World Population Since Creation?

by objectivetruth 12 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  objectivetruth

  Matthew 20:28 - "Just as the Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom in exchange of many"

  The word "many" here means :

  4183 polýs – many (high in number); multitudinous, plenteous, "much"; "great" in amount (extent).

  4183 /polýs ("much in number") emphasizes the quantity involved. 4183 (polýs) "signifies 'many, numerous'; ...with the article it is said of a multitude as being numerous" (Vine, Unger, White, NT, 113,114) – i.e. great in amount.

  Considering this scripture, think about the WT teaching on Jesus Ransom and who it benefits..

  1. Pre Flood - It is likely from a mathematical perspective, that 7 Billion People were alive at the time of the Flood. (Conservative Estimate)

  2. Post Flood - Population increased rapidly until the Tower of Babel, Perhaps 1 Billion People alive.

  3. After mans age was limited to 120 years, Population increase subsided drastically.

  Calculating today's population (which has sky rocketed in the industrial age), with the past 7,000 approximate years, it seems that the total of humans Born since Adam & Eve is 20-30 Billion?

  With this in mind, the Watchtower teaches that 8 Billion will Die at armageddon today, and all except 8 died pre flood (another 7 Billion)

  If 30 Billion have lived, the WT teaches that over half will do not benefit from Jesus Ransom..

  Can 50% or less be considered a " multitudinous " amount?

  Has any one else researched World Population figures, or the word "polýs"?
• 

  designs

  Lesson- Don't cross the Big Guy
• 

  The Searcher

  In a similar vein - a "spritually mature Elder" who gave a talk at our Regional Convention, emphatically stressed and repeated the fact that the upcoming tribulation was going to be the greatest calamity to have hit mankind - bar none!

  I felt like standing up and shouting, "That must mean that only 7 people or less are going to survive - or was Noah's experience merely an illustration?".

  Do these brothers never have a little light-bulb moment when a brain cell suddenly comes to life and tells them to THINK about what has just been disgorged from their mouths?
• 

  prologos

  During my life time the population has more than tripled from 2 billion to 7.3. I magine if all the dead ancestors would be resurrected, where would the idyllic bare mountain sides, waterfront properties begging for development be, that WT illustrators dangle as carrots before the R&F donkeys. It is the 'talking snake story' that demands the 'ransom'.

  Dont be held for ransom. get payed, get your life's reward.

  "Poly" like in Politics, it is to rule you, make it to your benefit
• 

  MadGiant

  "Has any one else researched World Population figures, or the word "polýs"?" -

  I don't know where you got those number, but it a lot of people. Human population have been calculated by anthropologist and geneticist for decades, thru the manifestation of inbreeding and it effects on population.

  Humans evolved in groups, thru the interchange of genes. We can trace our ancestry back to one man and one woman, but they lived at different times and different places.

  Human population expand according to the resources that are available to fuel the explanation. Millennia ago, Hunters/Gathers (that's us) has few population because the land couldn't support a large population.

  With the invention of farming and agriculture, the population expanded because, the same land, supported more people.

  You have to add the mass extinction events thru-out history that at some point, cripple the human population, at some point just 100,000 +/-.

  I don't think that many people lived on earth over the past 7,000 years. Well, if you count the various ancestors of Homo sapiens that have appeared at least as early as 700,000 B.C., over 100 billion.

  Respectfully,

  Ismael

  http://io9.com/5501565/extinction-events-that-almost-wiped-out-humans
  http://www.ccpo.odu.edu/~klinck/Reprints/PDF/crowEvol99.pdf
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929707616760
  http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2459121?uid=3738864&uid=2460338175&uid=2460337855&uid=2&uid=4&uid=83&uid=63&sid=21104104282321
• 

  Tiktaalik

  Objectivetruth? I think not!

  You have just pulled those population figures right out of your ass.

  It wasn't until the early 1800s that world population reached 1billion.

  Your ridiculous numbers are purely figments of your imagination.

  Please don't treat us like fools, and post the first thing that pops into your head and dress it up as fact.
• 

  kaik

  Various biomathematics model estimates that number of people that ever lived is close between 80-100 billions. Less than 10% of today's population represents every human that ever lived. Population of 1 billion was already supprased 200 years ago, and 2 billions lived already 100 years ago. Human race had since the end of the Ice Age more than 10 millions and reached 500 millions by time of Romans. Roman Empire in its peak had 125 millions, 65 millions lived in Persian and Han empires at the same time. Russell believed in exact number of people that would saved which was 144,000 x 144,000 in a new world. Between 1874 and today more than 12 billion of people were born using 1950-1970 human growth rate. Since 1970's the birthrate is declining even in countries like Brazil, Iran, and China.
• 

  Splash

  A billion at the time of the tower of babel, from 8 people a few generations before?

  How do you explain that?

  Splash
• 

  HowTheBibleWasCreated

  700,000 BCE? Sapians? I doubt it.... Erectus was still ruling Asia 90,000 years ago.
• 

  MadGiant

  "700,000 BCE? Sapians? I doubt it.... Erectus was still ruling Asia 90,000 years ago." -HTBWC

  That's a good catch, remember that evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Changes and features are decidedly undramatic because they differ so little from previous stages.

  He mentioned human population, so I assumed modern humans and excluded humanoids. Fixing a time when the human race actually came into existence is very complicated. Various ancestors of Homo sapiens seem to have appeared at least as early as 700,000 B.C. Hominids walked the Earth as early as several million years ago.

  The set of specific characteristics that define a "human" is a matter of definition, and it is open to debate which members of early Homo sapiens and earlier or related species of Homo
  Modern Homo sapiens may have appeared about 50,000 B.C.

  So, yes 700,000 B.C. is an honest estimate.

  Take care,

  Ismael