In an age where technology has allowed us to expect instant reward and
provides us with immediate solutions, humankind seems to have all the
answers. Our confidence as a species is higher than ever before and the
knowledge of the universe we live in is expanding faster than most
people can keep up with… There are however three fundamental questions
that we have not been able to answer. Who are we? How did we get here?
And, why are we here?
Ever
since I first became interested in genetics, it has always intrigued me
that such an important part of our anatomy, the genome, a molecular
structure so refined, should have been created incomplete.Actually, the
truth is that the genome was created in abundance, with large parts of
the structure that are not being used at all. It is as if the inactive
parts of the genome are waiting for some extrinsic factor to switch them
on. The question begs, which unimaginable characteristics or super
abilities are the dormant parts of the genome not controlling? What
human abilities are they hiding? And how has this affected our evolution
as a species?
The genome is just another name for the full
complement of genes and DNA contained by an individual. In humans, the
genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes which contain the entire
genetic programme for that specific individual and is located in the
nucleus of every cell in our bodies. This genetic programme controls all
the information that allows us to grow and function. Our genome is
unique for every individual and every species. When we are born, we are
blissfully unaware of what awaits us. There might be seven ages of man,
but it all ends up woven together into a long reality performance
directed by some invisible force. We are all given some 70 years to do
our performance here on Earth, on average; the rest is up to each one of
us. Enter stage left… exit stage right. The only certainty we have at
present is that we will exit.What are you going to do with your 70
years? What is the purpose of this journey, this play of life that we
all participate in? Will you use this time creatively, make a
contribution to the global community of beings or will you be a mere
spectator, a usurper of facilities before you exit stage right?
Despite
the 6.5 billion people who populate the Earth, the human race is a
rather fragile and primitive species.No matter how intelligent and smart
we think we are,we constantly display signs of basic animal behaviour
that can lead to the decimation of our kind in the blink of an eye.We
have waged war on our fellow man throughout history and continue to do
so into the 21st century. There always seems to be a moral high ground
or justification for our action. From Cain and Abel to George W. Bush,
it has always been the strong and powerful who oppress and wipe out the
weak. The old testament of the Bible is not a pretty tale of compassion
and forgiveness. In fact, quite the opposite. It talks about an eye for
an eye; wiping out man, woman, child and beast in the name of god; and
often mentions the enemy by name, personifying them as the ‘bad’ guys or
disciples of the devil. It seems that god has been taking sides from
the very beginning. He had his favourites, and then there were ‘the
others’. I always felt that the God I have been told about should be
more impartial and loving.
The Bible is filled with prophets and
other individuals who for thousands of years had a direct link to god
and who on a regular basis received instructions from god to do certain
things. When reading the Bible it is not only deemed normal, but it is
expected of us to take for granted and to believe that a number of
‘chosen’ people received such regular instructions from god. Not only
did they receive clear instructions and warnings, they received physical
instructions in the form of the Ten Commandments and rewards of a
material kind, like land or cattle. But the most impressive interactions
between god and man were the many visitations god made in person to
various individuals. If he could not make it in person, he would send
‘angels’ to deal with whatever situation needed to be dealt with.The
divine beings would share ideas, share wine and bread, and inevitably
god would instruct the person to perform certain tasks. All of these
individuals seem to have been men. And all of the people who contributed
to the scriptures of the Bible were also all men. If ‘He’ created us
all equal, did god have a problem with the credibility of women? Or was
god just the personification of a male dominated society? The simple
historic fact remains – that god actually physically interacted with
man. Today such claims of a physical interaction with God would draw
strong criticism and ridicule.Why is that? Is it perhaps that such
events in prehistory cannot affect us here today? We seem to accept it
when it happened in ancient history, almost reduced to some fantastic
fairy tale of our struggle for freedom. Or is it simply because we are
too scared to analyse the facts for fear of victimisation by placing
such arguments in the public domain? These questions have troubled me
for most of my life.
