Religious theories explain the coming of humans in terms of the concept of creation stories, where a supreme intelligence or diety is responsible for creating humans using divine power. The most wellknown of these is the one told in Genesis in the Bible, where it is said that God made Adam and Eve, humankind's first parents. Other creation stories are told from the point of view of gestation and birth, while other cultures, especially asian ones, describe the creation of humans through the breaking of an egg or some other encapsulation. The Filipino creation story tells of the first Filipina, Maganda (beautiful) and the first filipino, Malakas (strong), coming out of a bamboo shoot.
Scientific theories
On the other hand, are based on the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin (1809-1882), an english naturalist. Darwin in his paper origin of species, proposed that advanced species may have come from lower species through natural selection, a process whereby nature "selects" the species that will survive a given environment through better genes, which will be passed on to the next generation. Modern scientists have added and improve upon Darwin's theory using modern scientific methods and anthropological findings. These findings infer that humans may have evolved from early forms of primates which evovle through period of millions of years.
Scientists hypothesize that the first life forms on earth were simple, single-celled organisms that appeared about 3 billion years ago. From these animals arose the invertebrates - about 600 million years ago, and then the vertebrates, about 500 million years ago. From these arose more complex organisms, including the primates.
Early Ancestors
Humans are part of the family of primates, which include monkeys, apes, lemurs, tarsiers, and tree shrews. Primates are distinguished by their unique forward-pointing (stereoscopic) vision, the ability to grasp and manipulate objects using fingers, and a generally larger brain. These characteristics enabled the primates to evolve further. About 40 million years ago, the monkeys evolved, and about 10 million years ago came the apes.
Roughly 20 million years ago, there were ape-like creatures in Africa known as the dryopithecines. These were dwellers of the dense forests of Africa, feeding on fruit, flowers, and insects, Except for the lack of a tail, the dryopithecines are very much ape-like in their physical characteristics. The various kinds of dryopithecines include the Proconsul Africanus, a skull of which was discovered in 1948; the Dryopithecus in Europe; and the Griphopithecus of western asia.
About 18 and 16 millions years ago, another creature, the ramapithecine, appeared. The ramapithecines adapted to a woodland environment and was distinguished by a flatter cheek teeth. These creatures spread to Asia, Africa and Europe but eventually died from the fossil record about 8 to 4 millions years ago.
The period from 8 to 4 millions years ago is a sort of paleontological vacuum, where the fossil record remains blank. Then about 4 million years ago, the hominids began to appear.
The coming of the Homonids
The homonids are considered to be humankind's earliest ancestors. They appeared about 4 million to 1 million years ago in Africa. Hominids include the australopithecus africanus and the bigger australopithecus robustus. Both are simply called australopiths, meaning "southern ape." Australopiths still looked like apes but has the ability to walk on two feet. This ability, called "bipedalism," provided them with certain advantages over the other creatures and primates of their time. Bipedalism enabled the australopiths to (1) easily carry food and tools as the hands were freed; (2) watch for dangerous predators; (3) travel over long distances.
In 1974, the fossilized skeleton of a small female australopith was discovered by American paleontoligist Donald Johansen. It was nicknamed Lucy, and became the world's most well-known australopith found.
While the australopiths were going widespread over a wide area, another creature, of the genus Homo, came into existence about 2.3 million years ago. The homo line of species co-existed with the australopiths for a very long period of time - more than a million years - before the australopiths died out. Only the homo linr remained.