Population 2: How many people have ever lived?
- I like 70 billion. Can the Spirit teach us anything meaningful from this seemingly frivolous and academic estimation? Â
- With 10% of human history alive today, God is as active as ever!Â
Estimation approach depends on belief about our history
It is clearly impossible to determine with any accuracy the answer to this question, but it is a fun academic activity anyway. Several have tried, and it depends a lot on what you believe about the history of mankind as to how you approach the calculation. For those who do not believe in God, or at least do not believe in Adam and Eve, then they start very far back (50,000-1,000,000 years back), and completely disregard the story of Noah.Â
Many Evangelical Christians have historically fought for a belief that the bible supports either seven 24-hour days for creation, or seven thousand years (citing a bible passage claiming that a day unto man is as a thousand years unto God). Traditionally their interpretation of bible passages has not held room for the lengthier “millions and billions†of years that geologists and evolutionist believe necessary to arrive at our observable earth – indeed they even historically viewed any concession in this area as somehow weakening their position on evolution.
Was creation 7,000 years?
I’ll save my comments on evolution for another essay, but suffice it to say that I believe the “day is as a thousand years†scripture is not necessarily to be taken literally, or if so in some circumstances (like the rotation of Kolob) it is not necessarily a “Rosetta Stone†for deciphering the mysteries of Genesis. I think it just means “a long time for you is a short time for meâ€. Also, God often says things like “in the day in which they choose evil…â€, and it is referring more to a period with a beginning and an end more than 24 hours or 1000 years. We often say things like this in English. Thus I think it is easy to conclude that a “day†in Genesis could simply mean there were seven distinct periods of creation, some of which may have been 24 hours, other millions of years, but all obtained the label “in that dayâ€.Â
How old were Adam and Eve when they became “mortal�
The point is that plant and animal life could have easily been on the earth for millions of years before Adam and Eve were created. It may even be possible that Adam and Eve themselves were on the earth for thousands or millions of years before they gave in to temptation. It seems unlikely, but I don’t think there is enough info in ancient or modern revelation to rule it out (I could be wrong). Nonetheless, there does seem to be enough evidence in scripture that they began having children somewhere around 4,000 B.C.
So rolling the dice, what are some reasonable estimates?
On with population! So if they had children for about 1,900 years up to Noah as scholars understand the time line, then that would equate to opportunity for so many births, given the normal occurrences such as wars, famines, plagues, etc. Scripture says they lived longer, and presumably were able to have much larger families as a result. This throws a real wrench in the “figure it out†machine. I saw a chart that estimated the earth could have gotten to 9 billion at the time of the flood – more than today’s population!Â
I don’t believe this myself because I think modern farming, medicines, transportation, and other modern wonders are what make it “artificially†possible to sustain such magnitudes. I also believe that the same marvels and more yet to be revealed can sustain populations perhaps up to 100 billion – if only mankind were righteous enough to not only sacrifice for their births, but to avoid killing them off in wars, murders, selfish denial of assistance to one another, etc.Â
The natural environment would obviously change much and would come with a lot of negatives, but I also think we could mitigate the negatives. It doesn’t have to mean “mass extinctions, global warming, and the consumption of Yellowstone for McMansions.â€Â Mankind will never be this righteous short of the Second Coming, so 10-12 billion may be the highest we achieve before we kill off the opportunities of a few billion through lack of conception, abortion, war, or rich nations selfishly withholding knowledge and seed money from those struggling to get on their feet.
Anyway, the guy who put the population of 6,000 years at around 100 billion also thought there were 9 billion alive at the time of Noah. I happen to like 70 billion as the total number since Adam because I think the couple centuries before Noah may have supported the low billions but not the high.Â
If 10% of human history is alive today, it makes sense that God is as active as ever!
I also like the 70 billion number because our present population approaching 7 billion is 10% of that (a nice round number). There are many preachers in the world who do not believe that the God of the Bible – the God of the Prophets and Apostles, the God of Miracles – is as active in the world today as He was then. Or if He is, then His modus-operandi has changed and He works among men today by putting them (well-studied preachers) in charge of interpreting His word providing spiritual experiences. I prefer to think that with 10% of the whole family of the last 6,000 years presently here with beating hearts, that God is surely active in the world today – probably as active as ever! If we don’t see the miracles, it is because we “do not have eyes to see†as Christ would say.Â
The Latter-Day Miracles of Christ
Christ does have prophets and apostles today! Jesus is alive and is still healing the sick and even raising the dead. The medical realities of such miracles really occurs even today (people have been declared dead and then brought back to life by order of a priesthood holder motivated by the spirit and acting in the name of Jesus). However the physical miracles of the Bible are “types†for the more spiritually meaningful miracles that Christ is more concerned with and for which He tried in His mortal ministry to teach us about, and which are abundant in our times.Â
Take healing the blind as an example. There are few who are physically blind, but many who have no idea of an entire spiritual world to which they are “blindâ€. “He who has eyes to see, let him seeâ€. This was Christ’s call letting us know that He could help us “see†a whole world if we would just acknowledge our blindness and desire enough to see it. While physical miracles of old occur today, the real miracle is the extent to which millions (not just in our own theology) are seeing more, hearing more, and being raised from the dead to a spiritual life.
Â
