PUTTING
THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE
By R. P. Cross
Fifteen or so billion years ago (Five hours ago on
our cosmic clock) Mother Nature blew her top - or bottom as you will - and
through the artifice of the "Big Bang" brought all of "This"
about. About
.01 second ago on our cosmic clock, homo sapiens sapiens (yes, he's
so smart we honor him twice) decided that creation, no matter how it had come
about, was for his exclusive benefit and that all that has followed that initial
event has been designed to bolster his position as not only central to the
universe, but necessary as well. The following cosmic time line is presented to
place homo s. s. in a more proper perspective. Man might place himself first in
order of all of the earth's creatures, but paleobiology not only relegates him
to the role of late comer, but places him pretty much dead last in the annals of
evolution.
YEARS AGO OUR COSMIC CLOCK
WHAT WAS GOING ON
15 billion
5 hours ago
Big Bang Event
15 - 3 billion
5 - 1 hour
Cooling of universe - formation of galaxies
3
- 4 billion
1 hour ago
Earth formed
2 billion
40 minutes
Earth & moon cooling
1 billion
20 minutes
Still cooling (it was really hot!)
500 - 125 million
10 to 2.5 minutes
Appearance of various forms of life
62.5 million
1.25 minutes
Dinosaurs disappear (comet/asteroid catastrophe?)
31.25 million
44.5 seconds
First mammals appear
25 million
34.0 seconds
First upright primates
15.5 million
22.3 seconds
Proto great ape/human type
7.8 million
11.2 seconds
Branching of great ape/hominoid type (Link?)
3.9 million
5.6 seconds
Australopithicus - 1st hominoid
1.5 million
2.8 seconds
Tool-using Homo Erectus
750 thousand
1.4 seconds
Spread of species across Asia, Europe, Africa
500 THOUSAND
1.0 SECOND AGO
DEVELOPMENT OF FIRE USE IN CHINA
375 thousand
.7 seconds
Spread of fire use - stone tool technology
200 thousand
.5 seconds
Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis
100 thousand
.25 seconds
Cro Magnon man
50 thousand
.125 seconds
Neanderthal man flourishes
40 thousand
.09 seconds
Last Ice Age
40-30 thousand
.09-.07 seconds
COMPLETION TO DATE OF BASIC HUMAN EVOLUTION.
HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS DISPLACES OTHER HUMAN
SPECIES.
30 thousand
.07 seconds
Passage of people to Americas - Neanderthal
man dies out.
15 thousand
.035 seconds
Domestication of dogs
7.5 thousand
.0175 seconds
Neolithic Age: development of farming in
Middle East.
7.5-6.5 thousand .0175
seconds
Domestication of pigs, sheep, goats, cattle -
Full-fledged town in Jerico ca. 7000
5
THOUSAND YEARS AGO
.01 SECOND AGO
BEGINNING
OF RECORDED HISTORY
5-3 thousand
.005 seconds
Age of innovation in Middle East: Writing,
bronze metalworking, wheel, plow
3 thousand
.0025 seconds
End of the Bronze Age
2 thousand
.00125 seconds
Birth of Christ
1 thousand
.0006 seconds
End of the Dark Ages
500 years
.0003 seconds
Protestant Reformation
Man, therefore, beginning with Australopithicus, has only been around for 5.6 seconds of the
earth's 5 hour history. He has only been writing about himself for one
one-hundredth of a second of those 5 hours. And if he is of a Christian
persuasion, he has only been so for 1-1/4 thousandths of a second. But
man is a dogged creature, and he will no doubt persevere in his attempt to
convince the universe that he is its quintessential element.
Perseverance, n. To persevere, v. A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.
"Persevere,
persevere!" cry the homilists all,
Themselves, day and night, persevering to bawl.
Remember the fable of tortoise and hare -
The one at the goal while the other is - where?
Why, back there in Dreamland, renewing his lease
On life, all his muscles preserving the peace,
The goal and the rival forgotten alike,
And the long fatigue of the needless hike.
His spirit a-squat in the grass and the dew
Of
the dogless Land beyond the Stew,
He sleeps, like a saint in a holy place,
A winner of all that is good in a race.
Ambrose Bierce