And who, and when, decided that the Bible
had reached its conclusion? That it was now enough, it is now the end,
and the final chapter must be written! Obviously, this was another man
inspired by God and dictated to by the Holy Spirit! Surely the quest for
truth and salvation continues? Surely the atrocities on Earth have not
abated; surely the people of the Earth need ongoing guidance and
instructions from God on how to deal with modern day mayhem and crime;
how to respond to dictators; how to survive colonisation, racism,
invasions and other inventions of ‘evil’ minds. Our capacity for cruelty
as a species has reached unbearable proportions.We make rules as
civilised beings, only to be abused and used against us by less
civilised individuals with a good knowledge of the legal system. Those
who preach peace and love and turning the other cheek have become the
weakened victims of their own philosophy.
Now, more than ever,
people need salvation. They need something real to believe in and to
hold onto in times when all hope seems to have vanished. So why are the
scriptures not ongoing? Why is God not dictating more wisdom through one
of his prophets? Or many of his prophets? Some say He is.Many claim
they are in contact with God on a regular basis.Many convey God’s
messages in packed churches and other places of worship. How does the
global community respond to individuals who make fantastic claims of
miracles, and hearing God’s voice, and having the answer? Well, in many
cases these modern prophets rise to a cult status with a blind following
of disciples who will respond to every command, while in other cases
they are reduced to cranks with a loose screw.
So, how should a
judge in the 21st century respond to a guy who tied up his ten-year-old
daughter to a table in the back yard, and who was caught by police in
the process of stabbing her to death or slitting her throat? If he
claims that God had instructed him to sacrifice her to prove his
obedience to the all mighty lord, should such a character be seen as an
example of a modern faithful or a psychopath? Yet we look at Abraham as a
faithful man of God with strong principles and a leader of men because
he obeyed god’s instructions to ‘kill’ his own son. The Bible, however,
calls it ‘sacrifice’.Would we see it as such if it happened today in a
wealthy suburb of Johannesburg or Paris?
It is truly a confusing
state of religious activity out there. Thousands of religions, all of
them man-made, all claiming that they have the answer. Only ‘their’
followers will be saved by the maker and bask in the pleasures of
parscience adise. It seems that the more money they have, the more power
they wield and the closer to God’s ear they can get.
And so the
religious argument begins, and we clearly display the primitive side of
our low evolutionary state.Are these the primitive characteristics which
could be controlled by the inactive genes? We look at the past great
civilisations and somehow feel superior.The fact that we cannot explain
many things from prehistory is quickly discarded as “who cares about the
Egyptians… they’re all dead”. In the light of all our achievements and
scientific discoveries, the more we evolve, the stronger the religious
dogma becomes. It seems that the religious dogma, which could also be
called fanaticism in this case, is directly linked to money. The
wealthier a nation, the more they can enforce their particular religious
views on others. The USA may claim that they are a ‘free’ society in
all respects, but that is mainly because they feel a sense of comfort
among their 96% Christian community. It is safe for them to allow the
minority ‘rogue’ religions to waste their time on their own meaningless
salvation.
But then we start to look at who we really are, and
the road we have travelled as a species on this planet, only to realise
that our presence here does not even equate to the ‘tip of the
iceberg’.We marvel at dinosaur fossils and talk about what it must have
been like here on Earth when dinosaurs roamed. We throw around numbers
like ‘60 million years’, when they were extinct; ‘200 million years’
when T-Rex caused havoc and ‘400 million years’ ago really makes us gasp
at the fossils of insects in the museums. Then we start comparing the
timescale to famous events in our own frame of reference.The First World
War 100 years ago; Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago; the Vikings some 1
200 years ago; Mohammed some 1 400 years ago; Jesus 2 000 years ago; the
pyramids 4 000 years ago; the last ice age some 13 000 years ago; by
then most of us run out of reference points.
