The timeline of our planet’s history is indeed a long one.
Four thousand six hundred million (4,600,000,000) years from its birth as a fiery ball coalescing from a wildly spinning solar disk during a time aptly known as the Hadean Aeon to the present day is an impossibly long time for anyone to imagine. Particularly for a human being who may, if they are lucky, just reach 100 years, but more likely only the average of four score and ten.
If you look at the coloured timeline you will no doubt be struck by how much evolutionary time it takes before humans appear—all human history is represented by the tiny cream colored segment designated as the Qaternary period. Compared to the other periods on the timescale we are only new arrivals.
This tells us evolution is the slow and sure path to progress.