BOOK EXCERPT



Chapter 1:


The Scientific Validation of UFOs & Extraterrestrials,
Or Problems with the Timeline


"The identity of the ingredient that produced the Great Leap Forward poses an archaeological puzzle without an accepted answer."

-Jared Diamond (The The Third Chimpanzee-1992)



If UFOs and extraterrestrials exist, where is the empirical evidence that undisputedly proves the reality of their existence? Stated another way, are there any fields of study in accepted realms of modern science that either hint at, or flat out point to the conclusion that Earth has been visited by intelligent life forms from other planets or other dimensions at any time in humankind's present or past?

There is.

Empirical evidence does exist. The accepted realms of modern science that provide this evidence are paleontology (the study of fossils), archaeology, anthropology, and molecular biology, as it relates to DNA backdating of bone fragments. Contributing to the hard physical evidence is a common denominator factor that underlies the etiology (the origins) of all the major religions of the human species. The scientific investigation of how we got here is where the untampered, uncensored evidence lies.

To seek proof from the alleged UFO related events of the past fifty years is too narrow a focus. And it's not that there haven't been any significant UFO events in the past fifty years. There have been. It's just that our present materialistic scientific world view insists on a kind of, "if you can't cut it, weight it, or measure it," it has no reality in our present scientific paradigm. Since the government and military agencies that may be in possession of the hard physical evidence are denying any evidence exist, we are left with mostly speculation, photographs, our own experiences and research, and whatever we can find on the Internet in the way of proof.

Our solution is to circumvent these roadblocks and official denials by realizing that the evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials is not solely in the possession of government and military agencies. Our solution is to realize that evidence of extraterrestrial contact did not begin a mere fifty years ago, or one hundred years ago, or even several millenniums ago. No. In fact, our proof of the existence of UFOs and extraterrestrials begins with the scientific and religious understanding of how we got here. That's right. It's not an either/or proposition because both scientific and religious disciplines hold valuable clues. In fact, only by synthesizing all of the fragments of information we have from science, religion, and metaphysics can we arrive at a total understanding of the origin of the human species, its connectedness to extraterrestrials, and the proof and understanding of why they are here.


Chapter 1: Problems with the Timeline - 2


Science and the Origins of the Human Species
Ironically, one of the most enduring mysteries of modern science is the enigma of exactly where the human species came from. Religious schools of thought say that we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, who the Lord God created in the Garden of Eden. Scientists don't put much stock in this creationism theory partially because of the difficulty in proving the existence of God (though DNA research has proven the reality of both Adam and Eve).[1]

Another reason scientists don't put much stock in creationism is because they believe they already know the broad details of how we got here. The entire picture is not completely clear, but most of it is there: From carbon dating and DNA analysis of the fossilized remains of bone fragments, skulls, and artifacts, scientists believe that the human species evolved from apes. All of the physical evidence gathered from paleontology, archaeology, and anthropology support this Darwinian theory of the origin and evolution of the human species.

Cousins

We are obviously related to apes: We're both mammals. We're both primates. We both tend to walk upright. Have hair. Nurse our young. Have flat finger and toenails instead of claws. Thumbs. "A penis that hangs freely rather than being attached to the abdomen."[2] We resemble each other, i.e., we look alike.

So sure, in fact, were scientists that humans evolved from the lower primates that the only thing they weren't completely sure about was which of the lower primates was our "closest" relative. Are we genetically closer to monkeys (monkeys have tails, apes don't), or one of the species of apes; gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, or chimpanzees?

The debate continued until the 1980's, when scientists (Charles Sibley and John Ahlquist) began using a process that had been successful in classifying thousands of different species of birds, to answer this "closest" relative question. This process was a method of using the DNA molecule (the DNA molecule is present in all animal and in all plant cells and determines size, shape, coloring, habits, etc.) to calibrate how much time has passed since similar species shared a common ancestor.

DNA Backdating

If similar species were derived from a common ancestor (say humans, apes, and monkeys), they, at one time, had identical forms of the DNA molecule. That is, at some point in pre-history,


Chapter 1: Problems with the Timeline - 3

humans, apes, and monkeys must have been essentially the same creature, same size, same shape, same coloring, same sexual habits, same DNA.

Then, for some unknown, mysterious reason, which we can only guess was caused by evolution, the molecules that determine size, shape, coloring, and habits, etc. [the DNA molecules], among some of the members of this common ancestor species, mutated.

