years ago (according to anthropology), no one knows where, suddenly take and appear a modern man in person ... Homo Sapiens - modern man
- appeared immediately and everywhere. Moreover, he appeared naked, hairless, weak (compared to the Neanderthal) and simultaneously on all continents. »
A quote from the book of the scientist - Rus, Nikolai Levashov "Russia in Crooked Mirrors, Volume 1. From Star Russ to Defiled Russians."
Here are a few more points:
Interestingly, it turns out that the modern history of the origin of man does not have any real evidence at all. At the same time, a theory that is logically obvious and has a lot of documentary evidence is considered heresy and fiction. Might be worth thinking about it?
By the way, about the age of the finds and in general where historians get their data from. I understood these materials, rummaged through them and got a little crazy. Do you know how historians date finds that they cannot date for one reason or another by radiocarbon dating? Do not know? It turns out to be simple - voting. A dozen scientists gather and with a show of hands vote how old this find is. Very scientific, yes. Then, on the basis of this vote, the age is decided, all further data and research are adjusted to this age. And then a bunch of hangers-on and pseudo-scientists write dissertations on these studies. This is how modern science solves complex problems.
I could write more on the topic where and how a person appeared on Earth, for example, for what purpose are we here, why other races appeared with us, what are our differences from civilizations from other worlds. But this information will strongly go against what you know. Yes, what is there. When I came across this information myself, I did not believe it.
And when I got enough evidence, I ran into a problem.
During my life I have accumulated vast knowledge about our world (because I was constantly looking for this information). On these data I founded the ideological foundation. Now I have received evidence that about 70% of this foundation is a lie. It's not easy to admit that you've been deceived all your life. And it is even more difficult to purposefully carry out work on the systematic displacement of the old foundation and replace it with a new one. Moreover, these two systems are in conflict, because they are contradictory.
But a restructuring is needed. This is the first and obligatory step towards the evolution of man as an entity. Without restructuring the foundation, any global development is impossible.
Let me give you an example: we all know that a person uses 3-5% of his abilities. Show me one person who is working to unlock the other 95%. Don't know these? It is understandable, it is not customary for us to develop in this direction. And all because our perception system is false - a person is created in the image and likeness of God, and since we are a copy of God, we are perfect, we can engage in consumerism and do nothing. Familiar?
But if we discard this imposed system of perception of the world and take a closer look at the facts, it turns out that we are the descendants of ancient highly developed civilizations that arrived from other star systems, possessing enormous abilities and a high level of development. And immediately it will become disgusting and sickening from the thought into which primitivism each of us has slipped compared to our ancestors. This will be the driving force, the motivation. It just so happened for the last thousand years in Russia that only after feeling like a scumbag does a Russian person get the motivation to work on himself. For under other circumstances, you don’t want to work, and you’re too lazy.
Moreover, we learn that we have amazing abilities to influence the surrounding reality. It lies just one step away from us, in a blocked state. We will find out who set this block to 3-5% and why, how to turn it off and what to do next.
We will learn all this and many more amazing things. If we decide to change and grow. If we want to get out of the vicious circle of everyday reality.
In the next post I will write where to find specific answers to any of your global questions.
Humans are the dominant species on the planet. The smartest of us are exploring space and providing answers to questions that were considered unanswerable 200-300 years ago. However, we still cannot solve the main mystery - the origin of homo sapiens. We offer to consider the most common theories of how a person appeared.
How did man appear on earth?
The question of the origin of man excited the minds of people in primitive, ancient times and does not cease to excite modern scientists. Throughout history, many assumptions have been put forward - from myths to well-founded theories.
But, no matter how fantastic or quite reasonable hypotheses are proposed, all of them can be divided into three categories:
- religious;
- philosophical;
- scientific.
The religious point of view in its concept is similar among many peoples of the world. There are many parallels that cannot be ignored. The view of religion on the emergence of man is based on an unshakable faith in God, and therefore does not require proof. The scriptures say that this issue is not worthy of attention, since the person himself was not present at his creation, and therefore cannot know anything.
Philosophical hypotheses are based on initial axioms, from which, as a result of reflection, an assumption arises. Philosophers distinguish the concept of "consciousness". According to them, this is what distinguishes us from animals. When exactly did it occur? Philosophers have been trying to solve this riddle for 2.5 thousand years.
