[soc.religion.christian] RELIGIOUS STATS

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

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[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