The Author

Personal Background:

Who, What, When, Where and Why are the 5-Ws that have puzzled humanity over the ages. They are the five commandments of most journalists. Well with that said, let me introduce myself as the central character and the goals of this publication.

Who am I? I am a middle class American veteran of three Vietnam tours with Bachelor and Master Degrees and some pre-doctoral coursework in education with concentrations in Biology and History. Oh, oh; there's that H word – History! I am not sure there is any other word in the English language that can engender such a rapid expression of disinterest and avoidance, as history. There I said it again! And now for that cliché we must not forget, however, that those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them!

I have been fortunate to travel around the world as a faculty representative of the USAF Air University. In the event of war, I would have had the unpleasant task as a B-52 Navigator-Bombardier, to drop four H-bombs on Soviet targets back in the 60s. I was also fortunate to have survived a light plane crash and been shot at by a lot of professional enemy soldiers – and missed. In my own small way, I have experienced ancient history and also been part of contemporary history; moments of both enlightenment, and sheer terror, but also cause for personal introspection.

What am I? I am not a scholar, just an aging individual of average intelligence who has traveled and experienced more than most, and who has had many unanswered questions arising over my 76+ years on Earth. While strapped in an F-4 fighter jet dodging enemy MIGs, AAA and surface to air missiles over North Vietnam, I observed both friend and foe alike die before my eyes and reflected on the insanity of it all. Over the ages of civilization, there has been constant uncivilized behavior. There has been war after war, much in the name of God and religion, and all to what avail? I guess I could answer that question rather cynically by seeing it as a positive behavior countering our propensity to over populate the world thus taxing its diminishing resources. Although the outcome appears to be true, that isn't much of an answer. I recently finished reading The Oxford - History of the Biblical World and was depressed at all the conflict which has occurred over the ages; man doesn't play well with his fellow man. I wish I could say there is hope for change in the future, but based on past behavior, I can't; it will probably be a continuation of the same.

When? Time is an elusive construct. Scholars world-wide appear to agree on the fact that the Earth was formed about 4.56 billion, yes billion, years ago. I guess that number is not so impressive these days when the National Debt of the United States is in the trillions. Also, that date is a far cry farther back in time than Sunday, October 23, 4004 BCE. Where did I get that ludicrous date you ask? In order to establish the date the earth was formed, between 1625 -1656 James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh as well as an Irish Anglican theologian and scholar, assiduously worked backward in time using the Bible as his primary source of inspiration. I shouldn't dwell on his enormous 4.5 billion year error, as it wasn't that far back in time when middle-age man thought the world was flat and Christopher Columbus was crazy to sail out of sight of land. The above error did, however, point to the fact that the Bible, Jewish and Christian, is NOT a reliable source of world history.

When can take us even farther back in time to 13.76 billion years ago when most astrophysicists feel the current Universe started as an exploding infinitesimal speck of unimaginable energy. We refer to this event today as the Big Bang Hypothesis.

Where? Basically I will restrict this investigation to our planet, Earth. I will occasionally mention the Heavens, but more as a physical than a metaphysical location. And as it affects the population of Earth, I am curious about such things as is there a God? Is/was that God or spiritual entity, possibly a misunderstood physical entity from a technologically more advanced civilization? Did he/she create humans in his or her self-image, or did humans evolve over the ages from an abiotic origin; from the primordial soup of early oceans as it were. Is the modern human a product of a slow, gradual evolutionary processes? Or did we experience a biological and intellectual "kick start" 50,000 years or so ago from some unknown entity as some proclaim?

How are we to logically explain humanity going from an ignorant hunter-gatherer, struggling to survive in a hostile environment of predators, disease and hunger, to that of a space explorer in such a short span of geological time? Also, in light of this extremely short period of time, how and why did religious beliefs get started and coalesce into such powerful institutions with unquestioning adherents? Why does the Christian Bible exercise such influence over so many people, when it has numerous parts copied from the Sumerians, has been modified hundreds of times, edited, embellished, and selectively assembled by a clergy with an agenda of controlling the population and reinforcing archaic gender discrimination?

Why am I writing this? Basically, I am jotting down my observations and thoughts for my family so that they might better understand me when I'm no longer here. Perhaps even more so, I am doing this as an intellectual exercise to challenge my own findings and beliefs. Matthew 7 in the Christian Bible's New Testament says "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find." I am seeking an answer to that question posed in the title of this book. Over 45 years ago, when I was discharged from the Army, I read Erich von Daniken's book, Chariots of the Gods. Although I was enrolled in college to study science and contemporary history, I found his observations provocative, if not paradigm changing.

Over the decades since that...