Comments
7 years ago
Interesting fact about the Da Vinci Code - YOU are a descendant of Jesus. Well, at least, if there ARE living descendants of Jesus alive today, and YOU are of European ancestry, Middle-Eastern ancestry (or pretty much most places, including Asia/Africa) YOU are probably a descendant of Jesus. Simple probability theory and the science of ancestry support this. In fact, it's highly likely that Langdon (fictional character from the Da Vinci code) is himself a descendant of Jesus.How? Your parents have 2 parents = your 4 grandparents. Each of your 4 grandparents has 2 parents = your 8 great-grandparents. Each of your 8 great-grandparents had 2 parents = your 16 great-great-grandparents. Each of your 16 great-great-grandparents had their own 2 parents = your 32 great-great-great-grandparents. Each of your 32 G-G-G-grandparents each had their own 2 parents = 64 G-G-G-G-grandparents (G*4 grandparents). And so on... 128, G*5; 256, G*6; 512, G*7; 1024, G*8; 2048, G*9; 4096, G*9; 8192, G*11; 16384, G*12; 32768, G*13; 65536, G*14; 131072, G*15; 262144, G*16; 524288, G*17; 1048576 (1 million) G*18; 2097152, G*19; 4194304, G*20; 8388608, G*21; 16777216, G*22; 33554432, G*23; 67108864, G*24; 134217728, G*25; 268435456, G*26; 536870912, G*27; 1073741824 (1 billion) G*28; 2147483648 (2 billion) G*29.Naturally, there was huge inbreeding. Here are some of my ancestors, and next to them is my/your total number of possible ancestors at the time, and next to that number the actual population of the country/world at that time.Great-grandfather*17 (King James IV Stewart) || 524288 || population of Scotland was 500,000.Great-grandfather*23 (King Edward III of England 1312-1377) || 33,554,431 || population of England was only 4-6 million.Great Grandfather*29 (King David 1 of Scotland 1084-1153) || 2,147,483,648 (2 billion possible ancestors) || WORLD population 170-400 million.Needless to say, it makes you feel a little less special when you realise that almost everyone with British/European descent has a good chance of being related to these people. This is going back 1000 years. If you go back 2000 years, to the time of Christ, the numbers simply expand to a degree where it is statistically improbable that if Christ DID have offspring, you are not one of His (billions of) descendants. Of course, this would spoil Dan Brown’s novel, in which Sophie is somehow apparently the one last living descendant of Jesus Christ, but that’s the math.