I shall touch on biblical history later, but first lets ask the question where did humanity come from? Darwin would have us believe we evolved from some primitive bacteria, became a fish, then a mammal and continued evolving up the species ladder through the apes and bonobos, through various stages of primitive man to the modern human of today.

This is quite a good theory and the educated masses buy this idea. But many people have other ideas about where we came from. There is the creation theory popular with Christians, and there is the idea we came from another planet.

The idea of biblical creation some 6000 years ago has been completely debunked, but it may have happened some millions of years earlier as described in the Vedas*, a collection of books, who's ancestry extends back beyond our recorded history. But interestingly the Vedas also describe earlier civilisations going back hundreds of thousands of years, and they describe flying/space vehicles.

Archaeological evidence has a variety of primitive humanoid species appearing over three million years ago in Africa and colonising the world and evolving over time. However there is school of thought based on the writings of Michael Cremo and the discoveries of human remains and man made objects dating back aver 30 million years.

What ever the truth of human ancestry, modern human history has seen the rise and fall of civilisations, the birth and death of hundreds of millions of people. It is an ever evolving drama characterised by life and death, selfishness and selflessness, greed and generosity, war and peace.

In part two of this article, I will talk more of the details of the past few hundred years.

* Vedas; interestingly the Vedas are claimed and recognised as Hindu writings, however the stories contained in the Vedas predate Hinduism.
 
References:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060920-lucy.html
• http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith/
• Ramayana, Mahabharata, Rig-veda, Yajur-veda, Atharva-veda, the Yuktilkalpataru of Bhoja (12th century A.D.), the Mayamatam (attributed to the architect Maya), the Satapathya Brahmana, Markandeya Purana, Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, the Harivamsa, the Uttararamcarita, the Harsacarita, the Tamil text Jivakacintamani, and others

Reference books