A: Genes didn’t make the eighteenth-century enlightenment any more than they made the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution or the twentieth-century age of electronics. There is nothing biological to it.
POE: Well, it could have lain fallow—something must have occurred in at least one human lineage, dovetailing nicely with the out-of-Africa phenomenon.
A: There is no trace whatsoever in any fossils of such neurological development. And why should man, the most complex and advanced of living beings, have evolved in the least amount of time? Why did H. sapiens develop so rapidly when major advances in simple plant life have taken millions of years?
POE: We learned from snails that evolution needn’t operate at a “snail’s pace.” We find leaps in body plan among these mollusks; reared in petri dishes and exposed to platinum, many developed without external shells. This simulates genetic mutations that turned off shell production in ancient snails, paving the way for slugs. It’s not always small incremental steps, you see. This must have happened many times in evolution, which is capable of proceeding by rapid episodes of change, after long periods of stasis. And the change period is so brief that intermediate forms are rarely preserved. The very restricted gene flow in an isolated population can cause rapid speciation. Maybe this is how the first real Homo came about.
A: I doubt it: the H. habilis to H. erectus transition involves too extreme a change, especially in size, too great an evolutionary leap. The very small body size of OH 62 (H. habilis) versus the near giantism of some H. erectus truly challenges evolution.*64
The leopard doesn’t change its spots.
PROVERB
AN ABOMINABLE MYSTERY
POE: In such instances, we could be looking at mutation rates much accelerated by increased environmental radiation. Ionizing radiation, however small, may hasten the evolutionary process. Radiation has produced giants, at least in the plant world. There is also the possibility of relatively rapid progress triggered by strong competition between different populations under severe environmental pressures. This is called punctuated equilibrium by Gould and Eldredge—punk eek—a burst of evolution. George Gaylord Simpson, a leading vertebrate paleontologist, called it quantum evolution. Same thing.
A: Punk eek was supported by studies of 500 myr trilobites (primitive wood lice) and snails! I’m talking about human beings here. Not lice.
POE: Yet Gould thought most evolutionary change occurs quickly, an abrupt splitting from ancestral stocks.
A: I don’t think punk eek explains anything. It’s just a way of rephrasing the embarrassing gaps—which only hybridization (in my opinion) can resolve. And please explain to me why from 300,000 (the supposed end of H. erectus time) to 100,000 BP (beginning of mod man), no H. erectus fossils appear in the record—just where we should find them “transitioning.” Where are your intermediates? Where did H. sapiens (Cro-Magnon) come from 50,000 years ago? Not from H. erectus—that’s too great a jump—and not from Neanderthal either. He just came out of nowhere. The H. sapiens explosion is so “dazzling,” thought Richard Leakey, that “we might be blind to the reality behind it.”10 Indeed, culture, tools, industries, art, religion—all appearing abruptly on the scene! Sewing needles, fish hooks, lamps, rope, homes, figurines, musical instruments, engraving, decorations, jewelry, trade—all without any sign of a precursor. I’m talking about the Aurignacian horizon that appeared in Italy, France, and Spain (El Castillo), about 39,000 years ago. Are you telling me that while it took 100,000 years to produce the chinless, thick-necked, grunting Neanderthal, it only took a short time to come up with elegant Cro-Magnon man? Whence came our sharp chin, vaulted forehead, thin skull, smaller teeth, jaw, and eye socket? Did H. erectus (or anyone else) magically turn into H. sapiens after hundreds of thousands of years of stasis? It was the same with Neanderthal and with Au. afarensis—basically unchanged from first to last.
POE: When homeostasis figures in the record, it reflects a very low rate of mutation, combined with rather minor selection pressures—yes, like Au. afarensis who survived relatively unchanged for 900,000 years. Genetic homeostasis favors the steady state.
A: That’s circular. Besides, it’s the same with the pongids: modern gorillas, orangs, and chimpanzees spring out of nowhere. They have no yesterday. Speciation—and along with it, Darwinism—is dead in the water.
