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Re: I need help with a paradox. not a trick question, i do not knowthe answer
> > > If you go back a certain number of generations, you will start to
> > > intersect with certain people. We're all related, if you go back
> > > far enough right?
> >
> > Bingo. I mean, heck, my grandparents on my mother's side (the
> > Mennonite side) were third-cousins, and my uncle married *his*
> > third-cousin -- though it's possible that none of these people were
> > aware of how closely they were related at the time when they got married.
>
> Bingo, nothing. Extremely subtle inbreeding is one thing, and has
> sustained the species, but the idea that we all are of the same gene
> pool ("related") is either 1) a ridiculously myopic hippie ideal 2) a
> reactionary philosophy against the horrific reality of ethnic cleansing
> 3) illogical creationism that attempts to sustain itself by means of its
> own assumption.
WTF?
> Peter, what precisely are you talking about?
Uh, you've heard of DNA, right? Studies have shown that we can all be
traced back to a single "genetic Adam" some tens of thousands of years ago
and, if I'm not mistaken, to a single "genetic Eve" who lived even further
back (apparently all the Y-chromosomes that existed in the interim got
lost along the way, except for the Y-chromosome belonging to this "genetic
Adam"). FWIW, these same studies have also shown that, for example, all
the tribes and races in the Middle East -- Jews, Arabs, whatever --
descend from a common gene pool about 4,000 years ago.
--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
"I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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