FIGURES WON’T LIE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · June 17, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 25

“FIGURES WON’T LIE.”

This is a trite saying; nevertheless it is a fact that some folks will lie egregiously about figures. Here, for instance, is a paragraph which we clip from an exchange:—

“Since the creation, it is estimated that 27,000,000,000,000,000 have lived on the earth. This sum divided by 27,804,000, the number of square miles, gives 1,315,522,686 to a square rod, and 5 to a square foot. Suppose a square rod be divided into 11 graves, each grave would contain 100 persons.”

This is a fair specimen of the utter recklessness with which some people will make figures, and the thoughtlessness with which they are passed around. Many a skeptic will, no doubt, experience an inward glow of satisfaction as he beholds such evidence that the resurrection of the dead is an impossibility, and the Bible a book of fables.

But let us look at these figures and statements. Who is it that estimates that 27 quadrillions of people have lived on the earth? He must be a wonderful estimator. Whatever age is assigned to the earth itself, it is generally conceded that man has been here but about 6,000 years. Now, to be liberal in a calculation, we will suppose that 6,000 years ago there were on the earth, instead of a single pair of human beings, about 1,400,000,000, the present estimated number. We will suppose, further, that the generations have, from that time, been confined to as small a number of years as at the present time, that is about 33⅓, giving us three generations in each century. On such a calculation, which any one will say is liberal enough, we should have 180 generations, giving us only 252,000,000,000 as the entire number of persons who have lived on the earth to the present time.

From this it appears that the paragraph above quoted starts off with 26,999,748,000,000,000, too many to begin with, which must seriously interfere with a correct conclusion.

But further we read, “This sum [27,000,000,000,000,000] divided by 27,804,000, the number of square miles, gives 1,315,522,686 to a square rod.”

This statement is the concentration of error and absurdity. In the first place there are more than 27,804,000 square miles of land on the globe. According to the most careful surveys and estimates, there are 50,882,000. Again, how it is that dividing the number of inhabitants by the number of square miles, can give the number to a square rod (!) entirely exceeds our comprehension. But we question the statement even on the figures given; for when we divide the figures given for inhabitants, by those given for square miles, we have only 971,083,297 to a square mile! and 9,483 to a square rod, instead of 1,315,522,686!

But more marvelous than all, our estimator, after giving the fabulous figures last above written, for a square rod, says that this would give “5 to a square foot;” whereas the actual division gives us 4,832,038 to the square foot.

This is enough for so much of absurdity. But before dismissing the subject, the reader may be pleased to

see a little reliable calculation on this subject. As we have seen, there cannot have lived on this earth more than 252,000,000,000 human beings; and there are 50,882,000 square miles of habitable surface. Suppose the persons who have lived should all be raised from the dead at one time, there would be 4,952 persons to each square mile, which would give nearly 21 square rods to each individual, taking only the present land surface of the globe.

But we can narrow this calculation down to a still smaller compass and make it still more comprehensible. California is set down in the geographies as having 155,980 square miles. This reduced to square feet gives 4,348,452,832,000; and this divided by 252,000,000,000, the largest number that can have lived, gives 13 square feet to every man, woman, and child. That is to say, every man, woman, and child that has ever lived, could be buried in the State of California, only one in a grave, and that grave being 6½ feet long by 2 feet wide, quite a comfortable space, taking the average.

In the light of these figures, which any one can easily verify, how utterly idiotic appears the claim so frequently put forth, that the resurrection is impossible, because there would not be material enough in the whole globe to make the bodies! And sufficiently absurd is the statement of the above-quoted paragraph, that a sufficient number have lived to furnish five claimants to every square foot of land, and to be buried one hundred deep!

Just give the figures a chance to tell the truth, and they will never tell such enormous stories as are often attributed to them.