David Christian
David Christian
created huge organisms packages
Living organisms are created by chemistry. We are huge packages of chemicals.
begin elements exotic forged form fuse high large sorts wearing
When very large stars die, they create temperatures so high that protons begin to fuse in all sorts of exotic combinations, to form all the elements of the periodic table. If, like me, you're wearing a gold ring, it was forged in a supernova explosion.
history offering studies
Big History studies the history of everything, offering a way of making sense of our world and our role within it.
scales stories
If historians don't tell stories at the scales of creation myths, someone else will.
beings believe collective complexity dangers face fragility history human learning mark nature threshold
I believe human beings mark a threshold in the development of the planet, of course, but it is only part of the picture. What Big History can do is show us the nature of our complexity and fragility and the dangers that face us, but it can also show us our power, with collective learning.
indigenous large origin provide stories
All religions, all indigenous traditions, all origin stories provide a large map of where you are.
history normally
What we normally define as history doesn't interest me. It's a constraint.
history nations ought particular teaching
I had this feeling that, somehow, we ought to be teaching not just the history of particular nations or particular regions, but the history of humanity.
detailed historians job maps neglect
Unfortunately, historians have become so absorbed in detailed research that they have tended to neglect the job of building larger-scale maps of the past.
maps creation modern
Maps of Time attempts to assemble a coherent and accessible account of origins, a modern creation myth.