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All in the Family December 1, 2002
Opening Words: We come together this morning with many and varied histories. The genes of our distant ancestors have made us who and what we are, having been carried across the sea and this broad country by those who have come before us in the inexorable passage of time. We may not know it, but many of these genes are shared in the commonality of our humanity. It is most likely that those who are sitting nearest to you on this cold December morning in the early years of the twenty first century, are as close as fifth or sixth cousins in our family called humanity. Some may be even closer. We shall demonstrate this morning, that we are indeed one giant family, interrelated and interconnected, as we cling together in this capricious and dangerous world we live in. This may give us pause to contemplate how we support and relate to one another in the struggle that is life. Scripture Lesson The Scripture Lesson this morning is taken from the Book of Genesis in the new Revised Standard Revision of the Word of God: The is the book of the generations of Adam God created man and called him Adam And Adam begat Seth And Seth begat Enos And Enos begat Cainan And Cainan begat Mahalaleel And Mahalaleel begat Jared And Jared begat Enoch And Enoch begat Methusulah And Methusulah begat Lamech And Lamech begat Noah And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japeth And there was a great flood, after which Shem, Ham, and Japeth begat Et Cetera, Et Cetera, Et Cetera And so are they the twelve generations from Adam to Et Cetera So endeth the reading of the Scripture Lesson Mathematics Lesson: There once was a very clever young lady who applied for employment at the retail establishment of a very miserly, but somewhat dim merchant. The merchant was known throughout the town as a penny pinching skinflint who did not pay his employees a fair and decent wage for their labors. The clever young lady, knowing this, informed the merchant at her job interview that she would be happy to work for him with the following mage arrangement. She would work the first day for a wage of only 1 cent. However, each succeeding day she worked for the merchant, he was required to double the wage of the previous day. The only other requirement was that the merchant must sign a contract that he could not fire the young lady for at least six months. The merchant, sensing that he had a naïve callow youth at his mercy, readily agreed to the terms of employment without a moments hesitation. The first day, a Monday, the young lady came into the shop promptly at 8AM and worked very hard the entire day. The merchant, chuckling to himself, watched with his usual amount of avarice, knowing that all of her work had only cost him 1 cent. On Tuesday, the young lady appeared again at promptly 8AM and worked hard all day for the total amount of 2 cents. On Wednesday she earned 4 cents and Thursday 8 cents. The merchant could not believe his good fortune at finding such a stupid but industrious young employee. On Friday, which was payday, the young girl earned 16 cents. The miserly merchant nearly laughed out loud when he made out a check for 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 = 31 cents and gave it to the obviously beautiful but dumb young lady. She thanked him and happily took her check and left for the weekend. The following Monday, the young lady returned and worked the entire day for 32 cents. On Tuesday she appeared and earned 64 cents. Wednesday she earned $1.28, Thursday $2.56, and Friday $5.12. The merchant was a bit startled when he totaled up the second week’s wages for the young girl. They amounted to .32 + .64 + 1.28 + 2.56 + 5.12 = $9.92. He also noted that added to the young lady’s first week’s wages, he has paid her a total of $10.23. Oh well, the arrangement was still a bargain for him as far as he could tell. During the third week of employment of the young lady, the miserly employer began to be alarmed at what was happening. On Monday of the third week of employment the young lady, working very hard, earned $10.24. On Tuesday she earned $20.48. On Wednesday she earned $40.96. On Thursday she earned $81.92 and on Friday she earned $163.84. Her total pay for the third week was the sum of $317.44. He nonetheless paid the required sum or face the legal consequences of not doing so. All hell broke loose during the fourth week. Monday - $327.68 Tuesday - $655.36 Wednesday - $1310.72 Thursday - 2621.44 Friday - $5242.88 The total paycheck was $10158.08 Needless to say, the miserly merchant was beside himself. What had he gotten himself into? He begged and pleaded with the clever young lady to rescind the salary agreement, but she told him that a contract was a contract. During the fifth week it got much worse for the skin flint merchant: Monday - $10485.76 Tuesday - $20971.52 Wednesday - $41943.04 Thursday - $83886.08 Friday - $167772.16 Total - $325058.56 After only 5 weeks the miserly merchant had had to pay the clever young girl a total of $335,544.31 based on the original agreement of starting to work for 1 cent and doubling the salary each day thereafter. Since his business was only worth about that much, the merchant was forced to turn over that business to the clever young girl, who promptly hired him atb a fixed salary of $25 a week. The moral of the story: Things are not always what they seem. Meditation: Let us pause now to listen to the voices whispering within each of us of the billions of human ancestors who have gone before us in the never ending flow of life on