Our human genome and fossil bones point to a long organic evolutionary trail behind us, whereas our myths are full of narratives about our divine origin. The answer to “who we are” may be embedded in another question. Do the human mind and body have the same or separate origins? This enticing memoir recounts the saga of an evolutionary geneticist, who, being unable to get an evolutionary answer, within our DNA and fossil bones, for the sudden emergence of human intellect, some50, 000 years ago, dares to leave behind our current scientific mindset and comes across a forgotten world of ancient creation myths. It made her suddenly realize the remarkable relevance of these stories to our current evolutionary discussions. Ironically, while researching for this multi-faceted book, she witnessed her own transformation from a typical scientist to an independent thinker, no longer confined to our current self-perpetuating science. After exploring our DNA, fossil bones, present languages, old literature, and ancient myths, she arrives at a bizarre conjuncture in which the human mind and body seem to have separate origins. And thus, it poses a new riddle: Do the human mind and body have the same or separate origins, perhaps one non-evolutionary and the other evolutionary? From our mischievous DNA and fragmented fossil skulls, to our changing languages and transient ethnicity, to the secret name of God, to Neanderthals, divs, and Adam’s first wife, this book will take the reader beyond current scientific and religious dogmas, and into a secret world of our past memories and long-forgotten ancient creation myths.
There are many books written in recent years by scientists for the general public about “who we are,” and “where we came from,” either defending or criticizing the tenets of Darwinian evolution. One major problem with these books is that they are generally written by scientists or science journalists, who as being part of the scientific establishment, are reluctant to go beyond our current scientific doctrines and correlate their theories with our past memories as preserved, albeit fragmentary, in many rich narratives of ancient myths and folk tales about human creation and also those of other human-like creatures. The main aim of this book is to add mythology to the list of scientific disciplines, such as linguistics, fossil records and DNA studies in discovering the secrets of our prehistoric past and the origin of humanity.
Although, our current cultural mindset prefers to view these myths as representing only some symbolic concepts, rather than long-gone real beings, in the folktale narratives they are always portrayed as fascinating real things. For example, there is a human-like creature called div, which is very common in many ancient mythologies. As mentioned in details in this book, there are many similarities among these legendary divs and the human-like creatures, whose bones were dug up by scientists during the last two hundred years or so, and now we call them Neanderthals. Another remarkable similarity between modern science and creation myths, as discussed in this book, could be observed through the comparison of the persons of holy trinity as portrayed in creation myth of Mani and the central dogma of molecular biology. Nevertheless, another aim of this book is to go further than just looking for the similarities, and attempts to bring some attention to their differences as well and reveal how ancient myths, despite our great advances in DNA technologies, might give us more insights into the sudden emergence of the human mind than what we assume through Darwinian selection. Come walk with me and revisit human evolution from a new perspective.
There are many books written in recent years by scientists for the general public about “who we are,” and “where we came from,” either defending or criticizing the tenets of Darwinian evolution. One major problem with these books is that they are generally written by scientists or science journalists, who as being part of the scientific establishment, are reluctant to go beyond our current scientific doctrines and correlate their theories with our past memories as preserved, albeit fragmentary, in many rich narratives of ancient myths and folk tales about human creation and also those of other human-like creatures. The main aim of this book is to add mythology to the list of scientific disciplines, such as linguistics, fossil records and DNA studies in discovering the secrets of our prehistoric past and the origin of humanity.
Although, our current cultural mindset prefers to view these myths as representing only some symbolic concepts, rather than long-gone real beings, in the folktale narratives they are always portrayed as fascinating real things. For example, there is a human-like creature called div, which is very common in many ancient mythologies. As mentioned in details in this book, there are many similarities among these legendary divs and the human-like creatures, whose bones were dug up by scientists during the last two hundred years or so, and now we call them Neanderthals. Another remarkable similarity between modern science and creation myths, as discussed in this book, could be observed through the comparison of the persons of holy trinity as portrayed in creation myth of Mani and the central dogma of molecular biology. Nevertheless, another aim of this book is to go further than just looking for the similarities, and attempts to bring some attention to their differences as well and reveal how ancient myths, despite our great advances in DNA technologies, might give us more insights into the sudden emergence of the human mind than what we assume through Darwinian selection. Come walk with me and revisit human evolution from a new perspective.
