According to the ‘ologists we humans, Homo sapiens, evolved from pre-human species, or hominims. And examination of our DNA reveals that some of our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals, Denisovans and other pre-humans. We are, in fact, mongrels. And given the relatively short space of time that H.sapiens has been around as a species, we are still evolving.

Evolution serves to fit new species into their environments, and this process is long drawn out and painful. Many of Nature’s experiments leading to new species fail for a variety of reasons – deficiences in their environment, changes in climate, failure of food resources, volcanism, and predation. If we accept that modern humans have only recently arrived on Earth, have multiplied to invade most areas of land, and are still adjusting to the limits of the environment and to the presence of other animal species, what are our chances of surviving as a species? Not very good when one considers what we have done in such a short time to this planet and the other species we share it with. We cannot even live alongside other humans without competing violently for land and resources.

Evolution has equipped us with brains that are capable of amazing feats of imagination and invention, but we have yet to evolve to a state of existence where interpersonal relations do not result in racism, sexism, personal violence and war. We are clever enough to understand and record the process of evolution in other species, but have so far failed to acknowledge its importance in ourselves.