I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The Universe opens up, on occasion, and gives us a little hint. It tries, at least. It nudges us. The course of events line up in a curious way, or something seems just a little suspect. I think, historically, December 2nd is just one of those dates.
This time, it is about the age of the earth and the humans living here.
There are many who take the bible as a literal book. Many believe, then, that the earth is only around 6,000 years old. Of course, science has proven differently, letting us know the big blue ball is 4.5 billion years old. Crusty. Generally, people don’t believe in science because they don’t understand it. They are unwilling to accept and learn information or concepts outside of their current intellectual realms.
Anyway. The Big U, the origins of man, and December 2.
On this date in 1927, a world-leading paleoanthropologist named Davidson Black made an announcement. He stood before the Geological Society of China and talked about the ancient human fossils from Zhoukoudian, China. These human fossils indicated a new species, which he named ‘Sinanthropus pekinensis’ — now known as ‘Homo erectus.’
Just to clear things up. The erectus part means “standing up,” and not anything else, you gutter balls.
Then, jump ahead two years on this exact date. In 1929, the first skull of “Peking Man” was found in the caves of Zhoukoudian. This is about 31 miles outside of Peking, China. Later, this skull was dated to be around 750,000 years old.
A few decades later, on this same date, in 1960, another leading paleoanthropologist named Louis Leakey made another discovery. This time, a 1.4 million-year-old Homo erectus — which they named Olduvai Hominid 9. These remains were found in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. That’s about 6,000 miles from Peking, southeast, as the crow flies.
Finally, this December 2, in 2014. Scientist Stephen Hawking claimed that Artificial Intelligence could be a “threat to mankind” and spell the end of the human race.
Now, I don’t know what all this adds up to. But it does prove, of course, through scientific discovery and fact, that man has been walking around for quite some time now — or some distant version of man.
Our oldest ancestors have been kicking around for about six million years. Then came us, the modern form of humans. We evolved about 200,000 years ago. Think how long, long, long we had been here before industrialization started. That, in its truest, only got rolling in the 1800s.
I just find it odd that these numerous significant discoveries concerning the origin of man all occurred on December 2nd. I know, I know. Coincidence. That pesky and dismissive word that people use when the “otherworldly” might be happening. Here’s the thing. Running into your neighbor at the grocery store is coincidence. But I tend to believe certain events are beyond happenstance.
Take the married couple of 47 years, who did everything together. They died of COVID — within the same minute of each other. It was two days before Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, at 4:23 p.m. when hospital staff recorded their deaths. Seems a little more than coincidental to me.
My question, then, is there such a thing as providence? Kismet? Predestination? Or are we in a serendipitous state of being? Accidental and random?
I know one thing. Every moment in all of history had to add up exactly for us to be sitting here. Our great-great-great-great grandparents, times 100 and beyond, had to be doing specifically the right thing, at every moment, for you and I to be alive today. One missed bus? One sick day out of school? One bullet in a time of war? One less homo erectus? And the whole thing would have domino-ed in some other direction.
It adds up to this. It reminds me to be thankful for the fact that I’m even here. It reminds me to be thankful for you too.
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“It’s hard to believe in coincidence, but it’s even harder to believe in anything else.”
― John Green, Will Grayson, Will Grayson
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“The complexity of the simplest known type of cell is so great that it is impossible to accept that such an object could have been thrown together suddenly by some kind of freakish, vastly improbable, event. Such an occurrence would be indistinguishable from a miracle.”
― Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory In Crisis
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“Everything in life has a pattern and a coincidence is simply the moment when the pattern becomes briefly visible.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Moonflower Murders
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Is it by chance, throughout the ages? Or meant.
