The stage in which our ancestor became aware of himself and God and became human.

Molecular biology has proven that Australopithecus diverged from the human evolutionary lineage to a dead end and became extinct. Unfortunately, no direct descendants have been found, but one step more perfect ancestors have been found, which based on their working ability, have been called Homo habilis—a man of skill. Many stone tools have been found in Kenya. The discoverer of this ancestor of today’s man was the famous paleontologist Louis S.B. Laeky. This ancestor lived more than 2 million years ago. However, it must be remembered that this ancestor did not live in history apart from other creatures like him, like some perfect predator from whom everyone learned. Homo habilis is not a direct descendant of Australopithecus. He is more advanced but not so much intellectually as he is industrially. But this development is significant. Working skill does not mean that he is aware of the supernatural in addition to himself. From the Christian point of view, a man of skill is not yet a real man. A better scientific view of this genus would be Hominoid habilis, the skillful ancestor of man. For man’s actual ancestors, we go to another continent, Asia. Not that man did not continue to evolve in Africa, but the upright man Homo erectus has the primacy in Asia. He deserves the name, man. He lived throughout Asia and Africa about a million years ago. The Dutch physician Eugène Dubois discovered in Java a skull and later a man’s femur strikingly similar to a human’s. From its shape as a physician, he concluded that the creature to which it belonged must have walked upright. The name Pithecanthropus erectus was coined. Homo erectus wasn’t just significant because he walked on two legs. He had a much larger brain and lived in packs. More significant is his mental development, which outpaced all known animals at the time, He could defend himself, hunt, process prey in a way that no animals do. The birth of an intelligent being like Homo erectus cannot be only the work of nature but, at the same time, the work of something higher, superior to both nature and man himself. Homo erectus used sign language supplemented by monosyllabic sounds, which gave the basis for future words. There arose an intense need for belonging that could overcome distress and danger. Here, too, was born a sense of the Creator. It emerged slowly and gradually, marked by setbacks, hardships, pain, and sorrow. All these qualities were inherent in Homo erectus. Homo erectus survived in conditions in which even today’s man, with his technical conveniences, would have had to do.