Standing up to darwin
Love or hate it, evolutionary theory has a vocal critic in Michael Cremo
JENELLE PENTRINCHUK STAFF
The theory of evolution has been the basis for much scientific thought over the past century, and has dominated the modern understanding of the origin of humankind.
Despite the prevalence of evolution theory, there are still many who either question it in part or reject it outright. Different religions and cultures all have different theories on the origin of man, but offering alternative theories to evolution is by no means restricted to theological creationist stories. There is a significant minority of people who take a scientific approach to trying to prove that evolution is all wrong.
Michael Cremo, who visited the University of Manitoba last Friday, is one of these people, and he is working on getting the word out.
Co-author of the underground classic Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (written in 1994 and now published in 20 different languages), and his latest work, Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to Darwin’s Theory, Cremo has devoted much of his career to talking to people and explaining that humans did not, in fact, evolve from apes, as evolutionists believe. Forbidden Archeology was released to its fair share of negative reviews from people who disagreed, but as Cremo continues his work his books and ideas are surfacing more and more.
There is not a doubt in his mind that humans have been around for far longer than the 200,000 years typically cited by scientists that favour evolution as a theory. Cremo says there is actually scientific evidence that proves the modern human has been around for millions — even tens of millions — even hundreds of millions of years, and this is what he addresses in his work.
Cremo’s work started in his early 20s while he was attending the school of international affairs at George Washington University. He explained that it was during this time that he began to generally question everything around him.
“I was going to the university in the United States and somehow I just stopped believing that I was getting the truth from people like the government and teachers,” he said. “I didn’t think there was anything else I could do, than go out and find the truth on my own.”
Being the inquisitive person that he is, he began to travel and made his way all around the globe, from Europe, to the Middle East, to Asia looking for some answers. It was during these travels that he encountered the ancient Sanskrit writings of India, “Which for me, was a kind of like a revelation,” he said.
He began to study these writings under Krishna guru Bhaktivedanta Swami, one person he felt he could trust. It was through these teachings and ancient documents that Cremo became curious about how long humans have actually occupied the earth, as the Sanskrit writings included histories of human beings going back millions of years.
“I began to realize that practically every wisdom tradition in the world, if you look at the bible, the Koran, native Americans, Australian aboriginals . . . practically every culture in the world has had the idea that humans have been around since the beginning of time.”
Cremo reasoned that if there was any truth in these beliefs, there must be some physical evidence to back them up. He began his research in current anthropology and archaeology books but found nothing. Still not discouraged, he started to dig deeper, down to original documents from all over the world, written in many different languages.
WE HAVE IT ALL WRONG
As soon as he started to delve deeper he discovered what he describes as “massive amounts” of evidence recorded in scientific literature — in original scientific reports — that supported the case for extreme human antiquity.
By this, he means that there are actual reports from various archaeological digs in every corner of the planet (“except Antarctica,” he jokes) that include data on items such as artefacts (such as an arrowhead for example) or human bones that can be dated back farther than 200,000 years. They actually go back millions of years.
“I was pretty surprised myself, because I thought ‘maybe I’ll just do eight weeks of research and find out some little interesting facts that I can write an article on and then go onto something else,’ but those eight weeks turned into eight months and those eight months turned into eight years.”
As Cremo kept searching for more evidence of extreme human antiquity, more and more reports kept surfacing, backing up Cremo’s initial thoughts. He realized that with all of this evidence (including reports and physical artefacts that have been dated past 200,000 years), there must be some reason that most people don’t know/think humans have been around longer than most people are taught.
His main explanation for “the hidden history of the human race” is that people such as scientists, archaeologists and anthropologists have been taught for so long that humans only began to evolve a few hundred thousand years ago that they basically refuse to accept any other idea, either consciously or subconsciously.
In his writings and lectures, Cremo often uses the term “knowledge filter.” He believes that there is a process of knowledge filtration that ideas and evidence go through before they make it into “mainstream” knowledge.
According to him, the evidence that conforms to the common and accepted ideas of current science theories (such as evolution) will be allowed to pass through the filter, but any evidence that radically contradicts current theories will be stopped. “This process of knowledge filtration works on a subtle level,” he explains.
He uses the example of being in love. If a person is really in love with someone, they (subconsciously) aren’t going to want to accept information that may change the way they feel. It’s the old case of “you only hear what you want to hear.” He says it works the same way with scientific information.
Smiling, he says, “Many scientists are very much ‘in love’ with the current evolution theory.”
Cremo also thinks a large part of the problem lies within today’s education system. He explains that if one looks at archaeology and anthropology textbooks they will find many different facts — discoveries of human bones, footprints, artefacts and other evidence — pointing the way to the prehistory of humans through the theory of evolution. So, students reading the books automatically assume that the theory of evolution must be true because all of the facts they see in front of them support it. “I think the problem is, people aren’t getting all of the facts,” says Cremo. “So, the original reports [proving humans have been around for millions of years] are there, by original investigators, but they tend not to make their way into textbooks.”
FROM EVOLUTION TO DEVOLUTION: OUR WORLD IS CHANGING, WHY NOT OUR IDEAS?
Cremo is a very spiritual man but never hesitates to take a scientific approach to finding solid evidence and answers to what he is questioning. Being both scientific and spiritual is something that is not widely accepted in today’s western culture.
Cremo points out that this is in fact a very new “trend,” as Charles Darwin himself was a religious man and associated some of his work with God.
Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to Darwin’s Theory makes the suggestion that humans, as put by Cremo, “did not evolve up from matter, but devolved down from a realm of pure consciousness.” In other words, our “spirits” came down to earth, instead of our bodies evolving here.
With a position like Cremo’s there are always going to be people who disagree with what he has to say. He explained that he gets all kinds of responses to his work, from people who are angry with him, to people who completely agree.
The main group of people that completely disagree with Cremo’s findings are the Darwinist scientists and scholars that have based their careers on drawing facts from the theory of evolution. Either they, according to Cremo, “filter” the information, brush it off as a mistake, or claim there must be some other explanation for the evidence. In the end they believe Cremo’s evidence is false, and in turn, he believes they can’t (or won’t) see it for what it really is because they’re “blinded” by their current knowledge.
“Sometimes it might be nice to be in a position where what you think to be true is the mainstream view that everybody supports.” When it’s not, Cremo says, you have to make a decision. He decided to go ahead and speak to anyone who was willing to listen to his ideas and see what the result is.
He told a short anecdote of one of the results. It was about a graduate student of archaeology who, on a dig, mentioned to his professor the he thought perhaps humans have been around longer than he was being taught. To Cremo’s surprise, instead of getting upset, the archaeology professor
then recommended Forbidden Archeology to the student. “He passed on the information . . . sort of underground,” said an excited Cremo. In the end the student actually wrote to Cremo and said that he wants to devote his career to the kinds of things he had read in the book.
“We’re at a time in history where we’re sort of renegotiating our whole picture of reality and I think there are a lot of parties to that negotiation. I try to stay in touch with all of them,” he said, which includes mainstream scientists, paranormal researchers, conspiracy theorists, spiritual organizations, alternative science groups and the general public.
“We are at a time when ideas are changing . . . I think there’s a big intellectual change going on . . . If your ideas are really good, they’ll survive on their own.”
