THE biggest questions to have confounded the human mind since times immemorial seem to be: where did we humans come from? Whether the Creationist theory or the Evolution theory is more correct than the other? Or both are, in a way? How old is life exactly? How do we study the origins of life on the Earth, or elsewhere? What is life after all? Whether life ever existed on planet Mars, and if it did, in what form?

These are some of the question it would take a life time to answer, even partly. But I shall try to answer them briefly for my young friends.

We dealt with some of these questions, or possibilities briefly, and I dare say, casually in the last issue, but this time around it requires a somewhat elaborate discussion to bring home the conclusion.

We deduced that we are here — as are lions and jackals, oaks and whales, snakes and Beatles, and guppies and eagles because God willed it, and gave to a myriad life forms their exotic colours and traits and ways that distinguishes so completely one from the other.

But that explanation, although accepted by many as correct, does not satisfy the human urge to know the total truth even piecemeal, and at a slow, agonising pace. The one question that has perpetually defied an answer is: why did it take Hominids those excruciating millions of years to gradually develop into the present day Homo sapiens sapiens (Man, the all knowing, all knowing. Some fanciful, isn’t it)? Sure enough, along the way many prominent human or semi human forms came before hominids (human like) came and inexorably settled into the present, highly developed form and shape — almost perfect, but painfully slow, although susceptible to the wiles of germs, bacteria and viruses and those countless ailments, often lethal, resulting from them at the hand of which humans and animals are highly vulnerable.

The question has bugged the human mind ever since, like I said before. But it is an essential and basic condition of astronomy to study and probe the basics of life and life forms prevailing on the Earth and (probably) elsewhere in the universe. Since the Earth is the only planet which harbours life and the only place known to man (so far) to have fresh, sweet water in abundance, and a couple of million (surely more) life forms headed by Man, the ever intelligent! No wonder that every work and study of astronomy invariably delves into the secret or origins of life (any where but notably on the Earth).

The question: where did we humans come from, in fact originate?

The earliest human-like creature (hominids, as you know) developed when they learned to walk on two legs instead of four limbs. This gave them a better view of their enemies as well as their quarry. This was some two million years ago, although older specimens are stated to have been found in Kenya (Olduvai Gorge) and a couple of other places yet unconfirmed. If so, it will push back the hominid origin by that much. With this, the earliest of revolution, hominids developed by leaps and bounds. They developed in stature (build) and intelligence, nowhere near the present man, though.

Although hominids kept on progressing gingerly yet inexorably, but it was only less than 100,000 years ago that the Neanderthal Man (named after Neander Valley in Germany where bones were found) appeared significantly different from all previous ones. He preceded the modern man who has a bigger brain and is somewhat bigger in stature. He disappeared without a trace for it appears that he was less wily than the one who was to follow! Of course the Neanderthal was much less numerous than Homo sapiens sapiens (H.s.s) and knew the art of survival much less for him to have been wiped out so completely. Homo sapiens sapiens, on the other hand, made his appearance at the peak of the last Ice Age, itself an intimidating epoch. Some 40,000 years ago some three-fourths of the globe was under endless ice sheets, as you already know. H.s.s not only defied nature and survived but gradually grew in number to the extent that from (may be) just a few hundred they now number over seven billion, still growing!

I have been painfully brief on the genesis and development of hominids into Homo sapiens sapiens for the reason that the subject and space available to me restrict me to brevity. More about it later on.

The Creationist theory dictates that every thing — whether humans or animals or water or mountains came into being because God wills (or willed) it. On the other hand, Evolution theory postulates that things and life grew gradually, over large periods of time often running into millions and even hundreds of millions of years. That is a maddeningly long time. But geologically it is not. By human standards even plants take a long time to come to fruition, mountains take longer than many life times to whittle down and stars take even longer to show a perceptible movement in the skies. In short, every thing you can think of moves (grows, develops) at a leisurely pace. For God is not in a hurry. Why should He be? Are your parents in a hurry for you to grow up?

To my mind, therefore, it appears that God and evolution go together. The shapes, colours, volumes, sizes and periods spanning them all are His science and technology rolled into one.

All life forms go through metamorphoses or change, like we humans do. They take a certain time to do so. Some short, some long, some very long. Life on planet Earth developed from viruses all the way through prokaryotes, eukaryotes, multi cellular organisms into fully developed chordates, reptiles, flying animals, mammals, aquatic animals. Somewhere in the beginning came insects and worms which grew side by side with life that grew in water for that is the earliest harbinger of life — water of the shallow seas.

‘Life forms leaving their watery world to come to land was their first quantum leap. Although they gave up the buoyancy they had to their advantage and combated force of gravity on land but it not only suited them, they proliferated in numbers and variety, and very quickly too.

More about life, and planet Mars to end this discussion in the next issue.

The writer is a professional astronomer and a former head of PIA Planetarium. He can be reached at astronomerpreone@hotmail.com