JMK5@ns.cc.lehigh.edu (J. Michael Kafes) (05/08/91)
In article <May.3.03.29.27.1991.24567@athos.rutgers.edu> tp0x+@cs.cmu.edu (Thomas Price) writes: >In article <Apr.24.23.28.52.1991.11071@athos.rutgers.edu> >jloucks@uts.amdahl.com (Jim Loucks) writes: >>An atheist once told me that as a Christian, I was a dying breed. This >>seems to be the general belief in a lot of newsgroups. The Center for >>World Missions reports a different story: >> >>Worldwide Christianity is growing at a rate of 70,000 persons every >>day; 3500 new churches are opening every week. >In 1989, if I recall correctly, Islam was the fastest-growing religion >in the United States. I doubt it would have slacked off. Religion in >general is booming as a result of maturation of the spirituality of >the 1960s. Using the 1990 and 1989 Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbooks, which publish world-wide religious statistics each year, I had synthesized the data into graphs and growth rates of each religion in every continent around the world. The fastest growing religion in terms of total new believers world-wide was Islam. However, the religion with the greatest percentage gain world-wide was the Baha'i Faith, which as of mid-1989 stands at 5 million believers. Although 5 million does not seem like a lot, a curious statistic I came across that the Encyclopedia Britannica measures is the number of countries and major territories that each religion has a significant following in. Christianity is the leader with 251. In second place is the Baha'i Faith, with 205. Here is a table listing the religions, how many followers each one has, and how many countries they have significant followings in: Christians 1,711,897,000 251 Roman Catholics 971,702,000 242 Protestants 351,220,000 230 Baha'is 5,072,000 205 Muslims 924,611,500 172 Anglicans 71,209,300 148 Jews 17,357,000 125 Hindus 689,205,100 88 Buddhists 311,438,000 86 Chinese Folk religionists 170,236,200 56 Sikhs 17,835,100 20 Jains 3,581,500 10 Confucians 5,821,400 3 Shintoists 3,205,300 3 What makes this even more interesting is that the Baha'i Faith is less than 150 years old. It took Christianity 2,000 years to spread around the world. The central and pivotal teaching of the Baha'i Faith sheds some light on why it has such universal appeal: the unity of all humankind on earth. It is the first religion to lay out a Divinely revealed framework for the establishment and maintenance of a true and world peace. Michael Kafes JMK5@NS.CC.LEHIGH.EDU
dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek) (05/13/91)
In article <May.8.04.24.05.1991.11423@athos.rutgers.edu>, JMK5@ns.cc.lehigh.edu (J. Michael Kafes) writes: > Using the 1990 and 1989 Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbooks, > which publish world-wide religious statistics each year, I had > synthesized the data into graphs and growth rates of each religion in > every continent around the world. The fastest growing religion in terms > of total new believers world-wide was Islam. However, the religion with > the greatest percentage gain world-wide was the Baha'i Faith, which as I believe, however, that the figures that are cited giving Islam the #1 spot tend not to split groups up the way you do: the Baha'is, for this purpose would be considered part of Islam in much the same way that Catholics and Protestants are lumped together as Christians. > Christians 1,711,897,000 251 > Roman Catholics 971,702,000 242 > Protestants 351,220,000 230 > Anglicans 71,209,300 148 Huh? If your category of Christians does not include RC, Protestant or Anglican, that leaves Orthodox and some of the other "Catholic" (for want of a better word) churches, e.g., the Ethiopian Catholic church. That runs counter to my understanding that RC is the largest portion of the Christian faith. Nor do the numbers add up right to make Christians the total of the three listed (and seems a bit high still if it's supposed to include the other numbers). Perhaps another look at your sources would be in order? -dh Don Hosek | To retrieve files from ymir via the mailserver, dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu | send a message to mailserv@ymir.claremont.edu Quixote Digital Typography | with a line saying send [DIRECTORY]FILENAME 714-625-0147 | where DIRECTORY is the FTP directory (sans ---------------------------+ "anonymous") and FILENAME is the filename, e.g. "send [tex]00readme.txt". There is a list of files in each directory under the name 00files.txt. Binary files are not available by this technique. [I noticed that. It's pretty clear that the list was including both overall totals and some of the more important constituent parts. Thus the conclusion I would draw from those numbers is that the RCC is 972M out of 1712M total Christians, which is consistent with what I know. --clh]
johnw@stew.ssl.berkeley.edu (John Warren) (05/14/91)
In article <May.8.04.24.05.1991.11423@athos.rutgers.edu> JMK5@ns.cc.lehigh.edu (J. Michael Kafes) writes: > >{a lot of interesting world religion statistics} > >What makes this even more interesting is that the Baha'i Faith is less >than 150 years old. It took Christianity 2,000 years to spread around >the world. The central and pivotal teaching of the Baha'i Faith sheds >some light on why it has such universal appeal: the unity of all >humankind on earth. It is the first religion to lay out a Divinely >revealed framework for the establishment and maintenance of a true and >world peace. > >Michael Kafes I'm not so sure about that. 2000 years ago transportation and communication were VERY slow, by today's standards. And yet Christianity still spread. It's just not as impressive for the same thing to happen today. And what's so great about the unity of all humankind on earth? There are evil people here, and there are good but misguided people with different ethics than the ones I'm striving toward. To be united with them would be disaster. I've heard of a society (here on earth, not in a science fiction book) that actually praises cowardice and treachery. Do I want to be united with that society? No. And who gets to choose what are the uniting principles of the global village? The Pope? The Dalai Lama? The Anglo-American Establishment? Gorbachev? Buckminster Fuller? John Lennon? And I'm tired of the stigma that is put on me (probably by myself and my internal devil's advocate, more than anything else) for being so suspicious of 'one-world' movements. The stigma of 'unlovingness' and bigotry. This is just the way antichrist will deceive people: through their desire for unity. Look, I come from a family of 10 kids, and I love big parties, and I'm the type who likes to find the common ground with people, so I prize unity (more accurately: harmony). But moral decisions necessarily bring division. If you make a moral decision, you have implicitly said, "I believe this is right, and anyone in my shoes who would choose the other choice(s), would be wrong to do so." Jesus said that he came to bring not peace, but a sword. The peace and worldwide unity will come later, when Jesus is King visibly. John Warren ----------- "Of every earthly plan that be know to man He is unconcerned. He's got plans of his own to set up his throne When He returns." -- Dylan
JMK5@ns.cc.lehigh.edu (J. Michael Kafes) (05/14/91)
[In response to J. Michael Kafes' posting of membership figures for various religions, Don Hosek wondered whether Baha'i was being counted as part of Islam, and whether "Christians" included Roman Catholics, etc. --clh] A clarification is necessary here. The Baha'i Faith is not a sect of Islam, but grew out of Islam in much the same way that Christianity out of Judaism. >> Christians 1,711,897,000 251 >> Roman Catholics 971,702,000 242 >> Protestants 351,220,000 230 >> Anglicans 71,209,300 148 Another clarification: By "Christians" is meant all Christians (1,711,897,000), which can be broken down into Roman Catholics (971,702,000), Protestants (351,220,000), Anglicans (71,209,300), Orthodox Christians (163,622,700), and a last category which I did not include in my previous post "Other" Christians (154,143,000). You should notice that the sum of the parts equal the total. I hope this clears things up a bit. Michael Kafes