Scientific research is based on the facts that scientists obtain during research and experimentation. Hypothetical assumptions are born from these data. They, in turn, are discarded or confirmed in the course of further observations. If the hypothesis is confirmed, it becomes a theory. Further, it is either confirmed or refuted. In the second case, new hypotheses are put forward, and so on, until an answer is found.
The main theory of the appearance of man
Since the end of the 19th century, scientists have adhered to the general theory of evolution, which underlies modern biology. According to this concept, all living organisms on Earth, including humans, appeared as a result of the adaptation of species to changing natural conditions. The weak die, the strong survive.
The author of the theory was Charles Darwin, who began working on the then-hypothesis in 1837. It took him twenty years to complete the project. Before the scientific meeting, he was supported by the eminent naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. This is how Darwin's theory appeared, which later turned into a general evolutionary theory.
She explains that life on Earth began about 4 billion years ago. It happened in the ocean in the so-called primordial soup of the simplest proteins, molecules and chemical elements. Millions of years later, through random mutations, the first living cells appeared. Subsequently, they evolved into complex life forms.
However, this theory does not explain many things, for example, where did the genetic code come from in each cell, containing information for the development of the organism. It is also not clear how reptiles evolved into birds and mammals. Anthropologists and paleontologists have not found any remains of creatures with a similar body structure, and among modern animals there is no one like it.
Animal mutations under the influence environment Not unusual. Thus, laboratory rats raised in cold conditions produced offspring with denser fur. This explains the adaptability, but not the randomness of evolution. But even if we accept that life on the planet originated by chance, then it becomes even more difficult to explain the appearance of man.
In biology classes, they say that man belongs to the class of primates, in addition to monkeys. Therefore, our ancestors must be sought among them. This is also confirmed by DNA, which is more than 98% identical to the genetic code of a chimpanzee.
However, despite the discovered remains of Neanderthals, Cro-Magnons and Homo habilis, it is still not possible to find an intermediate link that would give reinforced concrete confirmation of the origin of Homo sapiens from ape-like people.
It is believed that modern man appeared in the south of the African continent and from there migrated around the world. But not everything is smooth here either. The age of the found remains of the first people in various, even the most remote, corners of the planet is almost identical. This means that the spread of man either happened very quickly, or people evolved simultaneously in all parts of the world. After this discovery, there were even more questions.
The origin of man: theories
Despite all the inconsistencies, the theory of the origin of man through evolution has the most evidence. But at the moment they are not enough. In the meantime, there is no one hundred percent confirmation, other theories have the right to exist. Let's look at a few of the most common:
- intervention theory. Many believe that man appeared thanks to extraterrestrial intelligence. Some think that the first people were brought by aliens, others that the development of Homo sapiens is the result of genetic experiments on animals.
There is also an alternative opinion that people arrived on Earth from other galaxies, but over time they forgot about it. These theories are based on ancient drawings discovered in different parts of the planet, which depict people worshiping creatures on aircraft.
- The origin of man according to the Qur'an. According to Islamic beliefs, the Almighty Allah created man from earth and water. He collected the earth from all corners of the universe, which was of different colors. That is why the descendants of the first man differ from each other.
Also, the Qur'an says that Adam was originally hollow and did not control himself. Seeing this, Allah breathed life into him. Man began to see and hear, speech and reason appeared. According to this theory, God created Adam as a perfect, complete being, so there was no need for him to evolve.
- Humans are the offspring of the gods. According to some legends, the first people were real giants, from 3 to 7 meters tall. Giants appeared from the union of gods and angels. This theory is based on ancient images of bats and controversial finds of huge humanoid skeletons.
Over time, the gods stopped visiting the earth, and the giant people degenerated. Cryptobiologists are confident that most of the remains found are genuine and require careful study.
- Aquatic theory. In the 1920s, the scientist Alistair Hardy hypothesized that the aquapithecus, an ape-like creature that lived in the aquatic environment, is a transitional link in the development of modern humans.
By this, the scientist explained why today's people have practically no hairline on the body. However, this theory has not received wide distribution and is not currently being seriously considered in the scientific world.
Despite the commitment of most scientists to evolutionary theory, the answer to the origin of man has not yet been found. Discussion of this issue sometimes develops into conflicts. However, no matter how heated the argument, in the end, the truth is born from it. Remember: it is not so important how a person appeared, what matters more is what kind of people we are now.
