From: Geoff Smith (geoffs@unixg.ubc.ca)
Date: Tue Apr 21 1998 - 14:43:31 MDT
Erik Moeller wrote:
> I'm not sure they will suit you:
>
> Bahism, 6.1 mio.
> Buddhism, 323.9 mio.
> Christianity, 1928 mio.
> - catholics 968 mio.
> - protestants 396 mio.
> Hinduism, 780.5 mio.
> Islam, 1099,6 mio.
> Jewishness, 14.1 mio.
> Confucianism, 5.3 mio
> New religions (created after 1950 Hare Krishna, Transcendental
Meditation),
> 121.3 mio.
> Shintoism, 2.8 mio.
> Sikhs, 19.2 mio.
> Natural religions, 99.2 mio.
Hmm... how does this account for the population of China? Even if there
were no other Buddhists in the world, all the natural religions were
located in China(which I assume would be Taoism), and all Confucists were
located in China, this would still leave over 0.7 billion Chinese having no
religion-- has Christianity become the predominant religion in China, or is
there a large number of athiests?(maybe Maoists are under-reporting their
figures) Do either of these options seem reasonable? I really don't think
so. If these figures *are* right, it seems that under 80% of the world's
population even has a religion, supreme being or not. (if I've done my math
right) However, I don't think not belonging to an organized religion
implies that one does not believe in a supreme being, or vica versa. So, I
would say the 95% figure is probably an overshot, and at the very least it
is not grounded with solid evidence.
Geoff.
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