Some fundamental concerns about us remained unresolved to this day.
What are our origins? Who or what are we? What makes us uniquely human?
Did we come from the chance fusion of atoms and molecules or did we evolve directly from the chimpanzees?
Did some extraterrestrial entities or divine beings create us in their image and likeness?
What of our future?
Are we predestined machines “moved, directed and commanded by exterior influences,” as Mark Twain said in his "What Is Man?" Or, are we free to choose our destiny?
Do we totally disappear from the face of this earth and return to dust or is there life after death? If we do live after death, what is it in us that continues to exist?
Such questions have challenged humanity ever since our appearance in this world. They remain important because how we understand ourselves, both as an individual and as a collective species, influences the way we think, feel, and deal with our surroundings and one another.
These are some of the issues I address in my study scheduled for defense in May.