earth. We are, after all, the sum total of who they were and what their legacy has given to us. As you breathe in and out, in and out, and feel the heart beat within you, remember them, even though you do not know many of their names. They have given you the life that surges within you. Be aware of the persons sitting close to you. They most probably share some of these same ancestors. Persons of other faiths and denominations who meet in other places on this Sunday, share these same ancestors with you. Indeed, every human being now living and breathing this instant on this blue planet on December 1, 2002, regardless of sex, race, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation, shares these common ancestors with you if we go back far enough in time to our very beginnings. As time has passed since our distant forebears first walked upright, and yes, even before that, back to the very beginnings of life itself over three billion years ago, our genes and very being have been shaped and reshaped by our environment. We of the twenty first century are the current actors in this drama of never ending life, setting the stage even now for those who will come after us. Let us be aware , not of our differences, but of our common humanity, as we now sit and ponder these things in the silence of the ages. Reading: From “Roots” by Alex Haley
Sermon: It has always been my greatest wish in life to preach a sermon from the pulpit of a real church. Knowing that this can never be, I have settled for being here this morning. What I have to say is of utmost importance in the education and refutation of the bigots of this world. Those who would deprive others of their rights because of their sex, the color of their skin, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation. It should also be of profound interest to those of you in the audience who try to adhere to the idea that we should all be equal in the eyes of the law. I would here note that, although we may not be equal physically in our diversity, we are certainly equal in our humanity. What we have already said and will say this morning will demonstrate this for you. Let us begin: To begin with, the fable about the clever young lady and the miserly employer has established the profound effect of what mathematician’s call a geometric progression. We have noted that the doubling of her salary each day of her employment with the miser had little effect at first, but took on huge consequences as time passed. Her salary formed a geometric progression whose first term was 1, which when doubled, or multiplied by two, became 2. Each succeeding term of the progression was obtained by multiplying the previous term by 2, hence the sequence 1, 2 , 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 and so on. So what you say. What does this have to do with the topic this morning? Well fellow humans, this same geometric progression describes the number of direct ancestors each of us had in each preceding generation in our family tree as we go back in time. There is one of each of us . We had two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, sixteen great great grandparents and so on. Furthermore, if we assume that each generation requires about 25 years on an average and we that each of us here this morning was born on an average of 50 years ago around 1950 (note: some of you were and some of your weren’t. As we will see later, this discrepancy is of no real consequence in the long run. Humor me.) If you were born in 1950, or about 50 years ago, your two parents lived in a totally different world than we have today. Harry S Truman was President of the United States, in my mind perhaps the last great President to hold that office, the police action in Korea began June 25th, the new medium of television was in its infancy, rock and roll was at least five years away, and it had been 5 years since the Chicago Cubs had played in the World Series. If we continue our journey back in time, your mother and father would have been born in about 1925, (1950 - 25). Since there was no cloning then, you had one biological mother and one biological father for a total of 2 parents. In 1925 Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States, the famous Scopes or “Monkey” Trial was held in Tennessee, the jazz age was in full bloom, and the Chicago Cubs had not won a World Series since 1908. Your mother and your father each had a mother and a father, your biological grandparents, who were born around 1925-25 or the year 1900. Unless your mother and father were brother and sister, a union that is illegal and incestial, you had four grandparents. In 1900 William McKinley was President of the United States, the world saw the dawning of the 20th Century, Ragtime music was in vogue, and the Chicago Cubs did not win the World Series, since there was no World Series! Just for a little variety, lets subtract only 24 years from 1900 or 1876 to arrive at an approximate date when your four grandparents were born. Each of your four grandparents had a mother and a father for a total of 8 great grandparents. It might be possible that your father and mother are first cousins, but again this is generally frowned on and is in most jurisdictions illegal. Let us assume that you had a full set of 8 great grandparents living in the year 1876 and having your four grandparents. Do you know any of the names of your great grandparents? In 1876, the Centennial Year, Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President of the United States in a disputed election over Samuel J. Tilden. (Sound familiar?) At the Little Big Horn in