The Real Irish History

[Tomcat]

One thing that is not so obvious is that everybody alive today has no failed ancestors.. you are part of an un-broken chain going back 3 Billion years...As i have no kids and dont want any i guess that im a dead end from here on.

[paultain]

(seanbeag7 @ Apr. 29 2009,18:18) I think this thread is a load of BOLLOX.

It probably is Sean, but then again, how much of it might be true?

[paultain]

(Tomcat @ Apr. 29 2009,18:41) One thing that is not so obvious is that everybody alive today has no failed ancestors.. you are part of an un-broken chain going back 3 Billion years...As i have no kids and dont want any i guess that im a dead end from here on.

I agree with you there Tomcat 3 billion years, and not 6 thousand years as the Vatican likes people to believe.

[Road Runner]

(Tomcat @ Apr. 29 2009,12:41) One thing that is not so obvious is that everybody alive today has no failed ancestors.. you are part of an un-broken chain going back 3 Billion years...

Just to put a little perspective on that.

Everybody has two parents  -  four grandparents  -  eight great-grandparents  and so on........

If you could trace your ancestory back in the UK to around 1350 you would have about 1.5 million ancestors.

The population of the UK in 1350 (just after roughly 2/3rds of the population died in the plague called the Black Death) was about 0.5 million.

It is possible that everyone in the World came from a group of ancestors whose total numbers were less than 50,000.

RR.

[Tomcat]

This is detailed in Richard Dawkins " The Ancestors Tale".  The pilgrimage of life from today going back to when we were bacteria. Along with all the other quirks and quandries of evolution..

One of the best books ive ever read , a real education even its three years old now.

[paultain]

Tomcat,

I'M a BM in his forum, you should join up mate, its quite good. The only thing I don't like is him pushing Darwin a bit too much, after all we've come a long way since the mid 1800's

[Road Runner]

Never heard of that book - I'll try to get hold of a copy - Thanks TC.

RR.

[Tomcat]

"In The Ancestor's Tale Dawkins traces back human ancestry 4bn years to the dawn of life on Earth. The result is one of the richest accounts of evolution ever written... Dawkins can still weave a Darwinian spell as powerful as the one that bewitched specialists and non-specialists alike when his first book, The Selfish Gene, appeared in 1976."
Clive Cookson, The Financial Times

RR
( PS it was for sale at one point in Bookazine on Soi4)

PS
Thanks for the info Paultain also, count me in

[Tomcat]

My Doctor was a mad Irishman and he thought that i was some kind of Celtic Brother... he kept asking me if i had read " The Celtic Dawn"
. I never read it but maybe some you guys might like it

[raybone]

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

[raybone]

"Fractured Emerald" by Emily Hahn.

my ancestors are from northern ireland, descendants of the english stewards of the irish plantations.

so am i english or irish,\.?

[Stogie]

We're all individuals...

[Naang Faa]

I'm not
x

[seamus]

I'm a Celt & dont give a feck who tells Me I'm not

[Stogie]

I'm British, but I don't admit to it.