Dr. Nels Hoffman/Courtesy photo
LAF&S FORUM NEWS RELEASE
The Los Alamos Faith and Science Forum 2026 Summer Series Presents ‘Saved by the Spirits: Did religion rescue paleolithic humans from extinction?’ by Dr. Nels Hoffman on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 at Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church (TOTH) located at 3900 Trinity Dr., Los Alamos. A light meal will be served at 6:00 p.m. The presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m. It will be recorded and streamed to the ZOOM site given at:
https://losalamosfaithandscienceforum.org.
All hominin species, except for one, have gone extinct. Even a successful species like Homo erectus, who persisted on Planet Earth for more than one and a half million years, is no longer around. Genomic analysis shows that the population of Homo sapiens declined to a very small number during the last ice age, indicating that we too may have been on the way out, along with Homo neanderthalensis and the others. Around 50,000 to 70,000 years ago, something happened to arrest our extinction and turned us into one of the most dominant species on the planet today.
What made the difference? Researchers have proposed genetic mutations, advanced tools, an improved climate, or cultural innovation as the key factor. In this talk we will look at these possibilities and examine the evidence that behavioral change is a better alternative. Present-day small-scale indigenous communities around the world have distinctive cultural practices that can be called “religious”. Our discussion will raise the possibility that it was non-material influences of a religious nature – “the spirits” – that rescued humanity from extinction.
Dr. Nelson M. Hoffman is retired after a career as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he worked most recently on Plasma Theory and Applications. He earned a B.A. in Physics and a Ph.D. in astronomy. He has authored or co-authored more than 90 technical publications, which have garnered more than 3200 citations. He is a member of First United Methodist Church of Los Alamos, and is active in the Kairos Prison Ministry. Nels is a founding member and past president of the Los Alamos Faith & Science Forum (LAF&SF). Influenced by writings on the history of science and culture, he believes that without the crucial influence of Christianity in human cultural history, modern science would not even exist.