Top Ten Religions July 25, 2008
Posted by atheismandhappiness in Religion.Tags: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Religion
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Apparently, a third of the world is now Christian. Followed by Islam (20.1%), Hinduism (13.3%), and Buddhism (5.9%).
A few things are really suprising with this list. First, whoa, one in three people are Christians. But second, whoa, one in five people are muslims.
You might be thinking Judaism is next after Buddhism on this list. It’s not. Sikhism is. Once a frontrunner in the race for souls, god’s people have seemingly not shown the endurance necessary to outpace some of the younger religions. Here’s the complete list (Numbers are estimated, of course):
Religion Members Percentage
Christianity 2.1 billion 33.0%
Islam 1.3 billion 20.1
Hinduism 851 million 13.3
Buddhism 375 million 5.9
Sikhism 25 million 0.4
Judaism 15 million 0.2%
Baha’ism 7.5 million 0.1
Confucianism 6.4 million 0.1
Jainism 4.5 million 0.1
Shintoism 2.8 million 0.0
In my ignorance, I didn’t even know what Baha’ism was until I saw this list and looked it up, and I must say that it looks like a pretty solid religion, if that’s what you’re into. I could definately see myself becoming a Baha’ist (?) before most of the religions on this list, with the exception possibly of Buddhism (Rebirth(Sorry Ichxian!) sounds pretty cool).
As for the movers on the list, Islam is growing the fastest, followed by Baha’ism, Sikhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and then Christianity. (Percentage growths)
BTW, Buddhism does not believe in reincarnation. Buddhist believe in rebirth
There is a little technical difference.
May you be well and happy.
http://chenghiang.wordpress.com/
Ah, very true. My mistake.
Thanks!
The Bahai’s are a decent sect. My best friend is Bahai, and ive been to a some of their services. They don’t reject science, and their divine leader says some pretty sensible things.
Of course, its still a religion, and has some wakyness too. My friend has made sure that I know that when he dies, he needs to be buried as close to the location of his death as possible. Why? So his soul can see the dead body and understand that its time to pass on to heaven. I asked what happens when a soul doesn’t see the body, apparently thats where ghosts come from, because the soul will just wander the world trying to figure out what happened to it.
In the end, it doesn’t matter how sensible or rational a religion is on the surface, when you dig deeper, it just ends up being a bunch of weird mysical beliefs.