The Human Apes

I was looking through my notes today, and found an idea for a story that I had a year or so ago. It was about the origin of humans (and their religions). After noting that he has never gotten a woman pregnant despite taking no precautions to prevent it, a man discovers the truth: he is actually an ape, and he isn't the only one. In fact, there is a group of apes that have been around since before man, and they contact him to let him know his "heritage."

Originally, tens of thousands of years ago, a species of ape developed language, and they later taught humans to talk. Similar in appearance, they pass themselves off as humans, but cannot interbreed. Those living today are the keepers of the secret. The secret is that man has never been the most developed species on the planet. In fact, not only was he taught language by the more intelligent apes, but also leaned religious ideas from these apes, who thought of it as a useful tool for what they considered "children." It was a tool to be used and someday outgrown.

The secret was passed on through the ages, and now the battle had come between those apes who thought that man was ready for the truth, and those who thought the secret should be buried and that they should rule over humans, rather than live among them. Man is an animal and nothing more. Not only were the gods inventions, but they were not even his own inventions. The members of this species of ape are actually the most intellectually advanced animal on the planet, and were uniformly atheists.

Anyhow, those were the few notes I had on the idea. But there was another interesting aspect to my rediscovery of my notes. Upon reading them, I immediately recalled where I was when I had the idea. My wife Ana and I were in the hot spring pools in Ouray, Colorado. I can even recall which part of the pool. This is common for me. I strongly associate locations with the ideas I have there. I wonder if this is common with others or not.