APPENDICES
Appendix A: Timeline of Key Events
Cosmic and Geological
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 13.8 billion years ago | Big Bang; universe begins |
| 13.6 billion years ago | First stars form |
| 4.5 billion years ago | Earth forms |
| 3.8 billion years ago | First life (single-celled organisms) |
| 2.4 billion years ago | Great Oxygenation Event |
| 600 million years ago | Cambrian explosion; complex animals |
| 66 million years ago | Asteroid impact; dinosaur extinction |
| 7 million years ago | Hominin lineage diverges from other apes |
| 2 million years ago | Homo erectus; controlled fire |
| 300,000 years ago | Homo sapiens appears |
| 70,000 years ago | Cognitive revolution; art, symbolic thought |
Ancient Near East
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 6500 BCE | Ubaid period begins in Mesopotamia |
| c. 4000 BCE | Uruk period; first cities |
| c. 3100 BCE | First writing (Uruk) |
| c. 3000 BCE | Proto-Elamite script (undeciphered) |
| c. 2900 BCE | Writing becomes phonetic |
| c. 2600 BCE | Indus Valley civilization flourishes |
| c. 2334 BCE | Sargon of Akkad conquers Sumer |
| c. 2100 BCE | Third Dynasty of Ur; Sumerian renaissance |
| c. 2000 BCE | Sumerian ceases to be spoken natively |
| c. 1792 BCE | Hammurabi’s reign begins |
| c. 1600 BCE | Hittite Empire rises |
| c. 1450 BCE | Linear A in use in Crete |
| c. 1200 BCE | Bronze Age Collapse |
| c. 1000 BCE | Traditional date of David’s kingdom |
| 586 BCE | Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem |
| 539 BCE | Cyrus conquers Babylon |
Classical and Medieval
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 450 BCE | Herodotus writes Histories |
| 323 BCE | Death of Alexander the Great |
| 30 BCE | Death of Cleopatra; Egypt becomes Roman |
| 70 CE | Roman destruction of Jerusalem’s Temple |
| c. 100 CE | Last cuneiform texts |
| 476 CE | Fall of Western Roman Empire |
| c. 800 CE | House of Wisdom, Baghdad |
| 1450 CE | Gutenberg’s printing press |
Modern
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1822 | Champollion deciphers Egyptian hieroglyphics |
| 1857 | Rawlinson and others decipher Akkadian cuneiform |
| 1952 | Ventris deciphers Linear B |
| 1960 | Wigner publishes “Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics” |
| 1970 | Conway invents the Game of Life |
| 1990s | World Wide Web emerges |
| 2022 | Large language models achieve widespread use |
Appendix B: Sumerian Language Basics
The Writing System
Sumerian was written in cuneiform—wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay with a reed stylus. The system evolved from pictographs (pictures representing objects) to a mixed logographic-syllabic script (signs representing words and sounds).
A single cuneiform sign could function as: - A logogram (word sign): the sign for “god” (𒀭) could mean dingir (god) - A syllabogram (sound sign): the same sign could represent the syllable an - A determinative (category marker): placed before divine names to indicate “this is a god”
Basic Grammar
Sumerian is: - Agglutinative: morphemes (meaningful units) attach to roots in chains - Ergative-absolutive: subjects of intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs are marked the same (absolutive); agents of transitive verbs are marked differently (ergative) - SOV: basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb
Case System
| Case | Marker | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | -Ø (zero) | Subject of intransitive; object of transitive |
| Ergative | -e | Agent of transitive verb |
| Genitive | -ak | Possession (“of”) |
| Dative | -ra | Indirect object (“to, for”) |
| Locative | -a | Location (“in, at”) |
| Ablative | -ta | Motion from (“from”) |
| Terminative | -šè | Motion toward (“to, toward”) |
| Comitative | -da | Accompaniment (“with”) |
| Equative | -gin | Comparison (“like, as”) |
Sample Vocabulary
| Sumerian | Meaning |
|---|---|
| dingir | god |
| lugal | king |
| é | house, temple |
| a | water |
| an | sky, heaven |
| ki | earth, place |
| nam | abstract noun prefix |
| mu | name; year |
| nì | thing |
| ĝeš | wood; tree |
The Verbal Template
Sumerian verbs are complex chains of prefixes, a stem, and suffixes:
[Modal]-[Conjugation]-[Dimensional]-[STEM]-[Subject/Object]Example: mu-na-ni-in-dù (“he built it in it for him”) - mu- : ventive (motion toward) - -na- : dative (“for him”) - -ni- : locative (“in it”) - -in- : ergative third person (“he” as agent) - dù : verb root (“to build”)
Appendix C: The Documentary Hypothesis
The Documentary Hypothesis proposes that the Torah (first five books of the Bible) was compiled from four originally separate source documents:
J (Jahwist/Yahwist) - Uses YHWH for God’s name - Anthropomorphic depiction of God (walks in garden, etc.) - Vivid, narrative style - Likely originated in Judah (southern kingdom) - Dated c. 950–850 BCE (traditional); may be later
E (Elohist) - Uses Elohim for God’s name - More distant deity (speaks through dreams, angels) - Less narrative detail than J - Likely originated in Israel (northern kingdom) - Dated c. 850–750 BCE (traditional)
D (Deuteronomist) - Distinctive sermonic style - Emphasis on centralized worship - Core of the book of Deuteronomy - Connected to reforms of King Josiah (c. 621 BCE)
P (Priestly) - Concerned with genealogies, rituals, purity laws - Precise dates and measurements - More transcendent deity - Dated to exilic or post-exilic period (c. 550–450 BCE)
Current Status
The Documentary Hypothesis dominated scholarship for over a century but is now contested. Some scholars: - Defend modified versions (fewer sources, different dates) - Prefer “supplementary” models (one base document with additions) - Emphasize the final form rather than hypothetical sources - Question whether distinct documents can be recovered
No consensus currently exists on the composition of the Torah.