POE: Ah, but rapid branching can account for speciation. The smaller, more inbred the group, the quicker mutations become fixed, speeding up the evolutionary process. Mendelian inheritance shows the sudden appearance of “sports” and monsters; anything can happen, really.
A: Such as separate creation? By a creator? Whereby the fossil record would and indeed does show creatures appearing, fully formed, as do all thirty-two mammal orders as well as invertebrates (of well-differentiated types), which appeared abruptly in the Cambrian.
POE: Let’s leave a creator out of this for now, all right?
A: OK, but fish swim into the fossil record seemingly from nowhere, suddenly and fully formed—in a most un-Darwinian way, with only gaps where their ancestors are supposed to be. Darwin rightly called this an “abominable mystery”—after finding the flowering plants made to order, already much diversified when they first appeared in the Cretaceous, with nary a trace of their predecessors.
POE: Intermediates, you realize, might be hard to find due to a missing layer of sedimentation or other sporadic changes in the environment. Moreover, some sort of macromutation could account for sudden change—and gaps. The problem disappears altogether if we accept the saltation model, perhaps combined with migrations—away from those missing ancestors—or new people who came in from elsewhere. Let us not forget that the gaps usually reflect isolation—people living apart in restricted geographical areas over long-enough periods of time.
A: This saltation is megaevolution or macromutation, which is genetically improbable, some say impossible. Why not then adopt the simplest solution: crossbreeding. Or even spiritual influence capable of producing sudden change?
AUTHOR’S INTERLUDE
Be most searching, O man; for thou shalt find, in this day and generation, the legends and history of Apollo in all the divisions of the earth . . . [for it was] in the time of Apollo that man in his present form was brought into being on the earth.
OAHSPE, THE LORDS’ THIRD BOOK 3:10–12 AND BOOK OF APOLLO 5:6–7
Mind and consciousness can directly influence physical processes without the intervention of material mechanisms.
CALLUM E. COOPER, TELEPHONE CALLS FROM THE DEAD
As I understand it, the time of Apollo, ca 18 kya, saw births “overshadowed”—and a new race was born: “the women were entranced in the sacred whirling dance and the impression on the soul shaped the unborn child.”11 It is this factor, unseen but potent, which Michael Cremo describes as “the transference of impressions from mothers to embryos.”12 This transference was dubbed psychogenesis by William Fix, who suggested that a “mother could have given birth to a being . . . governed by a spiritual agency. If hundreds of thousands or millions of spirits came down to earth together and acted in the same way at the same time, a whole generation of fledgling human beings could have been produced at once. . . . The human body can indeed be altered by mental influence.”13
The angels of heaven . . . by virtue of their presence, strove to make man wise and upright. . . . Upon the earth the number of such angels was millions.
OAHSPE, BOOK OF JEHOVIH 7:5
Thus was laid down the foundation for H. sapiens sapiens, the race called Ghans (appendix B), in the time of Apollo. The sacred dance raised the vibration, explains cosmogonist Peter Hartgens, so that the loo’is (angels of generation) could better do their job. “The loo’is have been preparing these matters . . . and shall [go] in among mortals, finding the most comely-formed men, women and young children. And when they have chosen them . . . they shall be quickened by signs and miracles.”14
Figure 4.6. The sign of loo’is. Their office was
to inspire certain men and women to wed, in such a way that their offspring would rise higher than the parents in wisdom, love, and power.
Go to the root of the matter, O My beloved. . . . Follow them! Double the number of loo’is; leave no young man alone; leave no young woman alone. Keep watch over them day and night; give them visions and dreams of Apollo. For, I am concerted to remold the forms of the earth-born. . . . And the women look on, receiving the spirit of the matter in their souls, the act of which entails on their offspring that which is desired by the Gods. . . . Unseen by mortals, the Lords stir up the whole world. In one generation, behold, a new race is born. . . . And the Lords inspired kings and queens to erect images [e.a.] in the temples, and the images were given a name signifying Harmony, Symmetry and Music.
