The Forbidden Apple and Cognitive Evolution

A common event is mentioned in all monotheistic religions; The expulsion of Adam and Eve from heaven… Accordingly, God says to Adam and Eve, “You can do whatever you want, but I forbid you to come near that tree.”

Hearing this, the devil does his devil again and convinces Adam and Eve to approach the forbidden tree, and the first people who taste the forbidden fruit of the forbidden tree are expelled from heaven and world exile; millions of years of human life adventure begins on our planet. Could this dualistic narrative be a flare for something other than obedience, rules, prohibitions, good and bad?

The homo (human) genus evolved from hominid (humanoid) apes called Australopithecus (southern ape) in East Africa 2.5 million years ago. During the next hundreds of thousands of years, homo (human) species such as homo rudolfensis, homo ergaster, homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis began to appear on earth. 200,000 years ago, we, Homo sapiens (thinking man), the only human species that has managed to survive until today, appeared on the stage of history. About 70.00-50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens sapiens (human who can think about what he thinks), which is perhaps the closest homo sapiens subspecies to today’s human, said, in all its majesty, I exist too.

100,000 years ago, more than one homo (human) species existed simultaneously in different parts of the world. So what happened to other human species, how did they disappear from the stage of history? Theories such as adverse climatic changes, assimilation due to interbreeding, or the extinction of one human species by another are discussed with their own arguments to clarify this issue.

Homo sapiens began its first migration out of Africa about 100,000 years ago. Sapiens reaching the European continent encountered another human species, the Neanderthals, and this clash of intelligence versus bodily strength resulted in power, and the Neanderthals were able to successfully defend their habitats against the invasion of sapiens. But this fight was not limited to a single round. Homo sapiens, who left the African lands for the second time about 30,000 years after the first encounter, which we should call homo sapiens 2.0 or homo sapiens sapiens, experienced the second encounter with the neanderthals with a much better equipped mind, a more advanced cognitive structure and, as a result, more advanced warfare techniques. It wasn’t good for Neanderthalensis, and cognitively equipped Homo sapiens sapiens, who could think what he was thinking, swept his fellows from the stage of history. Neanderthals continued to live in the next tens of thousands of years, but this human species, whose habitats were declining, descended from the stage with applause about 30,000 years ago.

Why did the genus Homo become sapiens (thinking) and not only sapiens sapiens (thinking what it thinks)?

Let me warn you, the next part of the article contains a lot of speculative comments.

Let’s go back to the story of Adam and Eve, the apple eaten from the forbidden tree is the last bite they eat in paradise and they are expelled from paradise.

There are various theories as to why the first apes decided to stand up. As for the relevance of these theories to the story of Adam and Eve, think of climate catastrophes that lasted for generations, think of nothing nutritious left on the land, brutal conflicts, starvation and starvation due to dwindling nutrients. Imagine one day an ape straightened up slightly and reached for a nut from a tree relatively low to the ground and, out of desperation, tasted this new food, which wasn’t so bad and satiated its hunger so that it could survive longer and mate and reproduce more than other members of the species. This undeniable advantage on the road will first bring the lightly confirmed genetically forward, and in the course of evolution, the straightening will come to the point of being on good foot. But standing up has its advantages as well as negative consequences. In a standing ape, the center of gravity shifts and evolves the body to develop a narrower pelvis.

Problems when a large-brained ape cub passes through a birth canal that has narrowed over time cause an increase in maternal or infant mortality during childbirth. In the process, mothers and babies who gave birth prematurely (it does not qualify the current concept of premature birth, according to our humanoid ancestors, a baby staying only 38-40 weeks in the mother’s womb is a premature birth) live longer, and thus, they can transfer their genetic heritage related to premature birth or being born to other children. In an environment where it has the opportunity to be passed on to generations, the gestation period is shortened until the homo species from human apes come to the evolution process in the evolutionary process and the human offspring begins to be born prematurely. Many mammal babies can walk, run, and feed after a few small attempts at birth, but human babies need absolute care, especially in the first two years of their life, so human babies are born prematurely. This immature birth leads to the absolute necessity of learning, meaning, being in contact with others, helping each other, establishing social bonds in homosexuality. Meeting this absolute necessity can only happen if you have the mental structure to meet it. The necessity of learning and the need for others in order to survive have turned into a springboard in the evolutionary process, and the human (homo sapiens) who can think about 200,000 years ago and the human (homo sapiens sapiens) who can think 70,000 years ago have evolved.

The adventure of the human species on earth may indeed have begun with Adam and Eve trying to get up to reach for that apple on the tree, because whatever we see as human civilization today we owe it to our cognitive capacity, and our cognitive capacity to that first humanoid ancestor, who was perhaps slightly straightened.