(Mt. Fuji this morning observed around Tokyo; Click to enlarge.)
The Birth of the Concept of Heaven and Earth
Two million years ago, a great volcano in east Africa erupted.
The mountain, estimated to be 6,000-meter high, blew up itself to reduce to a huge crater itself with a diameter of 20km and a depth of 500m. In addition, the mountainous area surrounding the great volcano was all covered by ashes, lava, rocks, and sands that once formed the mountain, changing the views and vista completely. They turned to be a wider plain, perfectly leveled, over years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngorongoro_Conservation_Area
http://quetzal.gozaru.jp/q021/ng01map.html
Around two million years ago, Homo erectus (the genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives) left Africa as the first movement of expansion of early mankind to the world.
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Homo erectus used more diverse and sophisticated tools than its predecessors. This has been theorized to have been a result of Homo erectus first using tools of the Oldowan style and later progressing to the Acheulean style. [8]The surviving tools from both periods are all made of stone. Oldowan tools are the oldest known formed tools and date to circa 2.6 million years ago. The Acheulean era began about 1.2 million years ago and ended about 500,000 years ago. The primary innovation associated with Acheulean handaxes is that the stone was chipped on both sides to form a biface of two cutting edges. In addition it has been suggested that Homo erectus may have been the first hominid to use rafts to travel over oceans, however this idea is controversial within the scientific community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus
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The academic community ascribed this advancement of early mankind from Africa to the World to the Saharan pump. They claim that a great climate change that allowed for the spread of African animals and plants to the Middle East and further to Europe and Asia must have led early mankind to get out of Africa riding on the trend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_Pump_Theory
However, prior to it, mankind must have developed spiritually and physically enough to prepare for carrying out such adventure if some of them moved to the south or the west on the African Continent.
The spur to the evolution must be the eruption of the great volcano that resulted in the great plain.
By watching a great mountain, 1.5 times higher than Mt. Fuji, suddenly being blown off to be a huge and deep crater, early mankind must have opened their eyes to the power of the nature hinting the existence of something transcending the nature itself.
Anyway, after the establishment of Homo erectus, mankind has evolved straight to the present day status. No leeway or divergence to a category of species that would drop out of the status of mankind never occurred since then. Even Neanderthal men, if they had survived to date, would look like other type of the European-race group.
http://www.kahaku.go.jp/special/past/japanese/ipix/1/1-07.html
So, the Bible began with the word:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The heaven here described must have been the sky over the 6,000 meter-high mountain in East Africa that had surely existed in front of a certain species expected to evolve into the early mankind two million years ago. Actually, when the species observed how the earth could be created by the great eruption, they were also launched to the status of the early mankind called Homo erectus.
And, in my theory, even the Great Pyramid of Giza, built in 2560 B.C reflected this memory of early mankind two million years ago.
Yet, to make mankind further evolve, the God sent His Spirit in the form of Jesus 2000 years ago, aiming at the critical moment of the human history. Truly, the concept of the God has greatly advanced among mankind since then, including Judaists and Muslims while indirectly influencing Hindus and Buddhists.
So, the shock St. Peter must have felt when finding God in Jesus could be compared to the 6,000-meter (3.8 mile) high volcano's eruption.
Mar 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
Mar 1:2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Mar 1:3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.