Appendix D: The Bronze Age Collapse
What Collapsed (c. 1200–1150 BCE)
| Civilization | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Hittite Empire | Complete collapse; capital Hattusa destroyed and abandoned |
| Mycenaean Greece | Palaces destroyed; population decline; writing lost for 300+ years |
| Ugarit | Destroyed c. 1185 BCE; never rebuilt |
| Cyprus | Major cities destroyed; some recovery |
| Egypt (New Kingdom) | Survived but weakened; fought off “Sea Peoples” |
| Kassite Babylon | Fell to Elamite invasion c. 1155 BCE |
| Assyria | Contracted but survived |
| Canaan | Widespread destruction; new peoples emerge |
Proposed Causes
Sea Peoples: Migrating/raiding groups attacked coastal civilizations. Identity debated; possibly displaced populations from Aegean, Anatolia, or elsewhere.
Climate change: Paleoclimate data suggests prolonged drought c. 1200–900 BCE.
Earthquakes: The eastern Mediterranean is seismically active; several sites show earthquake damage.
Internal rebellion: Palace economies were exploitative; collapse may have involved social upheaval.
Systems collapse: Interconnected economies failed together; each failure triggered others.
Most likely: Multiple causes interacting. No single factor explains all evidence.
Appendix E: The Fine-Tuning Constants
Selected Physical Constants and Their Sensitivity
| Constant | Description | Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|
| Strong nuclear force | Holds atomic nuclei together | ±2% change prevents complex chemistry |
| Electromagnetic force | Governs chemistry and light | Small changes prevent stable atoms |
| Gravitational constant (G) | Strength of gravity | Much stronger: stars burn out too fast; much weaker: no stars form |
| Cosmological constant (Λ) | Universe’s expansion rate | 10^120 times larger prevents galaxy formation |
| Electron mass | Mass of electrons | Heavier: atoms collapse; lighter: no chemistry |
| Proton-neutron mass difference | Affects nuclear stability | Different values prevent stable atoms |
| Carbon resonance level | Allows carbon production in stars | Without it, carbon would be rare |
Interpretations
Coincidence: The constants happen to have these values by chance.
Necessity: A deeper theory will show these values are mathematically required.
Multiverse: All possible values are realized somewhere; we observe life-permitting values because we exist.
Design: The values were chosen to permit complexity and life.
No interpretation is proven. The fine-tuning remains a significant open question in physics and philosophy.
Appendix F: Glossary
Agglutinative: A language type where words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each with a distinct meaning.
Anthropocentrism: The assumption that humans are the central or most important element of existence.
Axiom: A proposition accepted as true without proof, serving as a starting point for further reasoning.
Cuneiform: A writing system using wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay, developed in ancient Mesopotamia.
Cumulative culture: The accumulation of knowledge and skills across generations, where each generation builds on the previous.
Emergent/Emergence: Properties or behaviors that arise from complex systems but are not present in (or predictable from) individual components.
Ergative-absolutive: A grammatical alignment where the subject of an intransitive verb is treated like the object of a transitive verb.
Fine-tuning: The observation that physical constants appear precisely calibrated to permit complex structures and life.
Great Filter: A hypothetical barrier that prevents intelligent life from becoming widespread in the universe.
Hard problem of consciousness: The question of why and how physical processes give rise to subjective experience.
Logos: Greek term meaning word, reason, or rational principle; in theology, the divine reason underlying the cosmos.
Panpsychism: The view that consciousness is a fundamental feature of reality, present in some form throughout nature.
Privation: Absence or lack; in theology, the view that evil is the absence of good rather than a positive entity.
Ratchet effect: The mechanism by which cultural knowledge accumulates without slipping backward.
Sexagesimal: A number system based on 60, used by the Sumerians.
Substrate-independent: Not dependent on a particular physical medium; applicable to any system with the relevant functional properties.
Theodicy: An attempt to justify God’s goodness in the face of evil and suffering.
Theophoric: Containing a divine name; said of personal names like “Daniel” (God is my judge).