Paper 63 Overview: The First Human Family

This paper details the origin and early history of Andon and Fonta, the first true human beings who appeared on Urantia nearly one million years ago. As twin siblings who exhibited qualities beyond their animal ancestors, they made the momentous decision to flee from their primitive tribe, establishing themselves as the progenitors of all humankind. Their story encompasses their discovery of fire, development of early tools, and the formation of the first human family through their nineteen children.

The narrative continues through the dispersion of their descendants, known as the Andonic clans, who spread throughout Europe and developed early forms of social organization and primitive religious concepts. The paper highlights the spiritual leadership of Onagar, who established the worship of the "Breath Giver," and concludes with an account of Andon and Fonta's afterlife on Jerusem, where they continue to serve as greeters for new arrivals from Urantia to the mansion worlds.

Urantia was formally registered as an inhabited world when the first two human beings—twins named Andon and Fonta—were eleven years old, before they had become parents to the first second-generation humans. This momentous occasion was marked by an archangel message from Salvington that acknowledged the appearance of human minds and requested that these new creatures receive the indwelling gift of the Universal Father's spirit.

The names Andon and Fonta were bestowed at the time they received their Thought Adjusters, with Andon signifying "the first Fatherlike creature to exhibit human perfection hunger" and Fonta meaning "the first Sonlike creature to exhibit human perfection hunger." During their lives on Urantia, they called each other Sonta-an and Sonta-en, meaning "loved by mother" and "loved by father" respectively, names they created themselves that reflected their mutual affection and regard for one another.

Andon and Fonta stand as the most remarkable pair of human beings to ever live on earth, being superior to many of their immediate descendants and radically different from all their ancestors. They were the actual parents of all mankind, demonstrating exceptional qualities that set them apart from both their contemporaries and those who came after them.

Although their own parents were only slightly different from the average members of their tribe, Andon and Fonta showed greater intelligence and resourcefulness. Andon had developed the skill of attaching sharp pieces of flint to clubs using animal tendons, creating effective weapons for defense. He used these weapons at least a dozen times to protect himself and his sister Fonta, who consistently accompanied him on his explorations. Their decision to leave their primitive tribe demonstrated a higher quality of mind than many of their later descendants, who interbred with lesser simian tribes, and this advanced mental capacity was enhanced by their personality and the presence of their Thought Adjusters.

After deciding to flee northward, Andon and Fonta initially hesitated due to fear of displeasing their family and facing possible death at the hands of jealous tribesmen. The twins were not particularly popular within their Primates tribe, partly because they had built a separate and superior tree home for themselves.

Their momentous decision to leave came during a violent storm as they held each other in fear and affection in their treetop home. They had already prepared a crude hideaway half a day's journey to the north, which became their refuge on the first day of their departure. Despite the Primates' fear of being on the ground at night, the twins departed shortly before nightfall, correctly reasoning they would be less likely to be pursued. During their northward journey, they discovered an exposed flint deposit, and while attempting to shape the stones, Andon discovered their spark-making quality—though the idea of fire didn't take hold immediately since the climate was still warm enough that they didn't need it. As autumn approached and nights grew colder, they experimented with the flint sparks for two months before Fonta's discovery of using a bird's nest as kindling finally allowed them to create fire.

Almost two years after the twins left their original home, their first child, Sontad, was born—the first creature on Urantia to be wrapped in protective coverings at birth. This marked the beginning of the human race and demonstrated the instinct to care for increasingly vulnerable infants, a characteristic that would distinguish the development of intellectual beings from purely animal types.

Andon and Fonta ultimately had nineteen children and lived to enjoy the company of nearly fifty grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family established their home in four adjoining rock shelters connected by hallways excavated with flint tools developed by their children. These early Andonites displayed a strong clan mentality, hunting in groups and staying close to their homesite due to their sense of being a unique group of beings. At the age of forty-two, both Andon and Fonta were killed during an earthquake when an overhanging rock fell, also claiming the lives of five of their children and eleven grandchildren. Following this tragedy, Sontad assumed leadership of the clan despite having a seriously injured foot, with his first task being to entomb the dead family members—though their concepts of afterlife were still vague and primarily derived from their dream experiences.