And then one day
something miraculous happens.We lift our eyes up at the night sky filled
with billions of stars and we try to imagine infinity. Someone points
out Mars and Jupiter. And then you look through a telescope and for the
first time you see Saturn with its rings and even several of its moons,
and suddenly the reality of it all changes somewhat. It all becomes a
little bit bigger. You look at Alpha Centauri and realise that the light
from the closest star to us takes five years to reach us, travelling at
300 000 km per second.You go to a lecture by an astronomer and see
pictures of galaxies so far away it is impossible to imagine the
distance. Galaxies a billion light years away. Super-cluster galaxies
five billion light years away; ultra hot quasars some 12 billion light
years away right at the edge of the known universe, and then… some 13.8
billion light years away… just blackness. Nothing. You sit in silent
contemplation as you try to digest the reality of what you have just
witnessed. You have just looked beyond the edge of the known universe,
where nothing exists.
But when you wake up in the morning and you
try to explain your epiphany to a group of close friends, they share
your excitement for exactly 15 seconds before one of them pronounces,
“Hey, did you guys check that lekker (nice) movie on TV last night?”
With
all the valiant attempts and sometimes remarkable discoveries by
archaeologists,we still cannot pinpoint the origin of humankind. Oh,
scores of scientist will argue and give you all kinds of evidence and
proof, only to be rewritten by some new scientist five years from now.
It is all calculated speculation presented to us either as scientific
hypotheses or religious dogma. But in reality, all it ends up being, is
more manipulation of the pieces of the Great Human Puzzle.We cannot tell
when civilised man first walked the Earth and we cannot tell when man
was created, or how man evolved,with a definite level of certainty.
Let’s
face it, the past two centuries have led to amazing discoveries of
ancient civilisations, lost cities and a closer understanding of the
people who developed these ancient cultures. Cultures that displayed
remarkable knowledge and understanding of science and the cosmos. It has
taken us decades to decipher the various texts or styles of writing by
the many extinct cultures.With all our knowledge and sophistication, we
have not deciphered the Balkan-Danube script and the Indus Script to
date. The diversity of these ancient civilisations, from the ancient
Chinese, various cultures of the Americas, the hieroglyphs of the
Egyptians, to the cuneiform scriptures of the Sumerians, the lost cities
of Asia, have baffled historians and archaeologists alike. It has taken
us by complete surprise to discover ancient libraries, such as the
library of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, with around 30 000 cuneiform
clay tablets of scriptures that point to great knowledge by lost
civilisations.
It is curious to discover the extended knowledge
of astronomers as early as six thousand years ago with detailed
information of our own solar system, describing it in great detail. We
read about ancient gods who roamed and ruled the Earth, in chariots that
flew in from the stars, and conflicts and betrayal between these
ancient gods. We read about brave men who achieved great things in the
distant past and wisdom which was imparted to man by the many gods who
came from the stars. The ability to extract precious metals from ore in
the ground, while the production of gold, copper, tin and bronze as
early as nine thousand years ago points to clear understanding of
metallurgical procedure. The ancient ruins of the Americas with visible
extraction and mining activity explain why there was an unimaginable
wealth of gold in this part of the world long before Columbus, Cortes or
the other savages who set foot there only a few hundred years ago. The
further inexplicable evidence of ore mining in southern Africa as far
back as 100 000 years ago is simply too much for even the bravest of
archaeologists to accept.
The knowledge of medical procedure and
genetic manipulation, the creation of the ‘Adamu’ and a new species, is
clearly documented in ancient tablets which have only recently been
understood by so-called intelligent man. The power of wireless
communication and geophysical knowledge to anticipate natural disaster;
all this wealth of information stares us bluntly in the face.And yet,we
cannot come to terms with the fact that we may not be the pinnacle of
intelligence that has inhabited the planet. Since the rapid evolution of
the computer, our ability to document and match this ancient wisdom has
enabled us to understand it more clearly. But what do we do with all
this information when standing face-to-face with incredible tales from
prehistory? We have two choices. Either we believe that it has been left
for future civilisations to use and build upon, or we discard it as
hallucinogenic garbage by some primitive idiots from a stone age, not
worthy of our attention.
But the fact that only 500 years ago men
were burnt at the stake for suggesting that Earth was not the centre of
the universe; the human body was a mysterious vessel that was studied
and dissected by daring scientists risking their lives in the early
hours of the morning; that we only discovered the last three planets in
our solar system in the past 200 years – are clear indications that we
are not the super race.
