A POPULAR ERROR by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1859

A POPULAR ERROR.

By Editor

In another column will be found an article headed as above, which Bro. Cornell sends us, remarking that he thinks something of the kind should appear in the REVIEW. Considering the handle which skeptics and infidels make of the ideas there refuted, we think so too. And we have even heard more ridiculous statements than there presented. Thus we have heard some affirm that should a general resurrection of the human race take place, it would take every particle of matter in the earth to supply material for the bodies! that is, the whole earth would be used up in the formation of the resurrected bodies! The ridiculous absurdity of such assertions might be seen, if people would stop a moment and consider. This will appear from a simple illustration. For instance, we will suppose that the earth has always had the number of inhabitants it now bears, which is computed to be about one billion. Suppose that a generation has arisen and passed off once in thirty years. We know that the earth has not been so densely populated, and that in former ages the average duration of a generation of men was not so short as at the present time; but we proceed upon this basis to be sure to make the estimate large enough. This would give us, allowing the earth to have stood about 6000 years, 200 generations of men of one billion each, or 200 billions of human beings. Now the area of the State of Michigan is set down at 56,243 square miles. This reduced to square feet, gives the sum of 1,567,964,851,200 square feet. Dividing this sum by the number of inhabitants, 200,000,000,000, and we have a trifle over seven and a half square feet for each individual. That is, should the whole human race be resurrected at once, they could all stand within the State of Michigan, and each have a space of ground 2½ by 3 feet to stand upon! Such are the simple facts in the case, with the exception of our having allowed to the human race a number greater by one-third, perhaps by two-fifths, than it has yet attained.