How did we get here?  

Johnson presents the answers as scientific origin myths.

The central myth is the progression represented by the circles going around the periphery of this particular "igus". It starts with the development of atoms and proceeds clockwise to multi-cellular organisms.  We are at the center of the igus - it's nose.

The facts of the central myth are generally accepted.

The explanations of how and why the progression occurred are not so accepted. What caused the jump from pre-organic molecules to autocatalytic metabolisms encased in cells? Then what caused the increasingly complex organization of life - from prokaryotic bacteria to us.

Answering these questions are two other collections of myths.

One set of myths represents the conventional scientific view. Life was created and then evolved as a result of random processes occurring over long periods of time.  Given enough time, chance and natural selection - and the laws of chemistry - could result in anything.

The other set of myths say that is asking too much of chance.  Some religious people say that Intelligent Design  - God - had  a hand in it.  Some scientists, especially those centered around the Santa Fe Institute, say that the progression was preordained by the selfish natures of genes, or perhaps the self-organizing behavior of complex systems.