Five Questions: Answers to Life's Greatest Mysteries. Philip Benguhe

of any hominid to date (1100 – 1400 cm³), rivaling that of modern humans. Furthermore, larger frontal and parietal lobes show a continued reorganization of the brain toward abstract reasoning and spatial representation.

      Finally, between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago, we see the next major transition, the advent of Homo sapiens (man the wise). Mitochondrial DNA studies coupled with fossil evidence suggest that our subspecies, Homo sapiens sapiens, originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago. In addition to problem solving and abstract reasoning, Homo sapiens had the ability to communicate complex ideas using language and engaged in extensive social interaction. Moreover, Homo sapiens buried their dead and there is evidence of sophisticated mortuary customs. These often included the use of ochre, a red pigment made from hematite. These practices show the beginning of symbolic thought.

      By 90,000 years ago, evidence of the line can be found in the Middle East. By 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens had spread to all parts of the Old World. However, initially, he was not alone.

      In Europe, a fellow descendant of a previous migration of Homo heidelbergensis, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man), had already established a presence. Modern humans and Neanderthal coexisted until about 10,000 years ago when all traces of Neanderthal disappear from the fossil record. The debate over the cause for their disappearance continues to this day, but it appears most likely that Homo sapiens, equipped with better hunting techniques, a leaner body physique, and a more varied diet, simply out-reproduced his Neanderthal cousin.

      Unlike Homo sapiens who dined opportunistically on game, fish, and grains, fossil analysis indicates that Neanderthals consumed exclusively meat. Moreover, the bulky, dense frame of the Neanderthal required more than twice the daily caloric intake of his Homo sapiens cousin. Finally, Homo sapiens had developed more efficient hunting techniques that allowed them to capture more prey, with less effort. These factors allowed for more and better survival of offspring that effectively displaced Neanderthals from the evolutionary landscape. However, a trace of the Neanderthals remains to this day, for recent analyses show that modern Europeans and Asians carry between one and four percent of Neanderthal DNA in their genetic code. What exactly happened to the Neanderthals may forever remain a mystery, but from that point onward as the sole surviving hominid, Homo sapiens sapiens alone would inherit the earth.

      When humanity first became self-aware is unclear. Around 50,000 years ago (corresponding to a short temperate period in the midst of the last ice age) migrations arrived in Europe. By this time people had already learned to weave clothes and make extensive use of tools. Moreover, these tools were not mere utilitarian objects but carried elaborate decoration. These Paleolithic tribes knew how to paint, sculpt, make music, and possibly even track the seasons with primitive calendars. They were the first artists. Most strikingly, they performed burial ritual, dressing their dead in elaborately decorated garments. This clearly indicates that the burial ritual was more than just a method of disposing of a body; it must also have held deep meaning. In all human societies of historical record, adornment of the dead strongly indicates a belief in an afterlife. Especially in Neolithic times, objects required scarce raw materials and a considerable time to craft. The participants in the burial ritual would not have disposed of such valuable items in a grave unless they strongly believed that the deceased would benefit from them and that some part of their essence would survive death.

      Although initially nomadic, around 10,000 years ago Paleolithic peoples would make two important discoveries that would forever shape the way we lived: agriculture and the domestication of animals. However, humankind’s benefit from agriculture was considerably aided by a most fortunate accident of nature. At the end of the Ice Age, a relatively anemic strain of wild wheat crossbred with a goat grass to form a fertile hybrid, Emmer (triticum dicoccon). Emmer was much plumper than wild wheat, with seeds that naturally scattered in the wind. The cultivated Emmer grain again crossbred with another natural goat grass to produce a yet larger fertile hybrid, what we call bread wheat (triticum aestivum). Bread wheat produces even plumper, more densely packed seed kernels and therefore generates significantly higher nutritional content in a small land area compared to other types of grains. However, due to their large size, these kernels cannot propagate naturally and rely entirely on human cultivation. Humanity and bread wheat were now inexorably linked together through agriculture.

      Locations situated near rivers would allow for the irrigation of crops and provide water for the livestock. These small settlements would become the blueprint for our modern cities and the urban lifestyle we know today. By 6000 BCE, civilizations could be found in Mesopotamia, Egypt’s Nile Valley, and China’s Yellow River Valley. In addition to providing protection and centers for trade, cities could now preserve the cultural beliefs of their inhabitants and with the invention of writing, preserve these for future generations. From these writings, we came to see how each society answered the major questions of religion: the creation of the world, what follows death, and the nature of God.

      After 10,000 years of searching, we finally now have a new and more complete story of creation, a story that spans nearly 14 billion years and encompasses the breadth of human knowledge. However, can that knowledge now also offer insight into the second question? Is there an ultimate creator to the universe and what is its nature?