Montana, Colonel George A. Custer and part of his 7th Cavalry were wiped out by the local population on June 25, 1876. The Chicago Cubs did not win the pennant. Let us move further back to 1850, 100 years before you were born , if you were born in 1950. Your eight great grandparents are being born to your 16 great great grandparents, some in this country, and perhaps some across the sea in other lands. You had 16 distinct great great grandparents unless your mother and father were second cousins, which IS legal in most states. The year is 1850 and Zachary Taylor is President of the United States. The gold rush has begun in California, and there are no Chicago Cubs (a fact that some would argue continues to this day). Let us speed up the process, so that we may leave here on time this morning, noting only now and then something significant. In the year 1825 you would have had 16 X 2 = 32 great great great grandparents, 16 men and 16 women. They may or may not have lived in the United States at the time. I dare say, unless you have looked up your family tree, or have the book on your family tree that your great aunt looked up, you know none of their names. This is ironic and perhaps tragic because you here assembled this morning the sum total of the genes and DNA that you have inherited from them, and yet most of them are now gone and forgotten. In about 1800 your Fourth Great Grandparents were being born. There were at least 32 X 2 = 64 of them, unless there were a few near cousin marriages in there somewhere. It’s getting crowded, folks! We should take special note of the next generation back, because it is the time of the American Revolution. In 1775 your Fifth Great Grandparents are being born. If you had all of them distinct people (with no what I call “near cousin doubling up) there would have been 64 X 2 = 128 of them, 64 men and 64 women. If living in this country (and perhaps many were not) these 128 children would have been growing up in very troubled times during the birth of our country. Twenty-five years earlier in about 1750 your 256 Sixth Great Grandparents were being born (128 X 2 = 256). As a rough approximation, if ALL of your ancestors lived in this country at that time (and it is very likely that some of them did not), some of your 128 sixth great grandfathers may have fought for independence from King George III of Great Britain. This gives you an opportunity to become a member of the right wing DAR. This is probably unlikely for most women who belong to the Unitarian Church. In 1725 you had 256 X 2 = 512 Seventh Great Grandparents Twenty five years earlier in about the year 1700 you would have had 512 X 2 = 1024 Eighth Great Grandparents. Are you able to see that there may have been some near cousin, or even far cousin, marriages of these ancestors? We should also note that it is becoming increasingly likely that the persons sitting close to you here in church this morning, of whom you knew no relationship before you came in here, may share a few of these same ancestors among the list of 1028? That would mean that they are perhaps your fifth, sixth, or seventh cousins. Glory be!! Say Amen!! As we move further back in time, what I have just said becomes even more likely. In fact, we might say it even becomes probable and eventually certain. I would note that if you belong to a different racial or ethnic group than the majority of people here this morning, you have to go further back in time to share ancestors. But as we will see in a minute, eventually it becomes almost inevitable. In about 1675 you would have had 1028 X 2 = 2048 Ninth Great Grandparents if they were all distinct persons, a fact that is becoming less and less likely. In about 1650 you would have had 2048 X 2 = 4096 Tenth Great Grandparents. Would you like to see this number physically represented? I have in this jar 4096 beans, 2048 white and 2048 red. These represent your 2048 Tenth Great Grandmothers and your 2048 Tenth Great Grandfathers. I cal this visual aid “The Human Beans”. I am going to pass this jar around for you to look at. Please do not open it, nor eat any of the beans. This would constitute cannibalism. Let me summarize what you will be looking at. If each human generation requires about 25 years, and the number of your ancestors doubles each 25 years we go back in time, this jar is a physical representation of the number of Tenth Great Grandparents each of you had born about the year 1650A.D. In the year 1625 you would have had 4096 X 2 = 8192 Eleventh Great Grand Parents. This is just 5 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. This number is also the size of a good crowd at Sec Taylor Stadium for an Iowa Cubs game. Have you ever been there with that size crowd? This would represent the number of your Eleventh Great Grandparents who were being born in 1625. (Can you imagine that number of crying babies that need to be changed?) Let us speed it up a little: In 1600 there would be 8192 X 2 = 16384 Twelfth Great Grandparents In 1575 there would be 16384 X 2 = 32768 Thirteenth Great Grandparents In 1550 there would be 16384 X 2 = 65,536 Fourteenth Great Grandparents This is a good crowd at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City In 1525 there would be 65, 536 X 2 = 131, 072 Fifteenth Great Grandparents This is the approximate population of Cedar Rapids In 1500 there would be 131,072 X 2 = 262, 144 Sixteenth Great Grandparents. This is near the population of Metropolitan Des Moines. In 1475 there would be 262,144 X 2 = 524,288 Seventeenth Great Grandparents, This is 17 years before Columbus rediscovered America In 1450 