Is everyone in the world related?
(Lansing State Journal, September 13, 1995)


The theory of evolution hasn't been proven, but it has enough evidence behind it from fossils, etc. that few scientists, if any, dispute it.

It appears, from the evidence that the first organism was a one celled organism, probably a bacterium.  This first one celled organism was the first step in the ladder of the theory of evolution that led to more and more complex organisms and eventually us.  So we are all related in the sense that we can all trace our existence back to the same ancestor, a bacterial cell.

Not only are we related to every person in the world, but we are also distantly related to every living thing in the world.  Although it may not seem that we have many similarities to a bacteria, dog, or cantaloupe for that matter, we do have some similarities that support the theory that all living things can be traced to the same ancestor.

For one, all living things are made up of cells.  Also, the cells of all living things operate using almost the same complex biochemistry including the same genetic material (DNA).


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