We are the sub-species. Our arrogance is
our weakness, and our ignorance a congenital disease that will
eventually destroy us. The dogma has consumed us and the fear controls
us. But why are we so blind to the facts and evidence that surround us?
Why are we so obsessed with popular religions that mostly bow to a god
who uses retribution and punishment as a form of control? If we all come
from the same maker, we should all have the same set of rules on how to
obey that maker, but this is clearly not the case. Religious conflict
has torn our history apart for millennia and still hangs over our heads
into the 21st century like a cancer waiting to devour us.
In this
book we will discover that our disorder is the direct result of our
bastard race status, with unpredictable animal behaviour lurking in our
manipulated double helix DNA. Our intelligence has been suppressed, our
knowledge has been erased, our lifespan has been genetically shortened
and our memory has been removed.We are an inferior, genetically cloned
mutation of the great civilisations of the past, left behind to pick up
the pieces, or to put together the pieces of the Great Human Puzzle.
We
have made remarkable progress in the field of genetic engineering, but
just because we have been able to ‘map’ the genome does not mean we know
everything about it. On the contrary. The more we learn about the
genome, the more we marvel at its complexity. We seem to understand the
basic principle of the double helix, but we are far from understanding
all its functions.What we are especially perplexed by, are the large
sections that seem to be ‘switched off ’. Yes, it is curious to learn
that there are large parts of the genome which are not active. Ever
since I first became interested in the study of the genome, I have been
fascinated by the strange phenomenon, that such a masterful part of our
anatomy, a molecular structure so refined, should have been created
incomplete. That kind of discovery flies directly in the face of all
evolutionary processes. But the real truth is that the genome was
created in abundance, with far more DNA in our cells than we need for
our primitive form. It is as if the inactive parts of the genome are
waiting for some extrinsic factor to switch them on.
This begs
the question. If the genome controls all our characteristics and bodily
functions, then what is it that is not controlled by the inactive parts
of the genome? I firmly believe that this is the ultimate question of
humanity.What inert secret powers are being locked up behind the
inactive parts of our genetic structure?
Let’s take a quick look
at the history of genetic discovery. While there is clear evidence of
prehistoric genetic activity and manipulation dating back to some 250
000 years ago, modern man has only rediscovered the genome in the 1950s.
In
1866, Gregor Mendel published the results of his investigations of the
inheritance of ‘factors’ in pea plants, but it was only in the 1950s
that the chemical structure of the DNA was rediscovered by modern
scientists. They finally had a name for it, deoxyribonucleic acid. The
people involved in this breakthrough were Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind
Franklin, Francis H. C. Crick and James D.Watson.With this discovery
they started a whole new branch of science, namely molecular biology. In
the same decade,Watson and Crick made history when they made the first
model of the DNA molecule, showing its twisted double helix structure,
and proved that genes determine heredity. In 1957,Arthur Kornberg
produced DNA in a test tube. 1963 saw F. Sanger develop the sequencing
procedure for proteins.By 1966, a real breakthrough was made when the
genetic code was discovered. Scientists were now able to predict
characteristics by studying DNA. This very quickly evolved into genetic
engineering and genetic counselling.
In 1972, Paul Berg produced
the first recombinant DNA molecule, and in 1983, Barbara McClintock was
awarded the Nobel Prize for her discovery that genes are able to change
position on chromosomes. In the late 1980s an international team of
scientists began the tedious and demanding task of mapping the human
genome, and the first crime conviction based on DNA fingerprinting, in
Portland, Oregon, took place. By 1990, gene therapy was used on patients
for the first time. In 1993, Dr. Kary Mullis discovered the PCR
procedure, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. In 1994, the FDA
approved the first genetically engineered food. These were Flavr Savr
tomatoes engineered for better flavour and shelf life.
