Who was God before God? Here is a hint, it can unhinge its jaws. No not Ann Coulter!

A startling discovery of 70,000-year-old artifacts and a python's head carved of stone appears to represent the first known human rituals.

Scientists had thought human intelligence had not evolved the capacity to perform group rituals until perhaps 40,000 years ago.

But inside a cave in remote hills in Kalahari Desert of Botswana, archaeologists found the stone snake that was carved long ago. It is as tall as a man and 20 feet (6 meters) long.

The discovery was made in a remote region of Botswana called Tsodilo Hills, the only uplifted area for miles around. It is known to modern San people as the "Mountains of the Gods" and the "Rock That Whispers." Their legend has it that humankind descended from the python, and the ancient, arid streambeds around the hills are said to have been created by the python as it circled the hills in its ceaseless search for water.

I am such a nerd for this type of research. There are just so many religions that have faded from human memory that once held sway over primitive humans for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years.

It makes one wonder just how long Christianity will be able to stick around. Actually a sudden increase of religious fervor in favor of an established religion, like the one we are seeing right now, often indicates the beginning of the end of a particular faith.

These may indeed be historic times.