Assuming that the rate of change (the rate of genetic mutation) is uniformed, and that we know how many changes occur in, say, a million year period, the present differences between the DNA molecules of humans and the DNA molecules of apes could be used as a "clock" to calibrate how many millions of years have passed since humans, monkeys, and apes shared a common ancestor. The species whose DNA most resembles human DNA, or that shows the least percentage of difference from human DNA, would be our "closest" relative in the animal kingdom.

DNA Hybridization

How do we determine what the genetic difference is between monkeys, apes and humans? "A quick method of measuring changes in DNA structure is to mix the DNA from two species, then measure by how many degrees of temperature the melting point of the mixed (hybrid) DNA is reduced below the melting point of pure DNA from a single species. The method is generally referred to as 'DNA hybridization.' As it turns out, a melting point lowered by one degree centigrade means that the DNAs of the two species differ by roughly 1 percent." [3]

Using this method, it turns out that human DNA differs from monkey DNA by 7%. Not all that great of a "genetic distance" but it still indicates that we are geneticallty closer to apes than monkeys.

Our "genetic distance" from gibbons shortens to 5%. Our "genetic distance" from orangutans is only 3.6%. Human DNA gets even closer to a match with gorilla DNA, exhibiting only a 2.3% difference. But, as it turns out, "the chimpanzees, not the gorillas are our closest relative. Put another way, the chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans."[4] Our "genetic distance" from both the common chimpanzee and the pygmy chimpanzee is a startling 1.6%!



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In fact, human DNA is so similar to chimpanzee DNA that, zoologically speaking, humans are technically not a separate family at all but should be considered a third species of chimpanzees. [5]

So, based on observable, fossil, commonsense, and DNA evidence, just as Charles Darwin postulated in 1859, our evolution from apes seems to be a foregone, scientific conclusion. Case closed.

The Darwinian theory that humans evolved from apes could almost be considered scientific fact, if not for a couple of major glitches. Glitch #1 happened about 100,000 years ago. Glitch #2 happened from 40,000 to 28,000 years ago. These "glitches" are called the "missing links."

How does the Darwinian theory of evolution explain the "missing links"? To date, it cannot.

The "Missing Links"

For DNA backdating and DNA hybridization to be more than scientific flights of fancy, the assumption that genetic mutations occur at a uniformed rate should be valid. If genetic mutations do not occur at a uniformed rate, then all of the dates established by these methods are worthless.

There are at least two major instances, in the evolution of the human species, where the rate of genetic mutation is not uniformed. These evolutionary anomalies have been referred to as "the missing links," but what they really refer to are discrepancies in the evolutionary time line. These discrepancies are what we would like you to pay close attention to.

From bone fragments, skulls, partial or complete skeletons, DNA and carbon dating of stone tools and artifacts, anthropologists believe that humanity's evolution from the lower primates proceeded something like this:

I. Several billion years ago: Life originated on Earth.

II. 65 million years ago: Dinosaurs became extinct.

III. Between 6 and 10 million years ago: The species of apes split into apes and aspecies of upright hominids (man-apes more animal than man).


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IV. 4 million years ago: The structure of fossilized limb bones shows that our ancestors were habitually walking upright on two hind limbs.

3 million years ago: Our lineage split again producing:

a) Australopithecus Robustus ("the robust southern ape")

b) Australopithecus Africanus ("the southern ape of Africa").

c) Australopithecus Africanus evolved into Homo habilis ("man the handy man").

VI. 1,700,000 years ago: The differences were so great anthropologists gave anew name to our lineage--Homo erectus.

VII. 1,000,000 years ago: Homo erectus began to migrate. Peking man and Java man resided in Asia.

VIII. 500,000 years ago:Homo erectus could be classified as Homo sapiens--pre-Neanderthal Homo sapiens.

IX. 130,000 years ago to 74,000 years ago: There were three species of man-apes:
a) Neanderthals lived in western Europe, southern Russia, Central Asia nearAfghanistan.

b) An Asian type of man-ape that not much was known about because few bones have been found.

*c) Australopithecus Africanus ("the southern ape of Africa," also known as the "Middle Stone Age African") suddenly has mysteriously modern anatomy (100,000 years ago.)

X. 50,000 to 40,000 years ago: there were still these three species of man- apes:

a) In Europe and western Asia lived Neanderthals.

b) In Africa, people increasingly like us moderns in their anatomy.

c) In eastern Asia people unlike either the Neanderthals or Africans.


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XI. 40,000 years ago:Cro-Magons (from the French site where their bones were first identified) now appeared.

Cro-Magons were fully anatomically modern (they physically looked like us) 40,000 years ago! Their anatomy, 40,000 years ago, was so much akin to ours that Dr. Diamond makes the statement, "Had one of these gentlemen or ladies strolled down Champs Elysees [Street] in modern attire, he or she would not have stood out from the Parisian crowd in any way."

