The earliest census on record dates back to a piece of clay pottery estimated to be from the year 3800 B.C. The claim is made that it is a Babylonian census. In our own country, the census dates back to 1790. From these censuses we gain interesting information. For example: If the population of the earth were to increase at the present rate indefinitely, by A.D. 3530 the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the known mass of the earth itself; and by A.D. 6826, the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the known universe.
Kinda' boggles the mind, doesn't it? Consider this: The total population of the world at the time of Julius Caesar was estimated to be approximately 150 million people. The world population will grow by more than 150 million people over the next two years.
Now, to bring it down to a smaller chunk of reality, in the time it takes you to read this article, 200 people will die and 480 people will be born. That's about two minutes' worth of living and dying.
Statisticians estimate that more than sixty-billion people have been born in the history of mankind and that there is no way to estimate how many more will come. And yet, even more mind boggling is the fact that with the multitude of possible combinations and variations of the genetic cells of humans, none of the approximated sixty billion people who have inhabited this globe were exactly alike. Scientists also estimate that this trend can and will continue indefinitely.
There once was a French criminologist named Emile Locard who developed "Locard's Exchange Principle." If you have ever watched a show like CSI or NCIS, you have seen its theory in action, or maybe stretched to the limits of absurdity. Basically, it states that everyone who enters a room will unwittingly leave something behind, as well as take something with them. It may be something as small as a hair or particle from clothing, but theoretically everyone takes something and everyone leaves something. This nearly sixty-year old theory has even been proven by modem technology.
I have my own theory on the subject. (Call it the Average Joe Transference Theory) All of the estimated sixty billion people who have been born, lived and passed on to the next life, have brought something with them, left it here, and took something away in the most spiritual of senses. We impact the lives of others and leave a footprint on the lives of those closest to us that is indelible and undeniable. Most of this "something" cannot be seen, heard or measured in any tangible way. But none the less, it is real and though this "something" cannot be counted, without it literally nothing counts.
Who you are and what you leave behind matters more than you could ever know. Everyday you continue to impact people in ways that could be unknown to you, not to mention the people who are closest to you.
It is better to die a thousand deaths than to live one life that's not worth living.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
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