Health Environment Technology Energy Life Humor Videos Cartoons


Table of Contents:
  1. Introduction
  2. Preface
  3. Foreward
  4. Part 1: Introduction
  5. Part 2: The Problem
  6. Profit, Power and Progress
  7. Democracy
  8. Education
  9. Religion
  10. Primitive Beliefs
  11. Part 3: The Solution
  12. Earth
  13. Religion
  14. Sacredness: A New Understanding
  15. Spiritual
  16. Sacred Construct
  17. Critical Mind Shift
  18. Three Simple Rules
  19. Our Competing Sets of Survival Instincts
  20. The Foundational Relationships
  21. Relationship With Self
  22. Opportunity and Responsibility
  23. About the Author

Seven Words that can Change the World

A NaturalNews Special Report by Joseph R. Simonetta


Earth

Now, let us return to planet Earth and consider how long our planet has been here, when life first appeared, and when we humans arrived. To do that, we turn to radiometric dating and the fossil record (a trace of an organism of a past geologic age).

From radiometric dating (the rate of radioactive decay is constant over time), we know Earth has been here for about 4.56 billion years (in a universe 13.7 billion years old). According to the fossil record, life began about 800 million years later, or 3.8 billion years ago. This life was in the form of primitive single-cell microorganisms. It took more than 3 billion years before the first multi-cellular plants and animals appeared. That was about 670 million years ago.

About 520 million years ago the age of invertebrates and vertebrates began. This period lasted for about 320 million years. At the end of this age, which was about 3.6 billion years since the first single-cell microorganisms appeared, it yielded insects and the beginning of fish and reptiles. That took us to 200 million years ago, at which time the age of reptiles began and lasted for about 130 million years. This was the time of the dinosaurs. About 70 million years ago the first mammals appeared. This marked the beginning of the age of the mammals (hairy species that feed their young from mammary glands). It’s the age we are in now. We are but one of about 4,400 species of mammals.

Something very significant happened with the arrival of mammals: the beginning of nurturing behavior. Reptiles hatch from eggs. Although some reptiles tend their nest, most reptiles do not take care of their eggs. Young reptiles are able to feed and care for themselves. By contrast, mammals nurture their young for quite some time. Great emphasis is placed on feeding, protecting, and teaching skills to the young in order for them to survive on their own. Moreover, mammals possess the most highly developed brain of all animals. A large brain size in relation to their body and the brain structure known as the cerebral cortex provide mammals with highly developed intelligence and senses that increase their ability to learn and perform detailed tasks. So, 70 million years ago, we see the beginning of the shift from the reptilian brain to the more advanced brain.

What about us? How long has modern man been here? It is thought that about five to six million years ago the succession of species that gave rise to us separated from the succession that led to the apes. From a common ancestor, the apes moved off in one direction and we, the hominids or family of humans, moved off in another. It is thought that the first genus of the hominids may have been Ardipithecus. It was followed by Australopithicus and finally our genus, Homo, which showed up between 1.5 and 2 million years ago. These were not Homo sapiens, however, but Homo rudolfensis, the earliest known member of our genus. These beings were not what we consider to be modern humans. In between the emergence of Homo rudolfensis and the eventual arrival of Homo sapiens (us), were Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, and Homo neanderthalensis. It was in Africa, between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago, that modern humans, Homo sapiens (sensible humans), emerged. From there, we spread through Africa, into Asia and Europe, and to the rest of our world.

We began as and remained hunter-gatherers until about 12,000 years ago. At that time, with the domestication of plants and animals, our agrarian age began. We remained in that age until the late 1700s, when the Industrial Revolution began in England. By the mid 1800s, the Industrial Revolution spread to Belgium, Germany, France, and the United States. Eventually, it spread to all the industrial nations. By the middle of the 1900s we transitioned into a post-industrial high-technology age, which led directly to the information age that emerged in the latter part of the century. Through all these periods, our population continued to rise.