OAHSPE, BOOK OF APOLLO 5:6
Images
The legions of Apollo inspired men to make images of stone and wood, so the Druks could learn from them.*65 It was at this time that refined figurines were introduced, to inspire, to serve as impressing models of ideal form. Images were placed in the oracle houses for the angels to come and “teach the holy doctrines.”†66 And in the time of worship, the angels came and possessed the idols and spake therefrom, with audible voices spake before mortals.‡67 Thus are Cro-Magnon’s figurines recognized by anthropologists as representing “a complex range of spiritual beliefs.” For man had received the commandment to remember the God of harmony, symmetry, and music, and to build images of him in all the divisions of Earth.§68 And people were taught, under inspiration of angels, how to make the images, for there were few mortals sufficiently perfect to serve as models. “And the images shall have short arms and long legs.” Thus do we find shortened arms on some of the Venus figures, reflecting the ideal of the well-proportioned modern races. In Japan, the Jomon haniwa are small figurines depicting little people (Ihins) with noble faces, just as the earliest stone figures in Europe (near Hamburg) show quite modern features.¶69 Mesopotamian figurines with tapered waists stand in contrast to the no-waist, barrel-chested, long-armed tribes of Druks and barbarians.
They mold the inhabitants of the earth as clay is molded in a potter’s hand. He comes to the young mother’s dream, and shapes her unborn, with limbs like a racer. . . . Out of the idolatry of My Son, Apollo, I will beautify the inhabitants of the earth.
OAHSPE, BOOK OF APOLLO 5:2–11 AND 14:5–6
“And man depended on the angels for all things helpful to his understanding.”15 He was instructed by his unseen mentors in arts and morals, science and industry, navigation and agriculture. The angels watched over man, “teaching him oft times unknowing to himself in all good works and industry.”16 They taught them “how to make fire by striking flint stones.”17 Learning from angels, we might surmise, eliminates the need for mutations or long and slow evolution of ideas.
The Inca shamans of Peru averred that their forebears were taught building techniques by the light beings (apus), as did the Amazonian Tukano people, who also learned from their unseen teachers (the abe mango) how to make pottery and woven cloth, and how to cook food: “by the angels was he taught and guided in all things . . . knowledge of the sun and moon and stars . . . how to find the times and seasons of the earth.”18 “Apollo told us when to plant and when to reap.”19
Perhaps tutelary spirits taught us to farm and gave us the domestic breeds that we needed.
BEN STOECKER, THE ATLANTIS CONSPIRACY
It will be said by some that there is a law of evolution whereby man riseth from a lower to a higher state as the earth groweth older. But I say unto you, there is no such law. Save but by the labor of thy Lord and thy God, through their angels, man riseth not upward, but he goeth the other way.
OAHSPE, THE LORDS’ FOURTH BOOK 4:8–9
A: According to the Malaysian little people, it was the hala’ (angel mentor) who helped early humans, teaching them rules of mating and all proper behavior, for man of himself was helpless and needed to be shown what to do. It is on record that “man was naked and not ashamed, neither knew he the sin of incest,” so the angels were sent down,20 and they went among the Druks and taught the law of incest.*70 The Batek say the earliest human beings married their brothers and sisters because they did not yet know that it was prohibited. Don’t you think this departure from incest could change the genetic features of a people in a short time?
POE: Unfortunately there are no fossils that leave a record for that sort of thing. Even less is there any evidence whatsoever of so-called angel interference.
GOOD-SHAPED MEN
A: Well, what about the marvelous cave paintings of the Bushmen and Cro-Magnon? Several authors have developed the theme that Paleolithic cave art is mostly about communing with spirit helpers; with the famous paintings of shamans, those sites are generally regarded as shrines and mystery schools. Even today many caves, according to natives, are as “cathedrals,” holy or magical conclaves. “The spirits oft appeared, teaching openly their several doctrines” in the temples—many of which were caves.21 Otherworldly inspiration was the legacy of the sacred little people (Ihins) who were the first to practice spirit communion and to teach others how to receive instruction from the invisible beings. Among the Andamanese, one of the oldest tribes on Earth, a man becomes a shaman by contact with spirits, either in dream or by “dying” and coming back. (The main Andaman tribe are the Onge people. Ong means “spiritual light”; see chapter 7.)
