Q: Is it true that humans have not evolved physically since the missing link period which is two hundred thousand years ago?
ALOKDA: Our present human species has taken nearly nine sub-steps to emerge out of the first humanoid spanning over 2 million years. It looks long by our measure of time span especially when compared with one human life time. But when we see that it took nearly 6 million years to emerge for man to emerge from the Ape, a hundred million years for the reptiles to emerge from the amphibians, another nearly 60 million years for the dinosaur to shrink into a bird then we shall see the grand time scale through which Nature works. We are not even going into the time when Earth cooled enough for solid material forms to emerge and then the first life forms nearly 5 billion years back. So 2 hundred thousand years count for little when we look at the magnitude of Nature’s movements.
Now coming closer, humans have in fact never stopped evolving. It is through these micro-evolutions that the first African ancestor evolved into different varieties of humanity. We have grown taller and the brain has shrunk but it’s neuronal complexity has increased. The jaws receded and there are reports to suggest that the brain especially is continuing to evolve. At the chromosomal level, last hundred years has seen a shrinking of the Y chromosome and possibly a new sex-determinant gene in the offing. We have to also take into account the fact that human evolution brings new dimensions into play, unlike the animals. Psychologically and socially human evolution is uncontested. At present we also see the first signs of an imminent spiritual evolution. Most importantly human beings are the only species capable of conscious self-evolution at different levels.
What does all this indicate? That we have stopped evolving or we are preparing for a new leap? It is anybody’s guess. But leaving aside all this it is illogical to assume that the evolutionary process in Nature that has been working over billions of years will suddenly come to an abrupt halt, especially with such a half-finished creature called man! Any which way we look at it, evolution beyond human seems the most natural inevitable thing to happen. We may debate about the time, the process and the intent of Nature and God behind it but this much is obvious that we are destined to go further, – whether to a blank port in the Unknown or to acquire a new mind and body in the city of God is something that time will tell.