The primitive humans known as Andonites had black eyes and a swarthy complexion that combined yellow and red coloration due to the melanin in their skin. In appearance, they more closely resembled present-day Eskimos than any other living human group, and they were the first to use animal skins for protection against cold weather. They had only slightly more body hair than modern humans, representing the earliest adaptation to changing climate conditions.

The tribal life of these early humans foreshadowed numerous social conventions, with their expanding emotions and increased brain capacity leading to developments in social organization and division of labor. They were highly imitative but had a minimal play instinct and almost no sense of humor. These early humans smiled occasionally but rarely laughed heartily, as humor would come later with the Adamic race. They showed less sensitivity to pain and adverse conditions than later evolving mortals, and childbirth was not particularly painful for Fonta and her immediate female descendants. The Andonites were remarkably devoted to their families and would fight heroically to protect their mates and offspring, but their loyalty was limited to their immediate clan. Although they possessed emotional foundations that would later contribute to religion, they had not yet developed altruism or the concept of making the world better for future generations.

The early Andon races didn't penetrate far into Asia or Africa, but instead journeyed northward as the third glacier slowly advanced. Geographic constraints limited their migration options—Tibet was too arid to the east, the Mediterranean Sea blocked southern and western routes, and ice impeded northern travel. Despite these challenges, the more intelligent Andonic groups never considered moving southward to live among their intellectually inferior tree-dwelling relatives.

Before the ice sheet reached France and the British Isles, Andon's descendants had pushed westward across Europe, establishing over a thousand settlements along the great rivers leading to the North Sea. The Andonic tribes dwelled along the Somme River in France for tens of thousands of years, with this river remaining unchanged by glaciers throughout those times. These aborigines weren't primarily tree-dwellers or cave-dwellers, but preferred to live under the shelter of overhanging cliffs near rivers and in hillside caves that offered both protection from the elements and good views of approaching dangers. They became skilled at disguising their shelters and constructing stone sleeping chambers, and as hunters, they traveled extensively in search of flint for their increasingly sophisticated tools. These early humans demonstrated remarkable intelligence that some of their descendants failed to maintain over the next half-million years, though these later generations repeatedly rediscovered various methods of making fire.

As the Andonic dispersion extended, their cultural and spiritual status deteriorated for nearly ten thousand years until the emergence of Onagar. This remarkable leader united the tribes, brought peace among them, and for the first time led them all in the worship of the "Breath Giver to men and animals." Prior to this, Andon's philosophical views had been confused, nearly leading him to worship fire after his accidental discovery, though reason directed him toward the sun as a superior source of heat and light.

The Andonites developed fears of natural elements and a form of animal worship since they largely subsisted on animals for food. They gradually established rituals of reverence around certain venerated animals, refraining from eating their flesh and developing ceremonies that eventually evolved into sacrificial practices. Onagar established his headquarters near the present Caspian Sea at a settlement called Oban, from which he sent teachers to remote settlements to spread his doctrines of one Deity and the concept of an afterlife he called the "Great Beyond." These missionaries were the world's first and also the first humans to cook meat regularly. Born 983,323 years ago, Onagar lived for sixty-nine years and organized these primitive peoples into a real society with efficient tribal government. After his death, many of his descendants lost their spiritual traditions, but during Onagar's time, Thought Adjusters and guardian seraphim came to Urantia in great numbers, marking a golden age of primitive humanity.

Andon and Fonta, the remarkable founders of the human race, received recognition when the Planetary Prince arrived on Urantia, and eventually emerged from the mansion worlds with citizenship status on Jerusem. Although they have never been permitted to return physically to Urantia, they remain aware of human history and have experienced both sorrow over planetary setbacks and joy when learning that Michael had chosen their world for his final bestowal.

On Jerusem, both Andon and Fonta were fused with their Thought Adjusters, as were several of their children including Sontad, though most of their immediate descendants achieved only Spirit fusion. Shortly after arriving on Jerusem, they received permission from the System Sovereign to return to the first mansion world to serve as greeters for new arrivals from Urantia, a service to which they have been indefinitely assigned. They requested to send greetings to Urantia through these revelations, but this request was denied for wise reasons. This concludes the story of the most heroic and fascinating chapter in all of Urantia's history—the evolution, life struggles, death, and eternal survival of humanity's unique parents.