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Part I: The History & Science of Polytheism

Chapter 1: The Gods on the Mountain

In the Beginning ...

Biblical Scholars generally agree that God would have created Adam somewhere around 4000 BCE, but the Biblical timeline clearly conflicts with that of science. There has been genetic evidence accumulating for years suggesting that modern science’s answer to Adam would have been born in Africa.14 This “out of Africa” theory takes into account the fossilized remains of man’s earliest hominid ancestors (family of great apes), discovered in Ethiopia as much as 5.9 million years ago. A trail of hominid fossil discoveries in East Africa confirms that the genus homo evolved through many different species, culminating in our own genus and species homo-sapiens (literally: “wise” or “knowing man”).

The remains of the oldest anatomically modern humans were discovered near the Omo River in south-western Ethiopia about 200,000 years ago. DNA testing confirms that these Cro-Magnon hominids should be more appropriately called Early Modern Humans (EMH). Theoretically, we know that “Y” chromosomes in men can be traced back to the first anatomically modern man. Therefore, by studying Y chromosomes from around the world, professors of molecular biology and evolution have determined that patterns of DNA, well known in India among man’s earliest populations, were found in the earliest form of that pattern in approximately 1000 breeding couples living in Ethiopia around 70,000 BCE. But, if mankind was traced back to a small Ethiopian population of 2000, then homo-sapiens appears to have been close to extinction.

In 1998, professor Stanley Ambrose proposed a theory that helps to explain this apparent catastrophe. In Sumatra, the super-eruption of Mount Toba caused the equivalent of a 6 year nuclear winter and may have started the last Ice Age.15 Mount Toba’s eruption initiated a 1000 year glacial period in an Ice Age that lasted from about 70,000 to 10,000 BCE. During this extended period there were alternating “glacial” and “interglacial” phases. Ice formed during cold periods and melted during warmer periods, dramatically affecting sea levels and climate around the world. Huge volumes of fresh water flowed into the ocean as a result of icebergs breaking off from glaciers during warmer interglacial periods, causing severe global climate fluctuations. These occurrences were named after the marine biologist Hartmut Heinrich.

Heinrich events, which occurred episodically throughout the last glacial cycle, led to abrupt changes in climate that may have rendered large parts of North, East, and West Africa unsuitable for hominid occupation, thus compelling early Homo sapiens to migrate out of Africa.16

During the last Ice Age, the climate of Northern Africa became colder, and the highest mountain peaks of equatorial Africa became glaciated, while the plains of northern Africa were transformed into the arid and uninhabitable Sahara desert. Sometime after 70,000 BCE, there was a migration from Ethiopia that crossed the Red Sea into Yemen at the Horn of Africa, heading through India toward Australia. This text, however, focuses on a second wave of migration, that made its way into the Middle East. It is this group that appears to have discovered science and religion and founded the sophisticated civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, and Harappa.

Important Middle Eastern archeological sites have been discovered yielding EMH skeletal remains and artifacts at Üçağızlı Cave (Turkey), Ksar ‘Akil (Lebanon), and Zar, Yataghyeri, Damjili and Taghlar caves (Azerbaijan). Physical characteristics that distinguish the transition of EMH to modern man deserve our close attention. The EMH were generally bigger and stronger, and had a larger cranial capacity, averaging about 1600 cm3 to 1750 cm3, as compared to the cranial capacity of modern humans, who average about 1450 cm3. A larger cranium might be considered appropriate for a larger, more robust homo-sapiens skeleton. When comparing different species, the ratio between brain weight and body weight clearly correlates with intelligence. But, when comparing the brain:body ratio within the same species, results appear to be inconclusive. For example, there has been no measurable change in cranial capacity over the last half of the 20th century, yet IQ points are believed to have risen by about 3 points per decade. It would be a mistake, however, to extrapolate on this data to presume that we must be smarter than our ancient EMH ancestors. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the opposite might be true.