{"id":3794,"date":"2012-02-04T22:38:30","date_gmt":"2012-02-05T05:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3794"},"modified":"2012-02-04T22:46:36","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T05:46:36","slug":"do-the-living-outnumber-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3794","title":{"rendered":"Do the Living Outnumber the Dead?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you ever get into a discussion of the possibility of reincarnation only to have someone announce, &#8220;Reincarnation is impossible because there are more people alive now than have ever lived&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>And then they sit back smugly. Or perhaps they <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldaffairsboard.com\/world-affairs-board-pub\/42087-reincarnation.html\">quote George Carlin<\/a>, the favorite sage of the Barstool Philosopher.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/magazine-16870579\">Not so fast, bubba<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is true that if you delve back into the mists of time, the population of Earth was tiny in comparison to today and logically it might seem plausible that the living outnumber the dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Picking the right starting point seems to be crucial, and there is a certain amount of hand-waving involved, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/magazine-16870579\">but see for yourself.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you ever get into a discussion of the possibility of reincarnation only to have someone announce, &#8220;Reincarnation is impossible because there are more people alive now than have ever lived&#8221;? And then they sit back smugly. Or perhaps they quote George Carlin, the favorite sage of the Barstool Philosopher. Not so fast, bubba. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[96,109],"class_list":["post-3794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-reincarnation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-Zc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1317,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1317","url_meta":{"origin":3794,"position":0},"title":"Gallimaufry with Chariots","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Icelandic Pagans curse the nation's economic rivals. See what happens when you mix polytheism and international banking? (Via Pagan Newswire Collective.)\u2022 I do like what Iceland may do for freedom of the (online) press.\u2022 We are the Empire, and we have the chariot-racing to prove it. Video no. 2\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Iceland\"","block_context":{"text":"Iceland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=iceland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12034,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12034","url_meta":{"origin":3794,"position":1},"title":"Your Ancestors May Not Be What You Think They Were","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot of us contemporary Pagans have a problem with our ancestors. We feel like there is a huge chasm of separation between them and us. I mean, look at Stan (as I think he was known) Clifton here. He was one of my great-great-grandfathers Born in North Carolina, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bartholomew-Stanhope-Clifton-1828-1884-R-707x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bartholomew-Stanhope-Clifton-1828-1884-R-707x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Bartholomew-Stanhope-Clifton-1828-1884-R-707x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1266,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1266","url_meta":{"origin":3794,"position":2},"title":"Cue the tablas and whale music","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My title is lifted from Charles Blow's column in the New York Times, noting that the recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report on American religiosity shows that things are pretty darn heterodox in the pews (no pun intended).When 28 percent of Roman Catholics say that they believe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1187,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1187","url_meta":{"origin":3794,"position":3},"title":"All Great Men Were &#8230; Rosicrucians?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the 100th anniversary of modern Rosicrucianism.For all their concern about tracing lineage, however, it is possible to find beneath the umbrella of modern Rosicrucianism just about any belief, philosophy or superstition you might care to name \u2013 pantheism, reincarnation, alchemy, psychic power, astral out-of-body travel, telepathy. There are Cosmic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=144","url_meta":{"origin":3794,"position":4},"title":"Heresies Yesterday by the photocopier,\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Heresies Yesterday by the photocopier, Colleague A (Political Science) cornered me. She and Colleague B (Psychology) had been at the local Barnes & Noble store and seen the B&N edition of The Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics, which I wrote in 1991 when a friend was acquisitions editor at ABC-Clio\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1250","url_meta":{"origin":3794,"position":5},"title":"In US Air Force, Wiccans Outnumber Muslims","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend passed on this column by political commenter Diana West, who notes in passing that there are almost as many Wiccans as Muslims in the American military--and more in the Air Force.So far, I have not heard of any Wiccan dissatisfied with their military careers expressing themselves by killing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Islam\"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=islam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3794"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3797,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3794\/revisions\/3797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}