It took from the very beginning of the evolution of our species to the year 1900 for us to reach a population of 1.6 billion. Then something extraordinary happened. Something that will likely never again occur on this planet. From the year 1900 to 1960, our population jumped from 1.6 billion people to 3 billion. In sixty years, we nearly doubled the population that it took all of evolution to produce. Then, in the next thirty-nine years we added another 3 billion to reach a population of 6 billion in 1999. In other words, in 39 years, we added as many people (3 billion) as it took for our previous entire existence to accumulate. In a hundred years, from 1900 to 2000, we quadrupled our population. It is estimated that in 2050 our population will be about 9.2 billion. We are presently adding approximately 80 million people a year to our global population.

If we take a survey of the attitudes, behavior, and beliefs of a representative sample of all these people on a particular subject or issue, do a statistical distribution with our data and plot the results on a graph, we come up with something that we refer to as a bell curve.

The area in the center of the curve is known as the normal range of behavior. Off to the right and left are standard deviations from the normal range. Beyond these standard deviations are more extreme deviations from the normal range. What does all this mean? It means that whatever the issue, the people on one side of the curve will have very different views than those on the opposite side. This results in opposition, conflict, and strife, up to and including wars. This bell curve, a snapshot of humanity, is a remarkable phenomenon. It represents one of the greatest challenges in life: how to bridge our differences. This very predictable pattern contributes to, and, in fact, practically guarantees, life’s multiple interpersonal problems, instability, and uncertainty.

Further contributing to life’s instability and uncertainty is the fickleness of nature (natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes, cyclones, forest fires, floods, and droughts). Also contributing are a vast number of illnesses that we contract and from which we suffer, and an extraordinary array of accidents that occur regularly. In addition, because we have so many people and are a young species that has been largely ignorant of the physical reality and the behavioral demands of the reality in which we exist (and which enables us to exist) we have created an interrelated web of life-threatening environmental problems. We are depleting our resources: our forests, fisheries, range lands, croplands, and plant and animal species. We are destroying the biological diversity on which evolution thrives (this is being called the sixth great wave of extinction in the history of life on earth, different from the others in that it is caused not by external events, but by us). With powerful new electrical and diesel pumping techniques, we are draining our aquifers and lowering our water tables. We are systemically polluting our air, water, and soil, and consequently our food chain. We are depleting the stratospheric ozone that shields us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. And, we are experiencing symptoms of global warming: heat waves, devastating droughts, dying forests, accelerated species extinction, dying coral reefs, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, more frequent and intense storms, and a more rapid spread of diseases.

This thing we call life, far from certain, is a fragile phenomenon. It is up and down like a seesaw on which we are sitting.. In our theatres, where we have for thousands of years told the stories of our lives, we have for symbols the classic masks of comedy and tragedy that portray joy and sorrow. Life has always been this way.




Want more special reports like this e-mailed to you when they're available? Click here for free e-mail alerts.

Share this Special Report by linking to it

Copy and paste the following HTML code into any web page:



This site is part of the NaturalNews Network ©2004,2005,2006,2007,2008 All Rights Reserved. Privacy | Terms All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing International, LTD. has full ownership of and takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no health or nutritional products and earns no money from health product manufacturers or promoters. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Your use of this website indicates your agreement to these terms and those published here. All trademarks, registered trademarks and servicemarks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.

View more
Special Reports:

How to Build Your Financial Safety Net: 12 Ways to Achieve Prosperity During (and After) the Global Financial crisis

The 7 Principles of Mindful Wealth teaches you how to break through wealth attraction limitations and embrace the level of abundant financial wealth you truly deserve.

Breast Cancer Deception reveals the shocking truth about the breast cancer industry's scheme to profit from disease and censor natural cures.

Exclusive interview with Jay Robb covers the philosophy and innovative products of this health & fitness champion.

The Amazon Herb Company: An Independent Review brings you the latest news about the fast-growing Amazon Herb Company and its remarkable success in healing people and the planet at the same time.

The pH Nutrition Guide to Acid / Alkaline Balance by Jack Challem. Reveals secrets to "alkalizing" your body chemistry to prevent disease and accelerate healing.

Pet Food Ingredients Revealed! Learn the shocking truth about all 570 ingredients commonly used in pet food today. (Warning: This report tells the truth that pet food manufacturers absolutely do not want consumers to know...)

Medicine From Fish: How to heal degenerative disease with a unique medicinal protein.

The Healing Power of Water: The missing "dehydration link" to chronic disease (and how to reverse it with water!)