Counting continents ...

[visionary]

If the Panama Canal is a big enough gap to consider something a separate land mass, what about Iceland, Greenland, Ireland, the Lofoten Islands, the Greek Islands, the numerous islands off the northwest of Canada and so on? New Zealand would have to count as two continents.

Good question... If "continents" is a term that should mean "land mass" then it should have no reflections with countries, nations, religion, politics, or number of people, and it would definitely be far more than the 7 or 10 count.