How can anyone believe that one species morphs into a different species? Have breeders ever turned a cat into a dog? Such changes are a scientific illusion, a falsehood so big that we, dumbfounded, believe it. Anthropologists say the brain of australopithecus did not increase in size or become more human for a million years. The H. erectus race changed remarkably little, without any brain increase during their entire tenure on Earth and with the same hand axes throughout; later assemblages are as crude as those in the beginning. At the stratified site of Choukoutien in China, we see no steady increase in brain capacity or shape, from the bottom to the top of the excavation: Sinanthropus remained the same over the entire period examined. Neither is there any evolutionary change among Neanderthals. Certainly no brain size increase among them, or since them for that matter. And after Cro-Magnon appeared without warning, they didn’t change much afterward either. Where is the evolution in all this?
POE: Point taken, many groups were retarded in evolution, but then came the rapid development of the brain in the late Pleistocene. The cave paintings and other creative work that you allude to, appearing forty or fifty thousand years ago in Europe, only suggest there was some intellectually advantageous gene mutation around that time that spurred rapid cognitive and cultural advances.22 If not, then we still have no adequate explanation for our big brain. Perhaps Mr. Wallace (Alfred Russel Wallace) was right, that the brain had a surprisingly rapid development. It’s also possible that Dr. Tilly Edinger of Harvard was right, in that our brain has not evolved at all from early man but somehow developed at a later stage.
SO LITTLE HAS CHANGED
A: I hasten to add that this stasis we are talking about also holds for numerous animal species that looked exactly the same millions of years ago as they do today—the snapping turtle appeared in the distant past with the same form and habits it has today, as did dragonflies, beetles, sharks, pelicans, rats, beavers, wolves, aardvarks, porcupines, and sturgeons. The tuatara, a lizardlike “living fossil” on islands off New Zealand, has shown little morphological evolution for nearly 200 million years, like the turtle, opossum, nautilus, horseshoe crab, and alligator—all virtually unchanged for millions of years.
POE: These are a bit of a time anomaly, probably because their environments have not changed, signaling an evolutionary backwater. They are persistent types, or in some cases, the rate of mutation is exceptionally low. Some of the large birds, for instance, have evolved rather slowly. Other species become stagnant, simply reach a standstill, having attained their evolutionary limit.
A: T
hus accounting for the ant of 150 million years ago, which is almost the same as today, likewise, the starfish, platypus, oyster, and bacteria—unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. The cockroach hardly changed since the Carboniferous.
POE: Well, cockroaches obviously became a successful species several hundred million years ago and just stopped evolving.
A: Even Louis Leakey, undoubtedly an evolutionist, thought that man, rhino, flamingo, and so on have remained relatively unchanged since their first appearance. Ancient African deposits found by his daughter-in-law, paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey, held thousands of tracks identical to those of today’s animals: antelopes, hares, giraffes, hyenas, horses, pigs.
POE: Please bear in mind that a trait may not evolve at all if it serves its purpose well—in which case you can have stasis for millions of years and then a great spurt of evolution.
A: Stasis—spurt—stasis—spurt. Pretty bipolar, if you ask me.
POE: If a species is well adapted to its ecological niche, the pressure to change is nil—they simply remain the same for a very long period of time indeed. Even the human body form has not altered appreciably in 100,000 years. Species may simply present as static in their range—a kind of genetic inertia, especially in large interbreeding populations. Conditions are not always propitious for evolutionary innovation.
A: Not always? Didn’t Dr. Gould establish that stasis is actually the rule? Most species exhibit no evolutionary change during their time on Earth.
Stasis typified much of prehistory.
ROGER LEWIN, THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS
POE: Clearly there are some species in the fossil record that remain unchanged for millions of years, having reached their evolutionary plateau in a stable ecological niche. But then sudden appearances might follow, under acute selective pressure.
Mysterious Origins of Hybrid Man Page 16