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INTRODUCTION

 

Who are we?

We are a race of beings known as humans, or homo sapiens, inhabiting a minor planet named Earth, the third planet orbiting an average yellow star found in a large spiral galaxy known as the Milky Way. Our star, the sun, is insignificant when we try to find it inside our galaxy; furthermore, our galaxy is nothing more than a faint speck in the realm of the whole universe.

In contrast with our ancient knowledge, where our planet was assumed to be the center of the universe, now we cope with existing in the middle of nowhere, with everything else so far away! When we look at the immensity of the universe in a clear night sky, a reality only our imagination can fathom and visualize with the aid of the modern knowledge of the cosmos; many questions surface to challenge our intellect; it is like those questions are written on the sky and compel us to read them.

What is inside our minds that we must look and search beyond our daily routine to reach a level of awareness that is way above our materialistic animal life? Our ancestors looked at the same skies; even with limited knowledge as compared to ours, they experienced the same questions. Even with few facts in their hands, they wondered about the answers; however, they spent much more time looking at the stars than we do today. They started accumulating knowledge, bringing us to the growing pinnacle where we stand today.

Who are we?

       Where did we come from?

                   Where is our final destination?

                               Are we alone in the universe?

                                           Is there a God?

Since the beginning of our existence, we have asked countless questions; some have been answered, and others still challenge our beliefs and intelligence. Are we going to have all the answers in the future? Not likely, specific answers raise new questions, and in this manner, we continue our intellectual evolution.

Who are we? An interesting question: Some believe we evolved from apes, as the Evolution theory showed when Charles Darwin first announced it in 1858. This theory laid the ground for our modern understanding of the processes of natural selection and the genetic changes that fossil records revealed. Ultimately, it unveiled the possible evolutionary path from the first bacteria to the much later evolved mammals, which did not have a chance to roam the planet until an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Finally, the most crucial step for us: How did the transition from primate to humanoid happen?

At present, paleontologists have compiled an intricate branch from the Homo sapiens back to the possible oldest ancestor of our race: the Sahelanthropus tchadensis.^[1] This predecessor, which looks much more like a chimpanzee than a human, lived around seven million years ago. A long time after, between 3-4 million years ago, appeared our much better-known ancestor named: Australopithecus afarensis, whose best representative is ‘Lucy,’ a female hominid found in 1974 in Eastern Ethiopia. Back 500,000 years into the past, only two branches were left from the practical ramifications of ‘Lucy’: the homo heidelbergensis and the homo erectus. The latter disappeared in recent times, less than 50,000 years ago, while the former split into two branches: the homo neanderthalensis and the homo sapiens.

Then, at about 150,000 BC, our Mitochondrial Eve was traced to East Africa, but it was not until 60,000 BC that the first appearance of the Y-chromosomal Adam was found. This date is likely a good approximation of the first modern humans known as Adam and Eve as they appeared on our planet. Even the first descendants of this original pair coexisted with the Neanderthals, that vanished for not well-known reasons around 25,000 BC. Furthermore, in 2004 in Indonesia, a new branch of the homo family, named homo floresiensis, was discovered; they were small hominids, pygmy-sized, that survived until 12,000 BC. It is still debated if this new branch came from homo erectus.

A question arises. What was the difference between Adam and Eve and the other homo sapiens living at that same time?

To answer this question requires faith, a religious belief that a God exists and that He created the universe and us as part of it. The search for a God seems to be part of our nature because humankind has relentlessly pursued this endeavor since the beginning of our existence. For the believers, which includes a large amount of all living humans, the answer is intrinsically clear: look at the universe and us, its immensity, its complexity, plus all the requirements for our existence.

The conditions needed for us to be alive on planet Earth add to an overwhelming list; it started from the Big Bang to our present time, as everything is fine-tuned to allow the fundamental laws of physics to exist and for us to journey alongside. Even so, our survival depends on uncountable disastrous events not taking place or preserving the present status quo if such a thing is possible. Just a meteor, one super volcano, a massive solar flare, and a nearby star gamma burst are four of many doomsday scenarios; nevertheless, not to even mention our days of reckoning caused by our doings such as nuclear war, pestilence, starvation, phone addiction, or an AI (Artificial Intelligence) takeover.

For the faithful, believing in the existence of God is easy; however, it is not as easy to prove the reality of God since He is immaterial or a pure spirit entity.

The skeptics and non-believers rely on science to explain their existence, like the theory of evolution. For them, there is no difference between Adam and Eve and any of the hominids. It was a continuous process for hominids to evolve into modern homo sapiens.

Since I am a believer, I trust my faith in a compilation of writings that is the essence of my religion: The Bible.