By 1995,
criminal DNA forensics made headlines in the O. J. Simpson trial. In
1997, Dolly the Sheep was cloned as the first adult animal clone. 1998
saw the senate inquiry into the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal based largely
on DNA evidence, and in the year 2000, J.Craig Venter, along with
Francis Collins, jointly announced the completion of the mapping and
sequencing of the entire human genome. This was a major achievement that
took almost 10 years less than originally expected. In 2003, Craig
Venter launched a global expedition to obtain and study microbes from
environments ranging from the world’s oceans to urban centres. This
mission will yield a definitive insight into genes that make up the vast
realm of microbial life.And now the true genetic era is upon us. The
first pet cloning company opened their doors for business in the USA in
2004. In essence,we have become the creators of species.And so we have
become ‘god’ to those species we create.
The more we discover in
the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa, the more we can genetically
link the various peoples of the world to half a dozen original
individuals in southern Africa; the more evidence we get from female
mitochondrial DNA that the first human was born around 250 000 years
ago, the more the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit. In this book we will
explore written evidence that places such a group of primordial humans
in southern Africa some 200 000 years ago, at about the time when the
Adam was supposed to have been created.When I first started placing
these pieces together, I was doubtful that something so fantastic could
be a possibility. But if you allow yourself the freedom of thought and
possibility, you will discover an incredible story with a clear vision
of the past and you will begin to unravel the great steps of humanity
that brought us here.
This brings us to the age-old question.
“Who are we… and why are we here?” No, it is not really a ‘hey-shoo-wow’
kind of question, it is possibly one of the most complex riddles of our
species, which deserves a fresh new look and possibly a slightly less
conventional approach if we want to reach new and refreshing answers.
But then we must be prepared to face answers we may not have expected.
This is what I intend to share with you in this book.What may at first
seem like a horror story, will turn out to be the most liberating
experience that brought me much closer to God than I ever imagined
possible. Once again I have to draw your attention to the difference
between God, the creator of the universe and all things in it, and ‘god’
one of many deities who walked the Earth over millennia, wielding
power, knowledge and technology with which they ruled over humanity.
There
is good news for those who believe in the ‘creation’ theory, that man
was created by God and given certain rules to live by. Those who believe
in the evolutionary theory have a few surprises to face. Evidence that
has been uncovered and contained in the many Sumerian tablets, suggests
that the ‘Adamu’ was created here on Earth in the image of his ‘maker’.
But who created Adam, and when,will reveal that he was created by an
advanced species of deities for a specific purpose here on Earth some
200 000 to 250 000 years ago.We further learn from the tablets that Adam
was created from the genetic pool of the advanced species of humans on
Earth and a lesser evolved hominid that roamed in southern Africa. But
who were these ‘advanced humans’ and where did they appear from? And why
is there no fossil evidence of their existence?
I must once
again remind you of the dilemma we face when we contemplate such
outlandish theories, as most, if not all of our facts come from
prehistoric clay tablets that have been deciphered over the last 50
years of the 20th century.We have to make a personal choice,whether we
believe that what was written in these tablets is close enough to the
truth, or whether it is merely some hallucinogenic garbage from a time
when people’s minds did not function properly. I, for one, have made my
decision to take at face value what has been written. I cannot imagine
for one minute that thousands of people spent millions of man-hours
painstakingly creating these tablets, if their contents were less than
relevant. I am convinced that they had better things to do than trying
to confuse future generations about our origins. After all, we have not
really changed that much; we also want to leave evidence of our
intellect and achievements, not only for future generations but also for
other advanced species in the vastness of the universe.Why else would
we send space probes filled with human paraphernalia, videos, compact
discs, books, photographs, TV shows and other symbols of our existence
into space? At the back of our minds and against the belief of millions,
there is the faint hope that there may be advanced life somewhere in
the universe. If there is, we hope to dazzle it with our brilliance or
disappoint them with our ignorance, all depending on how evolved they
may be by the time they accidentally recover our earthly ‘space ark’.
It
has always amazed me how many people show a complete disregard for
history. To many, what happened in the past, simply does not matter. But
if we don’t know who we are and where we come from, how can we possibly
begin to understand where we might be going, on our path of progress
and evolution?
