2: Who Was The First Person? Summary and Analysis

Every tribal culture throughout history to present day has a myth about the origins of humankind, and they tend to share many of the same features. They all include gods, which usually appear as giant men or women with magical powers. Some of these myths are still taken seriously today, but none of these myths accurately portray where humans came from.

In reality, there was never a "first" person. There never was, in fact, a first of nearly any species that evolved on Earth. Going back roughly 185 million years ago, for example, humans descended from fish. In the same way, people are born as infants, and die as elderly, but change very little from day to day in terms of their appearance. That is to say, there is very little genetic change from...