Cro-Magnons had: 1) bone needles for sewing; 2) stone axes with handles made from stone slithers or stone fragments that were 10 times sharper than Neanderthal's stone tools (which were basically a sharp stone held in the hand); 3) flutes, rattles; 4) necklaces, art; 5) lamps.

This is essentially the time line that modern anthropologists believe traces humankind's origins. The "kinks" in this evolutionary time line are also the reason a purely Darwinian theory of evolution of the human species makes no sense, at least, not at the period of the emergence of the modern (anatomically speaking) Africans 100,000 years ago. Darwinian evolution falls apart again at the period of 40,000 years ago, with the too early appearance of Cro-Magnons.

The appearance of Cro-Magnons was the other problem, both in terms of their sudden intelligence (innovation) and their sudden actual appearance. Scientists initally believed that Neanderthals had evolved into Cro-Magnons. That was the accepted theory on how Cro-Magnons got here. That theory was discarded, however, when the skeletons of still anatomically primitive Neanderthals were found dating back to just after 40,000 years ago. The problem was that skeletons of fully anatomically modern Cro-Magnons had been found in Europe, dating back to the same period (40,000 years ago). If anatomically modern Cro-Magnons were found in Europe dating back to 40,000 yeas ago, and still anatomically primitive Neanderthals were found dating back to the same period, then, Cro-Magnons did not evolve from Neanderthals. When Cro-Magnons appeared, there should no longer have been any trace of primitive Neanderthals, dating back to the same period. Because of these more recent findings, the more current scientific conclusion is that Cro-Magnons did not evolve from Neanderthals.

This discovery created a new mystery: If Cro-Magnons did not evolve from Neanderthals, where did they come from?


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Dr. Diamond does not address this mystery. He does address the mystery of the sudden appearance of innovation among a formerly intellectually dull species:

"Thus we have a tenative picture of anatomically modern people arising in Africa over a hundred thousand years ago, but initialy making the same tools as Neanderthals...By perhaps sixty thousand years ago, some magic twist of behavior had been added to the modern anatomy. The twist produced innovative, fully modern people." [p.53]

-Dr. Jared Diamond (The Third Chimpanzee- 1992)

The closest Dr. Diamond comes to explaining this sudden evolutionary advancement in Homo sapiens' innovative skills and intelligence is to call it "some magic twist of behavior," i.e., modern science, anthropologists, don't have a clue as to what this "magic twist of behavior" was. The theory postulated by Dr. Diamond and other anthropologists is that whatever the magic twist was it produced the ability to talk and communicate in language. The source of the twist is not even guessed at. Apparently, it just happened.

In The Third Chimpanzee, this mysterious period in human evolution is underscored by Dr. Diamond's naming Chapter Two "The Great Leap Forward," and stating openly that "the identity of the ingredient that produced the Great Leap Forward poses an archaeological puzzle without an accepted answer."

The inexplicable appearance of fully anatomically modern Australopithecus Africanus ("the southern African ape") 100,000 years ago and the sudden appearance of Cro-Magnons and their so much greater intelligence than the simultaneously living Neanderthals, 40,000 years ago, are the holes (the "missing links") in accepting a purely Darwinian theory of human evolution. For one, it happened much too quickly. For another, it made no sense. If Neanderthals did not evolve into Cro-Magnons, where did Cro-Magnons come from? And why were there no sites found in Africa or Europe or anywhere else of Cro-Magnons prior to 40,000 years ago? Shouldn't there have been some traces of their growing innovation? [6]

The main problem was that it happened too soon, much, much too soon to have been the result of pure evolution. A puzzle piece is missing.

"For most of the[6] million years since our lineage diverged from that of apes, we remained little more than glorified chimpanzees in how we made our living. As recently as forty thousand years ago, western Europe was still occupied by Neanderthals, primitive beings for whom art and progress scarcely existed. Then came an abrupt change, as anatomically modern peoople appeared in Europe, bringing with them art, musical instruments, lamps, trade, and progress. Within a short time Neanderthals were gone."

-Dr. Jared Diamond (The Third Chimpanzee-1992)



Endnotes


[1] Jared Diamond, The Third Chimpanzee - 1992.
[2]Ibid
[3]Ibid
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid
[6] Quite interestingly, this exact pattern happens again in regard to the Norsemen--the Vikings. They seemed to have come out of nowhere. See When God Was a Woman (1976), by Merlin Stone.


Chapter 2

What People Are Saying About UFOs & Extraterresrrials: Why They Are Here

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