Past Present and Future of Planet Earth

We are busy individuals……challenged every day to learn, work, earn, care for others, entertain ourselves and others, commute, travel and accomplish so many activities. Our days disappear so quickly. Only on a very rare occasion would we ever have the opportunity to think about any of the multi-faceted and major issues that govern our existence on this planet. How did we get here? How did the planet we live on get changed in so many dramatic ways as we have learned that it has over eons? Why are we all so different? How did there get to be so many different religions? How did there get to be so many different types of societies and economies in which we choose to live? Why have there been so many wars? Why have so many communities of people at times found it necessary to expand their authority to include additional lands and other communities? Every one of the nearly eight billion people on this planet today are who and what they are and live the way they live because of the many changes that have occurred since intelligent life first appeared on earth. In fact, has it by now even become important to begin to think about how to slow down or stop the increase of population as we are now perhaps already beyond the capacity that the planet has to provide a decent life for? The writers of religious books, philosophers and storytellers from the earliest days give us clues to help understand the great theater in which we live.