How long have humans lived on the Earth?

“How long have humans lived on the Earth?” A question sent in by Adrian T.

Thank you for this question.

It is a question that interests me greatly. Indeed I wrote a chapter (Out of The Garden) covering it, in the Life and Death book. [ How long have humans lived on the Earth ]

The human form, as we know it, has probably been around for at least 200 thousand years (possibly 300 thousand years) – and is believed to relate back much further, possibly two million years, to Homo-ergaster and even earlier hominids.

Form is not the same as content

There is a difference however between form and content. What interests me is that, based on the evidence we have, there arguably occurred a shift in consciousness around 50,000 years ago. It could be longer but still a relatively short span of time going back. This was a major shift, marking the arrival of human beings. I discuss my reasoning for this in the Out of The Garden chapter.

So you could say that we have lived here since then. I hope this helps to answer your question. [ How long have humans lived on the Earth ]

Associated links:

Where did we come from?
Do you believe UFOs exist?
Cope with knowing you will die

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are entirely the opinion of the author, Francis O’Neill. No guarantee is given that the information provided is correct, complete, and, or up-to-date.