The Genesis Mystery by Jeffrey Goodman

I like interesting books. OK. That didn’t come out right.Who likes boring books?

I like books that provoke me to think or look at things differently and entertain possibilities. A friend described my taste in books as eclectic, and this book definitely falls under the eclectic, provoking category.

I have had this book for a long time (~1986), and I think I’ve read it more than five, less than ten times since I purchased it. Sometimes I read it annually, and other times, I can go a long time before I pick it up, again. But, I find that every time I read it, I get something new out of it (actually, this is the case for me for most books).

This book basically says that Homo sapiens sapiens were “smart from the start,” and that of all the  fossils we’ve found around the world show discrete and separate trend lines for the cranial capacity (as well as other physical characteristics) rather than overlapping trend lines (which would confirm the traditional evolutionary models). This means that a 4 million year old Australopithecus fossil has almost the same features as a ~2 million year old Australopithecus fossil. That nothing changed in 2 million years! The same can be said for the Homo erectus fossils ranging in age from ~1.9 million years old to ~140,000 years ago. The same discrete and separate existence applies to Homo habilis, Neanderthals, and finally, Homo sapiens sapiens. Listed below are the discrete timelines for other Homo species from Wikipedia:

Homo habilis:                  2.33 – 1.44 million years ago

Neanderthals, early:        600,000 – 350,000 years ago

Neanderthals, true:          250,000 – 25,000 years ago

Homo sapiens:                500,000 - ~200,000 years ago

Homo sapiens sapiens:     200,000 – present

I find it curious that there are no noticeable overlapping trend lines of fossils in any of these groupings. Supposedly, the fossils stayed the same over these spans of years.

This book also talks about the “impossible evolutionary reversals.”

“In all the successive species of the genus Homo, the genetically controlled traits of skull-wall thickness and brow-ridge size have undergone a series of seemingly impossible reversals.”

Skull wall thickness (species listed chronologically):

Homo erectus – Thick

Homo habilis – thin

Neanderthals – Thick

Homo sapiens sapiens – thin

Size of brow bridges (species listed chronologically):

Homo erectus – “substantial”

Homo habilis – “small”

Neanderthals – “massive”

Homo sapiens sapiens – “practically nonexistent”

Finally, this book touches upon evolutionary anomalies such as our voice box and the sudden appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens’ “sharp chin, weak brow, and high valuted forehead…,” as well as spiritual aspect of Homo sapiens sapiens development.

And according to Dr. Goodman, all these attributes point to some sort of intervention. Whether this intervention comes from God, aliens (Anunnaki from Sumerian legends), “hitchhiking spirits,” other, etc. 

Dr. Goodman doesn’t say what his conclusion is, but leaves it frustratingly or deliciously open for us to ponder.

HOWEVER, I’m writing this review because I finally read two very different thought-provoking books about the same time and everything sort of clicked to entertain an outrageous what if scenario….

Recently, I read The 12^thPlanet by Zecharia Sitchin. It talks of alien intervention in forms of creating a slave population using Homo erectus (for gold mining in Africa) and alien (Anunnaki) DNA, resulting in Homo sapiens. And as I was reading this book, the Genesis Mystery, it struck me as odd that the purported time of first Anunnaki visit ~450,000 years ago, and Homo sapiens timeline of ~500,000 years ago seemed to coincide fairly close. Hm…. 

Maybe this is the best thing about this book, that we can have fun thinking about what ifs.....