Some writers, wanting to put the four-billion-year age of the Earth into perspective, condense the four billion years into one imaginary twenty-four hour day. The original formation of Earth would, in this time span, occur at 12:00 AM. Simple life forms would begin to develop around 3:30 PM. The Cambrian explosion of life would happen at 9 PM. Dinosaurs would appear later in the evening and would become extinct at 11:40 PM. Then mammals would appear. The division between humans and chimpanzees would occur at 1 minute 17 seconds before midnight, and modern man would appear 3 seconds before midnight. Out of twenty-four hours (86,400 seconds), humans would have been on the planet only three seconds.
In this perspective, with humans present only for the last three imaginary seconds, it would seem to me that the evolutionary process that culminated in the highest life form—Homo sapiens—has only begun: three seconds out of 86,400. What will happen one second from now? - three seconds from now? At the obviously accelerating pace of human accomplishment, who can guess what comes one imaginary second from now (42,296 years). Three imaginary seconds would be 138,888 years, all of it at the mercy of random mutations and unexpected extinction-level events like monster earth quakes or impacts with asteroids careening through space.
However, if mutations and extinction-level events are truly random, how does one account for a steady progression from no life at all to intelligent human beings with many intermediate steps along the way. There are no superior forms giving way to less superior forms. There is a steady progression of primitive life forms to more complex life forms, then even more complex life forms, finally, after four billion years, arriving at Homo sapiens, the most complex, most capable, and an organism far more superior than any previous life form. I think four billion years is a long time for random changes to show such a steady and sustained progression always leading to higher life forms.
Maurice A. Williams
RETURN HOME