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After giving a talk on evolution I realized how difficult it is to get
my imagination around the reality of the enormous time involved from
the time life began billions of years ago until now. Isaac Asimov
brought some reality to numbers in one of his books about the universe
and Stephen Hawkins, Richard Dawkins and others are doing more on that.
But because of the small, and I do mean small, mind, we humans possess,
time is still a very difficult concept to think on. As egotistical as
it is, we humans thought we invented time until Einstein showed us
different. We have others - paleontologists,
archeologists, biologists - who have shown us the reality of
the evolution of life. So we are told of how our early ancestors left the trees, stood upright, developed tools, then a bigger brain and speech. And imagine what it was like during that primitive era. Researchers tell us how people feared fire, feared the tiger, feared to go over the next hill. Here is what I question. If early people were so full of fear, how did we - the human race - ever spread throughout the globe? As a species we have curiosity that knows no bounds. With that we have a big brain and a thumb that makes things. Because humans have imagined and invented all the technology we live with I do not believe Homo sapiens could have evolved if they were so full of fear. They went about observing the land, the sky and each other, keeping in mind their safety and well being. But always with an eye on the horizon, searching for more. I'm ever so glad they perservered. Naomi Sherer |