So we toil away and dream of better days. We close
ourselves in cocoons of comfort, position our blinkers squarely on our
heads and try not to step too far out of the lane of conformity. We
believe that if we work hard or if we work smart we will achieve some
sort of reward at the end of all of this.We take out insurance policies
to reward our offspring and retirement annuities to cruise through the
last few years of our own time on this planet.We keep procreating as if
we were programmed to do so. It seems to be a natural step in our
maturing process. And unbeknown to us, it is most likely driven by our
genome in an attempt to continue surviving while our DNA evolves towards
its own completion. On this path of evolution, it unlocks the secret
parts, which have been switched off by some alchemist in our distant
past.
We pray for health, wealth and happiness. Some dream of
eternal life and many pray for salvation, but deep inside there seems to
bubble the burning desire to find answers to the great human question…
“Who am I and why am I here?”
History gives us many clues about
who we may be, and by stringing together the events and behavioural
patterns of humans in the past, history does give us some clues as to
where we are heading.Whether we will survive to get there is another
question all together. History does not, however, always clearly answer
the question of who we are and where we come from.Historians,
archaeologists and anthropologists have painted a very predictable past
for us.Aside from the arguments between creationists and evolutionists,
the story of humanity and humankind has become an almost pretty fairy
tale, and most humans do not want their fairy tale disrupted.Humanity
rose from the ashes against all odds; we survived and grew in numbers
while spreading over the Earth.We discovered fire, iron, bronze, silver
and gold.We learnt new skills, adopted farming instead of roaming,
buried our dead, learnt to live in structured communities, learnt to
write and built cities to protect us from the bad guys. Then we learnt
to trade, found democracy, discovered mechanisation, discovered
technology, reached for the stars, and all the time we have been killing
each other in the name of our god, our king, or for some other
perfectly justifiable reason.
It is truly a miracle that we have
survived all this. It is clear that, somewhere in our DNA, there is a
violent gene that plays a prominent role in human behaviour.
This
is a great story, but it only really deals with the past 6 000 years or
so. Prior to this it gets very murky, and somehow the timing does not
seem to fit. The question of the missing link is now more relevant than
ever before. Our genome has certainly evolved to the point where we can
at least ponder these questions and challenge some of the obvious
conventions. But this evolution seems to be more spiritual or mental.
Physical evolution is debatable. If we have not really evolved
physically in the past 6 000 years since the Egyptians and Sumerians,
why should we believe that we underwent some dramatic evolution the
previous 6 000 years… or the 10 000 years before that? It appears that
our genome has been evolving around the mental parts only. As if we had
some catching up to do mentally. This kind of genetic imbalance seems to
point to some sort of tampering in the ancient past.
Survival of
the fittest has been embraced as one of the pivotal evolutionary
arguments. Terms like ‘natural selection’ have been introduced and
presented with dramatic evidence. It may have been the case in the
protozoa, the dinosaurs or the horse, but there seem to be serious gaps
in the prehistoric evolutionary patterns of humans. Dramatic jumps in
evolution, which will form part of my argument, point to the horrible
truth that we are a slave species, purposefully created to perform a
mundane function here on this Earth. It is for us to collect the clues
and string them together to formulate a sensible answer.
Some
will not find any sense in my logic, but some will hopefully become
more tolerant of the unknown and the forbidden questions of the past.
One of the highest hurdles to cross, will be the real possibility that
we might have to come to terms with two gods. One with a capital ‘G’,
and the other with a small ‘g’. The difference between the two should be
obvious and our prehistory seems to be filled with events which tend to
favour the needs and whims of the latter.Have we been conned since the
beginning, to believe that some form of advanced deity was actually God?
If so, did he give us the rules, the scriptures, and the punishment?
Was it in his image that we were created? There is an overwhelming
amount of written evidence pointing to this conclusion. Do we start to
take this ancient knowledge more seriously, giving it the respect it
deserves, or do we respond to our overwhelming enslavement by dogma, and
discard all this ancient knowledge? I will leave it up to you to draw
your own conclusions.


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