THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH.
By John Nevins Andrews
“The number who have lived upon the earth since the creation has been estimated at about 27,000,000,000,000,000. This sum when divided by 27,864,000, the number of square miles, gives 1,314,522,086 to a square rod, and 5 to a square foot. Suppose a square rod capable of being divided into 11 graves, each grave would contain 100 persons; so that the whole earth has been one hundred times dug over to bury its inhabitants, supposing they had been equally distributed. Were the bodies lain upon the surface, they would cover the land to the depth of one hundred feet.”—Phrenological Journal, April, 1869. REMARKS. The foregoing is worthy of notice inasmuch as it is in substance the argument most generally used to disprove the resurrection of the dead. The reputation of the Phrenological Journal makes this article worthy of attention. The writer says that it has been estimated that 27,000,000,000,000,000 of human beings have lived upon the earth. He gives no data for the estimate. Let us look into the matter. According to the Bible the human family has existed about 6000 years. Even geologists who assign an incalculable period to our earth’s existence, and to that of the lower order of beings, do not claim that man has existed for a longer period than the Bible allows. We may then fairly fix the period of man’s existence at 6000 years. If we assign the space of 80 years to a generation, which is about the present average, but which is far less than the time from father to son in the antediluvian and patriarchal ages, it will give us 200 generations for the whole period. The present generation is estimated at about 1,000,000,000. Now if we allow that every generation from Adam till the present time has had as many as are now alive, it will give us 200,000,000,000. This must be too large, both as to the number of generations, and the number assigned each generation. But lest some should think it too small, let us double it, and place the number of human beings at 400,000,000,000. The reader can see the grounds of this calculation, and that it is not mere guess work. It is evident that this computation must far exceed the actual number that have lived. But the Phrenological Journal says that 67,500 times as many persons have lived! That is, when we have allowed 200 generations to the 6000 years, which is a large estimate, and have allowed each generation to consist of as many persons as the present, i. e., to consist of 1,000,000,000 of people, which is of course vastly more than many generations have numbered, and then to shut the mouths of cavillers have doubled the number, making it 400,000,000,000, then the Phrenological Journal asserts that there have been sixty-seven thousand five hundred times as many persons as our estimate allows! Such a statement is perfectly preposterous. The writer next tells us that there are 27,864,000 square miles of land upon the surface of the earth; and that if we divide the 27,000,000,000,000,000 of inhabitants by this number of square miles it will give us 1,314,522,086 to a square rod, and five to a square foot. The writer is guilty of an important misstatement or blunder in fixing the square miles of land upon the earth at 27,864,000 square miles. Johnson’s Large Family Atlas, under the head of Physical Geography, page 6, states that there are 44,000,000 square miles of land in the northern hemisphere, and, 16,000,000 in the southern, making a total of 60,000,000, or over twice the amount this writer allows. Then he makes also a gross blunder in simple division, there being, if we take his own figures, only about three-fourths as many persons to a square mile as he assigns to a square rod! His further statement that if each square rod could contain 11 graves, then the ground must have been dug over 100 times, shows how little thought this writer gave to his statement. If there have been as he says, 1,314,522,086 to each square rod, and if each square rod should hold 11 graves, then the earth instead of being dug over 100 times for the burial of its inhabitants117it has been dug over 119,502,008 times! That is to say, it has been dug over about one hundred and twenty millions of times! Such absurd, contradictory and foolish blunders are only worthy of exposure because that many persons who wish to have the thing just as this writer states it, will receive the statement without looking into it at all. Should the writer assert that it is the error of the printer, and not his own false statement that gives so vast a number (1,314,522,086) to each square rod, as he afterward reduces the number to 1100, let us accept the defense. We must then conclude that he meant to say that there were 1,314,522,086 to the square mile instead of saying as he does that there were this number to the square rod. But even this is a blunder, as his own data would give 968,992,248 or about three-fourths the number he assigns to a square mile. And if we divide this by 102,400, the number of square rods in a square mile, it gives 9462 to a square rod. So that whatever we do with his first calculation of 1,314,522,086 to a square rod we cannot bring out his last one right, which assigns 1100 to a square rod. Instead of this we have from his data 9462 to each rod. There is no excuse for this wretched blundering. The writer in one short paragraph makes out first that there have been 1,314,522,086, to a square rod; and second, that there have been 1100 to a square rod. These statements are not only utterly discordant, but neither of them can be deduced from his own data. He says that there have been five persons to each square foot of land upon the earth. But this agrees with neither of his two statements as to the number to a square rod; for if there have been 1,314,522,086, to a rod, there have been 4,828,302 to a foot; and if there have been 1100 to a square rod, it gives four to a square foot. This exposure of the blunders and misstatements of this writer, is made merely for the purpose of showing the reader the untrustworthy character of the statements. Now let us look at the data and see if we cannot make a calculation more worthy of the confidence of reasonable men. We have seen that 200 generations, each equal to the present, gives us 200,000,000,000 of inhabitants. This doubled gives us 400,000,000,000. There are 60,000,000 of square miles, or 6,144,000,000,000 of square rods. This gives us 15 square rods for the grave of each man. This is a reasonable and just calculation only that it manifestly makes the inhabitants of earth far more than they can possibly have been.