AskScience: Invitation to a panel on Universal Ancestry?

[Dan_Eastwood]

I would put a few key phrases in bold to help head of the usual misunderstandings of GAE.

@swamidass

Key to understanding this fact is the distinction between genetic and genealogical ancestry, a distinction that is not well appreciated by many.

@John_Harshman

But the fact is that it’s not a scientific hypothesis but a theological hypothesis containing certain scientific components. One should expect consideration only of those scientific components. That is, only the question of whether a random person in 4000 BC could reasonably be a genealogical ancestor of all people in 1 AD is relevant to science.