# How many people have lived on earth since the dawn of time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 23, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660 "2010-11-23T15:28:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/21 "2010-11-27T06:26:19Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > I prefer C. S. Lewis’s argument against reincarnation. “God is not a clown who whips away your bowl of soup only to replace it with another bowl of the same soup.” Isn’t that what he did to Job? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/22 "2010-11-27T16:59:16Z")
Makes perfectly good theological sense to me. “You’re all gonna go back, again and again and again until y’all get it right!” Paradise is a roll-yer-own kind of enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/23 "2010-11-27T17:10:47Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > I prefer C. S. Lewis’s argument against reincarnation. “God is not a clown who whips away your bowl of soup only to replace it with another bowl of the same soup.” It sounds like Lewis didn’t understand that reincarnation is not looked at as a desirable thing by those who believe in it, but as a cycle to be escaped. In a manner of speaking, reincarnation is “hell.” It’s what you have to keep doing until you work out your karma. It’s not about enjoying soup, it’s about cooking the soup over and over again until you get it right (or, in some philosophical outlooks, eating a distasteful soup over and over again until you learn to love it). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/24 "2010-11-27T18:13:57Z")
> [@Igor70](#): > > What, prey tell, makes one “qualified” as a philosopher? A Ph.D.? Are you aware of what the letters Ph.D. stand for? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/25 "2010-11-28T00:58:19Z")
> [@JZesbaugh](#): > > [Death Effects: Revisiting the Conceit of Franklin's "Memoir" on JSTOR](http://www.jstor.org/pss/25057231) > > I belive this book/article is the source. Give me a cite I don’t have to pay for in order to read it. Every quote from Franklin that _I_ have ever seen on the subject of the soul establishes nothing more than that he was not a materialist. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/26 "2010-11-28T00:59:38Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > Isn’t that what he did to Job? _Job_ is a fairy tale. ---
**Author:** ![JZesbaugh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@JZesbaugh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JZesbaugh)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/27 "2010-11-28T01:04:47Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Give me a cite I don’t have to pay for in order to read it. Every quote from Franklin that _I_ have ever seen on the subject of the soul establishes nothing more than that he was not a materialist. > **[Reincarnation | Renaissance and Early Modern period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation#Renaissance_and_Early_Modern_period)** > > During the Renaissance translations of Plato, the Hermetica, and other works fostered new European interest in reincarnation. Marsilio Ficino argued that Plato's references to reincarnation were intended allegorically, Shakespeare alluded to the doctrine of reincarnation but Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by authorities after being found guilty of heresy by the Roman Inquisition for his teachings. But the Greek philosophical works remained available and, particularly in nor By the 19th ce... It would seem to be based on a letter I can neither find but would again be interested to hear the reasoning on. Let me know if it turns up, or you decide to change the wiki. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/48-98-9/re-elo.htm](http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/48-98-9/re-elo.htm) here it is near the bottom ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/28 "2010-11-28T01:04:57Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It sounds like Lewis didn’t understand that reincarnation is not looked at as a desirable thing by those who believe in it, but as a cycle to be escaped. In a manner of speaking, reincarnation is “hell.” It’s what you have to keep doing until you work out your karma. It’s not about enjoying soup, it’s about cooking the soup over and over again until you get it right (or, in some philosophical outlooks, eating a distasteful soup over and over again until you learn to love it). Actually, it’s about eating a poisonous soup over and over again until you lose your craving for it. But, as for Lewis, he was not talking about any oriental religion, but about brain-dead, Hollywood-and-greeting-card “Christianity”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/29 "2010-11-28T01:14:53Z")
> [@](#): > > But where do you draw a line and say “From now on all your descendants are people and, sorry ancestors, you are too primitive to be included”? While certainly the number would depend on the answer to this question, it won’t be very sensitive to it, since at any reasonable point to draw the line, the population of humans or proto-humans was probably very small. ---
**Author:** ![Igor70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bc79bd/32.png) [@Igor70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Igor70)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/30 "2010-11-28T01:56:45Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Are you aware of what the letters Ph.D. stand for? Of course, that’s why I mentioned it. Are you suggesting that all Ph.D.s are actually awarded for philosophy? Or that those that are establish the recipient as a qualified philosopher? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/31 "2010-11-28T18:56:50Z")
> [@JZesbaugh](#): > > [Reincarnation - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation#Renaissance_and_Early_Modern_period) > > It would seem to be based on a letter I can neither find but would again be interested to hear the reasoning on. Let me know if it turns up, or you decide to change the wiki. > > [Reincarnation and Karma by Eloise Hart](http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sunrise/48-98-9/re-elo.htm) > > here it is near the bottom Nothing there that couldn’t be said by a plain-vanilla Christian. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/32 "2010-11-28T22:58:47Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > _Job_ is a fairy tale. The hell it is. _Job_ is a comedy of justice. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660/33 "2010-11-29T15:22:19Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > I prefer C. S. Lewis’s argument against reincarnation. “God is not a clown who whips away your bowl of soup only to replace it with another bowl of the same soup.” What a strange metaphor. Were clowns known for soup-stealing back in Lewis’s day? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-lived-on-earth-since-the-dawn-of-time/561660.md?page=1)