In the Bible, the book of Genesis tells us about the creation of one man and one woman: Adam and Eve.^[2] The Bible also mentions that man was created in God’s image.^[3]

From my point of view, only one characteristic separates Adam and Eve from all the other hominids coexisting in that era: God gave the couple a divine gift… they had a soul. Without it, homo sapiens were just like the other animals: clever and cunning beasts that would exist to satisfy their primary instincts to survive. The soul is that essence that drives us to search for answers and recognize who we are once we become aware of our existence. Two words powerfully express it: “I am.”

The nature of the soul is to return to its Creator; however, since Adam and Eve committed an act of disobedience, ‘the original sin,’ such an invaluable path became closed.^[4]

Jesus’ main reason for coming to Earth was to reopen this unique avenue.

Only our materialistic tendencies extruding from our animal connections can prevent our souls, which are spirits, from returning to their divine origin. Since the original sin, as it relates to humans, such divine return has become a ‘choice.’

Linked to the original sin, a new creature appears that is not human… the angel. There are two kinds of angels; the ones that serve God and the others against Him; the latter are fallen angels or demons, and they are determined to prevent us from succeeding in our quest to save our souls: Satan is their leader.

After their expulsion from paradise, because of their failed obedience, Adam and Eve reproduced, projecting humanity into a brisk growth. Past four thousand years, there were numerous towns and even larger cities in the ancient lands. When God saw that evil had taken over humanity and only a handful remained loyal to Him, He decided to end the wickedness of men by a punishment called: The Great Flood.^[5]

Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their spouses were the only humans who survived in an Ark: a big boat filled with one pair of all existing animals. (A possibility exists that Noah’s family had many children with them.)

The Bible claims that all living land creatures died due to the flood. There is a debate that the Great Flood could have been local and did not affect the whole planet. But for a localized early population of humanity, regardless of either way being true, for them… it was global. Another suggested prospect was a meteor plunging into the ocean, causing gigantic worldwide tsunamis and enough water evaporating into the atmosphere to produce torrential rains. Additionally, we can find people who believe that hydroplaning of the tectonic plates caused the Great Flood or the Deluge.^[6]

The primary role of the Great Flood was to eradicate sinful humanity; however, it also caused the extinction of innumerable animals and plants. Furthermore, it also erased all remaining traces of surviving hominids and any interaction with the soul-bearing descendants of Adam and Eve.

The Old Testament in the Bible is remarkable from the Judaic and Islamic religious versions; however, it is unfortunate that there were no written documents from this first block of human history. Therefore, the information known today is passed from one generation to the next by word of mouth. This caused exaggerations, misinterpretations, omissions, and distortions.

There are thousands of years from which we know so little and from which we have more questions than answers. I still believe that even when the information in the Bible (Genesis) is fragmented and, in some instances, not taken literally, it opens a window to a distant past and is an invaluable insight into the origin of humanity.

The second emergence of humanity started when Noah and his family set foot on dry land. It is to be noted that the surviving humans were skilled craftsmen after building such a large boat as the Ark and that the whole group most likely lived in a city before the Great Flood; from these locations, they learned the knowledge and the techniques required for erecting buildings plus other city-related structures; in addition, they knew supporting human activities like farming and herding of animals.

This period should have been around 12,000 BC at the end of the final Mesolithic glaciation, where there is evidence of humans starting to manage their environment. Humanity, growing geometrically, expanded from ten thousand in only a hundred years; into the millions in two to three hundred years. In the first thousand years, cities multiplied and grew as humans spread around the globe.

Could this fresh start of humans be considered the origin of world religions?

Whom is this Supreme Being we feel compelled to recognize as the creator of the universe and worship Him above everything?

In monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, God is the single and central entity that defines their beliefs. However, these religions are not alone; we even find Native American tribes believing in the ‘Great Spirit,’^[7] who is like our understanding of a Supreme Being. Furthermore, old religions such as Zoroastrianism from the ancient Persian Empire, which had many deities, recognized the existence of a Supreme Lord above all the rest.

Somehow, Evil cropped in the emerging civilizations, and by first distorting their original beliefs and later diametrically opposing them, caused the great empires that evolved thousands of years later to become idolaters, pagans, and as the dictionary definition of evil is: morally bad or wrong, wicked.^[8] Some people and cities avoided the dominance of Evil, but not until the arrival of Jesus, when the great Roman Empire dominated the then so-called civilized known world, we can see a significant change in moral beliefs spreading to the whole world’s population.

How is the modern knowledge of a Supreme Being affect us today?

God is very much part of life to half the planet’s inhabitants. Sadly, we had fought against each other due to differences in our beliefs as Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants. Our history reveals that we have done such dreadful things in the past and so viciously that it is hard to believe we worship the same God!

Are we alone in the universe?

We have been trying relentlessly to answer this question in modern times to no avail; the cosmos is so vast that it is almost impossible to detect any life beyond our solar system. However, can we honestly believe that our planet is unique and that there is nobody else out there since our existence depends on so many conditions to be true for us to be here?

