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We Are All Closer Than We Think!

With the war in Ukraine and Russia’s veiled nuclear threat of a number of nuclear powered nuclear capable missiles, the unthinkable is again in the news.

To assess then, the probability of a nuclear armageddon in this fraught world, a first step would be an inventory of such weapons but also the absurdity of their use in most scenarios, plus the fact that the peoples often get along far better than politicians would have us believe.

Consider India and Pakistan for instance, mortal enemies at government level although the people sharing similar cultures, foods, musical tastes, sports and so on get along fine.  Opposing cricket (the favorite sport) teams are welcomed heartily by their public.  And if India or Pakistan teams are touring England, local Indian or Pakistani immigrants will be cheering each other’s sides against England, where they might have lived for decades.

Moreover, attempts in India by Narendra Modi, the prime minister, and his BJP party to sell India and its early origins as a Hindu Brahminate from its earliest years are debunked by DNA evidence.

The DNA extracted from the skeleton of a female living 5000 years ago gives insight into the origins of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization spanning modern Pakistan and western India.  Assiduous work by scientists led to the extraction of marrow — yielding her DNA and mapping her origins:  ancient Iranian and surprisingly Southeast Asian.  She lived in a town in Haryana (India) identified as Rakhigarhi, now all gone in the sweep of time, as have historical bigots.

In Israel, DNA evidence has been retrieved from the jumbled skeletal remains of ten individuals in a family tomb of ancient Israelites.  Geneticists have so far extracted DNA from two individuals.  The Y chromosome of the man belongs to a haplogroup with origins in Eastern Anatolia or more widely the Caucasus embracing eastern Turkey, northwest Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and southern Russia.

Previous research into these Canaanites showed a strong ancestral connection to modern Arab and Jewish populations, and a descent from a group that came from Eastern Anatolia or the Caucasus.  Moreover Late Bronze Age historical texts have names that originate in the northeastern Middle East and are not Semitic.

Thus the male skeleton in the latest find in Israel carried the same genetic variations as the Canaanites had centuries earlier  — all inherited from the Caucasians.  Let us see then, the Canaanites of the second millennium B.C. and the male skeleton unearthed now and identified as belonging to the first millenium B.C.have a genetic connection.

Did the Israelites then share their ancestry with the Canaanites, often depicted negatively in the scriptures?  And how non-local were the descendants of Abraham reputed to be from Mesopotamia?  Some questions to ponder.  And, as people crossing over the Alaskan land bridge helped populate the Americas, we are all closer than we think.

By the way, it would not be the first time science has challenged the Bible.  Remember Darwin!