100 People

Large numbers are both intimidating and mind-numbing at the same time. In an age when we are expected to grasp the concept of millions, billions, and trillions of things we start to lose our perspective on the actual meaning of such enormous numbers. Take, for example, the issue of dollars. In discussing our economy, it is nearly impossible to truly grasp the how much a $trillion is. Or, if we think of the notion of time, I doubt many of us can truly relate to the idea that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old or that the Universe is estimated to be about 13 billion years old, in the context of our own short lives. One of the principal reasons why many people cannot understand or accept evolution is because they simply can't relate to the massive amounts of time over which living things (including us) evolve. Let's face it- our mere 70 or so years of life don't amount to a micro speck in the vast continuum of time. Under some conditions a year can seem like an eternity to us- imagine 4.54 billion of them. Large numbers, in nearly every context, tend to numb us to the reality they represent.

A few years ago some brilliant person or persons (I don't know who) put together a model that realistically reduced the human condition to just 100 people. 100 is a much easier number to cope with than trying to analyze what 7 billion of us look like. I had seen these models before and thought they were truly a great way to reduce the large of number of humans to a more understandable picture. Please explore this model on your own- just Google "100 people". My reason for introducing you to this model is that I hope it will spur you to some different thoughts about how we compare to others in the world. Given our privileged life in this country I find this model interesting, sometimes embarrassing, and always humbling. So let's take a look at the world as if it were only 100 people.

50 are male- and 50 are female. That's good for the forces of reproduction, but even though females are exactly half of humanity, they don't have nearly half the wealth, power or control of the other half anywhere on Earth. hmm!

80 are adults- 20 are children. On a scientific basis we consider a person to reach adulthood when they reach sexual maturity and can reproduce, not when they reach their 18th birthday. In western cultures we tend to ignore the biological definition of adulthood and keep our offspring children much longer than nature would.

61 are Asian- 12 are European- 13 are African- 14 are from the Western Hemisphere. Asians have the decided majority on this count. It makes one wonder about why Western cultures always think of themselves as dominant, when most of the world views life from such a different point of view.

18 are white- 82 are non-white. (This is an essentially biased way to count- why don't we count who's black and who's non-black, for example) We, in the minority,  have certainly been able to pull off some mighty big injustices against non-whites considering our puny numbers, haven't we?

31 are Christan- 21 are Muslim- 14 are Hindu- 6 are Buddhists- 12 practice some other religion, including just 1 Jewish person- and 16 practice no religion at all. We tend to think that Christians are the dominant religion in the world, and even though they represent the largest group, please note that 69 out of 100 are NOT Christian. In fact, the group that practices no religion is the third biggest.

17 speak a Chinese dialect- 8 speak Hindustani- 8 speak English- 7 speak Spanish- 4 speak Arabic- 4 speak Russian- 52 speak other languages.

1 has a college education- 99 do not. 1 owns a computer- 99 do not.

75 have some supply of food and a place to shelter them from wind and rain- 25 do not. This is disturbing when you multiply this number out by the 7 billion of us on the planet now.  That means 1,750,000,000 people right now do not have access to adequate food and shelter.

1 is dying of starvation- 17 are malnourished- 15 are overweight. 83 have safe drinking water- 17 do not. This, again, is a staggering thought if you multiply it out for 7 billion people. 70,000,000 are dying of starvation as you're reading this.

So, there you have it- the world as represented by 100 people. There are other categories, but you can check them out for yourselves. It is important for all of us to see the world from a different perspective than we usually do. I, for one, can get caught up in seeing my world as only that world visible from my home, my town, or my country. But the actual world is very different than the relatively safe and comfortable world we have here in the United States. Far too many of us see the world like we see ourselves- predominantly white, Judeo-Christan, middle-class people living in homes with enough food all the time. As you can see, the world is not like that at all. Perhaps we have too much here. I'm pretty sure the rest of the world thinks we have too much here. Perhaps our view of ourselves is shaped more by our (relative) wealth than by anything else. We are very special in that way. The USA has 4.67% of the world's population and owns 25.4% of its wealth. No other country comes close to those proportions.

I only ask you to see the world a little differently from time to time because I think it's a useful reminder to be humble about all we have here. It is reminder to be tolerant of those who are different from us, are a different color than us, or worship a different God or in a different way than us, or don't worship a God at all. For as special as we think we are - there are many more people who live fundamentally different lives than us. They have value too- and it is good to know about the rest of humanity because it helps us understand more about ourselves and our place in the world.

Thanks for looking in.