Many of us believe there are angels and demons, with such entities not being human. I think these beings lived in a distant past on another planet or planets, and the good became angels, and the bad ones turned into demons. There is a book named ‘The Book of Enoch’^[9] that elaborates on the life of an individual who lived generations after Adam and Eve. Enoch was so close to God that He took him to Heaven without dying.^[10] In the book, which the Catholic Church does not accept because of conflicts with the church’s teachings, Enoch mentions that God revealed the universe’s secrets to him. He visited other places similar to Earth and met with angels and even fallen angels. Therefore, if there is any truth left in his book, there are other planets that harbor life. Furthermore, the Bible’s description of how humans had seen these entities that we call angels is intrinsically unique.

The choirs which classify the angels point out that they are from distinct species, even from different planets: the universe is too immense for us to claim it as our own. I am sure other species had looked up to the skies and initially thought as we did… that we were alone; then, like us, they eventually realized the highly unrealistic nature of the thought. As different as they can be from us, these alien civilizations have one common ground with humans: they had or will have to choose from Good or Evil.

What is the future of humanity?

Our civilization will not go on forever. People in the past believed such an end was imminent and prepared for something that did not materialize. Even the apostles thought that the second coming of Jesus, the End of Times, would take place in their lifetimes. Only when they realized such a thing was not going to happen when they decided to write the gospels.

John, the apostle, was exiled to the island of Patmos because of his Christian faith; in this place, he drafted the book of Revelation.

The Apocalypse is included in this last book of the Bible. There is even controversy about John, the author, being John, the apostle. The book has symbolic descriptions that should not be taken literally; even so, people reading the book often do. Adding to countless confusion, the book’s visions are not chronological. The book focuses on the last conflict between Christ’s followers versus Satan’s evildoers, as John visualized it. The bloody Roman persecution of the early Christians ignited portions of his writings; however, other passages focused on specific events from a futuristic point of view, which is our contemporary vision of the end of humanity.^[11]

Human beings have gradually lost their spirituality; in our present, our technological advances that grew at gigantic steps in the 20^th Century consume our available time with uncountable gadgets and games, taking from our lives more than is intellectually healthy. They have beneficial uses, but we spend too much time facing computers, TVs, phones, and video games. Our real life is becoming a virtual life in which our interaction between ourselves and other people diminishes as gadgets require more of our time than ever before. This materialistic world is moving us away from God. Are we in this world to spend half of our lives watching TV, playing games, or texting? Is this like an intellectual decadence, in which we grow complaisant and at the same time insensitive to anyone else needs? What does our daily news tell us? You only hear about war, crime, disasters, terrorism, and similar events. Everything appears to erode our moral values in the US and worldwide.

Is the End of Time or the Apocalypse rising on the horizon? Do you believe the end is near?

History tells us about individuals or groups predicting the End of Time being wrong before. In the book of Revelation, John wrote about the last days of humanity; In this apocalyptic scenario, four horsemen bring suffering, mayhem, and death to humankind.^[12]

As the Antichrist rises, there are two witnesses, holy men who will preach against him. These two individuals will have divine protection from demons and evil people.^[13]

In the Holy Book, there is a special mention of the fall of a great city named: Babylon. In the Bible, through the history of men, Babylon has been the cradle of evil, while Jerusalem has represented the side of goodness.^[14] Finally, in the last war of good against evil, God ends Satan’s desire to own humanity by defeating him; this will happen in a place named Armageddon. Afterward, there is only one thing left, where all the living and the dead will be present: The Last Judgment.^[15]

AHA is a fictional book that focuses on a similar human conclusion. Even though this is fiction, it is still one of the infinite possible ways the future could become. When the disciples asked Jesus… When will the end arrive? He said that ‘Only the Father knew.’ This means that the future is not set in stone but is a dynamic and ever-changing prospect. God made the universe and us like a watchmaker would build a fine clock requiring effort and planning; when finished, the clock runs and keeps accurate time by itself, with no further attempt by its maker. Likewise, the universe runs as designed by His creator. Since He has given us the power to change the planet we live on, which has uncountable possible futures, we will eventually merge into a single outcome; furthermore, such an outcome shall happen only if God allows it since it will have to fit His conditions.

In this book’s narrative, the most influential individuals are the two witnesses in Revelation, the Antichrist, who is Satan, another demon disguised as a false prophet, and their evil human counterparts. I cannot proclaim that war is ready to start because the conflict between good and evil involving humans and angels began many millennia ago when Adam and Eve were alive.

The angels, who previously fought their own battle to choose between Good and Evil far beyond the dawn of humanity, became drastically separated. The winners, still known as angels, are ready to help us fight for our salvation. The losers, recognized as demons or fallen angels, do not want our possessions; they want something that is immensely more valuable... our souls!