April 3, How Big Is Your Family?

 

Chorus:

How big is your family?  How far back can you trace?

How big is your family?  Is it just your own race?

Are sisters and brothers everyone in mankind?

We share genes with all others, genome ties that bind.

 

Verse:

Though Charlie Darwin taught us that life had one origin,

Mutation and selection led to women, then to men,

And Bible stories tell us God made Adam, then made Eve,

Both mean we’re all one family, whichever you believe.

 

Chorus: 

How big is your family?….

 

Verse:

If life had one beginning, then its forms diversified,

That means all life’s related, when the science is your guide.

All humans, plants, and animals, and even single cells,

All forms of life, one family tree, the story science tells.

Chorus:

How big is your family?…

 

Verse:

The scientific story’s more complex than, “Let there be,”

Since evolution has explained all life’s diversity.

The Big Bang, atoms, chemistry, then on our planet, life,

We came from simpler creatures, not just Adam and his wife.

 

Chorus:

How big is your family?  How far back can you trace?

How big is your family?  It’s not bounded by race.

We share features with all life, not just with mankind,

Share genes with every creature, genome ties that bind.