there would be 524,288 X 2 = 1,048,576 Eighteenth Great Grandparents. Egad, that’s over 1 million ancestors (recall the clever young girl bankrupting the old miser) Trust my math now as we speed it up a little bit: 1425 - 2,097,152 Nineteenth GGP 1400 - 4,194,304 20th GGP 1375 - 8,388,608 21st GGP 1350 - 16,777,216 22nd GGP 1325 - 33,554,432 23rd GGP 1300 - 67,108,864 24th GGP 1275 - 134,217,728 25th GGP 1250 - 268,435,456 26th GGP 1225 - 536,870,012 27th GGP We should pause here, because something extremely significant has just happened. The number of ancestors I have just read is estimated by demographers to have been the population of the entire world at that time, i.e. half a billion people. This could be taken very loosely to mean that in 1225 A.D. there is an even chance that everyone then living in the world who had offspring may have been your ancestor. I’m hedging a little bit here, because of the geographical isolation of people from each other in the world at the time. For instance, the Eskimos living in the Arctic were isolated and probably did not intermingle with other groups. However, as we proceed further back in time this objection becomes more and more unlikely. I think you will agree that because of this humungous number of ancestors we each had at that time, we in this room share a great number of them. There just were not enough ancestors to go around. It is almost certain that we are all at least 27th cousins. It also means that there is almost a certainty that each of us of northern European ancestry are descendents of William the Conqueror. I have been able to demonstrate genealogically this for my wife Jane. I would note with some degree of regret that she is also a descendent of the evil King John who was forced to sign the Magna Carta. But that’s okay, because she is also a descendent of many of the Barons who made him sign it. Now, just as was the case in the fable about the clever young girl and the miserly merchant, the geometric progression really begins to run away with itself. I’ll spare you the details, but if we go back to 1100 A.D. you each would have 17,179,869,184 32nd GGP. This is only 35 generations ago. There obviously were not that many people alive at that time to be your ancestor. Now, if we go back to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth about 7BC, each of us would have had 70 quintillion ancestors born in that generation, our 67th GGP 70,000,000,000,000,000,000 The Demographers speak of a world population of about 100 million at that time. And now for the clincher. If we go back about 200 generations, or about 5000 years ago to 3000 B.C. about the time the pyramids were built, we would have 1.6 followed by 58 zeroes ancestors. This huge number doesn’t even have a name. Would you like to see it physically represented? 1.6 X 10 to the 59th power. Enough of this. Just what does all of this mean to us here on December 1, 2002 in Des Moines, Iowa? 1. Everyone in this room is related, not only by being human, but by the almost certain sharing of ancestors. It is estimated that for persons of the same race and ethnic origins, you are all at least fifth, sixth, or seventh cousins. For persons of different races and ethnic origins, you have to go back further, but because of the migration of peoples throughout the ancient world (from Africa through Egypt to the middle east - from India through Asia to southern Europe - from Asia across the Bering Land Bridge) we all share their genes and are hence related. Specifically, we all have black, red, and yellow skinned ancestors if we go back in time far enough. Some of these distant ancestors were almost certainly bisexual, and if they had children, we are all descended from ancestors whom we would now call homosexual. This includes homophobic people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Wouldn’t you like to be the one to tell them? 2. We are all most likely descended from everyone living in the ancient world who had progeny: Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Attilla the Hun, the figures in the Bible, Ramses II. It may be of interest to you to know that we are all most likely Jewish, since we are descendants on our mother’s side of Abraham, his sons, and the twelve tribes. Amazing!!! It is even more interesting in that we also share ancestors with the Palestinians. Why should we be fighting all of these wars over our superficial differences? Wouldn’t peace be a much better and safer alternative for all. After all, it IS “All in the Family”!! Closing Words: We have seen today overwhelming evidence for the startling conclusions that 1) we are more closely related to one another that we had ever realized, and 2) we are all descendants of mixed ancestors of varying races, nationalities, ethnic origins, and sexual orientation. In short, we are historically and genetically mongrels. None of us can claim to be pure anything, other than human - and that we indeed are. Any basis for assuming that we are somehow superior to any other group than the one we so jealously cling to has shown to be absurd and untenable. Instead of bragging that our ancestors came over on the Mayflower, we might take equal pride in acknowledging that some of them may have met that boat. Instead of denying the rights of our cousins who by nature are gay or lesbian, we should be rushing to give them the equal rights to which they are entitled. In conclusion we should all begin to live together with more understanding and tolerance - Why not? It’s “All in the Family”, isn’t it?
By Thomas Rider, Ph.D.
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