Yuval Noah Harari interviewed about his history of Sapiens (that’s us and others in the Homo genus)
Dr. Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in World History, medieval history and military history. He also teaches a Massive Open Online Course called “A Brief History of Humankind.” More than 80,000 students from throughout the world participated in the first run of the course in 2013. The second run began in August 2014, and in its first three weeks, 30,000 students joined.
Harari has published numerous books and articles. His most recent book, released February 10, 2015, is entitled Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, and it surveys the entire length of human history, from the evolution of Homo sapiens in the Stone Age up to the political and technological revolutions of the 21st century. Sapiens is an international bestseller and is being published in more than thirty languages worldwide. Harari lives with his husband in moshav Mesilat Zion near Jerusalem.
“When it comes, however, to the factual stories, that the world was created 5,000 years ago, that humans were the descendants of Adam and Eve that were created from earth by God and not evolved from previous species of animals, there is a collision between the latest scientific findings and the stories that you find in the Bible in Christian scriptures. How to reconcile the two? You’d have to really ask a believer.”
Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): Dr. Harari, thanks for speaking with me today, and congratulations on the great success of the book!
Yuval Noah Harari: Thank you.
Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): I’ll bet you were a very inquisitive child. Did you ask your parents questions about the beginning of mankind?
Yuval Noah Harari: Yes. I remember asking both my parents and my teachers at school continuously about where we came from and what was the meaning of all this. My main surprise was not so much that they didn’t know the answers to some of the questions, it was that they didn’t seem to care much. It didn’t bother them, and they went on worrying about the mortgage and the political situation and whatnot, not the fact that they didn’t understand what was really happening in the world. Not knowing the meaning of all this human existence didn’t bother them at all. ...