Human Origins

There are quite a few theories about the origins of human beings on this planet. Depending on who you are and how you were raised, any one may seem obvious to you while the others are foolish or even dangerous. This essay looks at three possibilities any of which may one day be definitively proven to be true.

The Scientific Version: Evolution

It is generally accepted that every species on the planet can go through significant changes given a long enough period of time for observation. With this in mind it is believed that life began in some of the wettest hottest parts of the planet at the time. Experiments have shown that amino acids, the building blocks of life can be formed out of material that showed no signs of life before. Under this theory, over millenia, organisms encountered slightly different environments and those with the best traits reproduced until the most suitably evolved version of any creature finally arrived. Humans are thus seen as having evolved from the same ancestor as the great apes.

The Religious Version: Creation

There is more than one religious version with slightly different flavors. The basic idea behind all of them is that some superior entity created human beings because he or she wanted to. People therefore arrived on this planet in much the same form that they currently occupy and are no more related to the other animals than birds are to octopuses. The evidence for this is difficult to find but for many it comes down to faith anyway. Because the holy books say it is so, people who believe are expected to take it as fact. A few have developed their own hybrid theories in which the superior deity used evolution in order to create mankind gradually.

The Alternative: Transplantation

This may be seen as even more of a hybrid theory if one looks closely enough. This theory states that human beings exist n this planet because a superior alien race planted the DNA within it so that we would eventually evolve. Think of it as a planet wide science experiment. Another version states that an asteroid with a tiny bit of living organisms within it may have impacted with our planet and thus provided the first signs of life.

There is nothing wrong with having more than one theory to refer to. It may even lead to healthy discourse and so should be encouraged.