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slattery69 Posts: > 500

i think you raise a fair point. christianity is broken down into sect s in the report yet islam is classed as a whole. i ve got to say a muslim living is pakistain is a very different muslim to the one living in say the uk. the cutural perversion of religion just isnt taken into account with these figures
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Posted: 2006-03-04 18:33:54
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joebmc Posts: > 500

Also are there any stats for how many people there are who dont beleave in god/allah/religion, who knows maybe atheist's are growing more in numbers, maybe more than who are turning to islam in fact?
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Posted: 2006-03-04 18:40:28
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amnesia Posts: > 500

I think the answer is quite simple really.
The western governments have argued for ages that religion and politics should not mix (hence trying to change the way of rule in middle eastern countries) but then they contradict themselves.

Lead by example I say.
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Posted: 2006-03-04 18:49:54
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slattery69 Posts: > 500

i dont think religion and politics do mx particularlly well. how often i wonder does religion get perverted to suit a polictical end. that goes for all religous countries around the world.
i ve got to the stage now were religion has just been perverted so much to meet individuals needs that i fond it very difficult to even be bothered with reliogion and i spent ten years of my life studying philosphy and religion
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Posted: 2006-03-04 18:57:14
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amnesia Posts: > 500

thats the thing.
I wish to God that governments around the world (it doesn't matter what country it is) actually listened to the people when they say they're a democracy and don't blame their actions on God.

In my eyes, God lights the way, but it's the person who chooses the path.

I personally think saying God guided him in doing what he did is wrong, not only because it makes it seem as a West VS. East, but also because England itself is one of the most international country's in the world.
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Posted: 2006-03-04 19:06:18
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slattery69 Posts: > 500

joebmc Posts: > 500

Perhaps all leaders of countries should not be of an religion. Maybe that way they cant say stuff like "god told me to do it" and hopefully not be biased towards any religion (although saying that if there not of religion they could simple be biased agaisnt all religions).
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Posted: 2006-03-04 20:29:23
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scotsboyuk Posts: > 500

Quote:
On 2006-03-04 17:54:56, dealer3 wrote:
The Worlds Major Religions Changes In the last half century...

Confucianism & Taoism decrease 13%
350,600,000
305,000,000

Judaism decrease 4%
15,630,000
15,000,000

Christianity increase 47%
682,400,000
1,000,000,000

Eastern Orthodox decrease 36%
144,000,000
092,000,000

Protestant increase 57%
206,900,000
324,000,000

Catholic increase 70%
331,500,000
565,000,000

Buddhism increase 63%
150,180,000
245,000,000

Hinduism increase 117%
230,150,000
500,000,000

Shintoism increase 152%
25,000,000
63,000,000

Islam increase 235%
209,020,000
700,000,000

World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1935
and Readers Digest Almanac and Yearbook 1983

According to the sources you site, your figures are twenty years out of date. It is interesting if one wishes to examine the period 1935 to 1983, but these sources don't say anything about religious growth today.

Quote:
Muslims in Asia (1996) 1,022,692,000 (30%)
Muslims in Africa (1996) 426,282,000 (59%)
Total Number of Muslims on the Earth (1996) 1,482,596,925
Total Number of People on the Earth (1996) 5,771,939,007
Percentage of Muslims (1996) 26%
Islam annual growth rate (1994-1995) from U.N. 6.40%
Christianity growth rate (1994-1995) from U.N. 1.46%
Total Number of Muslims on the Earth (1998) 1,678,442,000
Expected Number of Muslims on the Earth (2000) 1,902,095,000

This figures below shows the growth of Islam:

North America 25%
Africa 2.15%
Asia 12.57%
Europe 142.35%
Latin America -4.73%
Australia 257.01%

Among every four humans in the world, one of them is Muslim. Muslims have increased by over 235 percent in the last fifty years up to nearly 1.6 billion.
By comparison, Christians have increased by only 47 percent, Hinduism, 117 percent, and Buddhism by 63 percent.
Islam is the second largest religious group in France, Great Britain and USA (Muslims in USA are 10 millions and Jews are 6 millions).

The number of the total population has been taken from The CIA World's Facts Book.

Your figures are meaningless without being put into context. Anyone can quote numbers for just about anything, but without some sort of explanation they are just numbers.

Let's examine the different components of your statistics:

First of all the number of Muslims in Africa and Asia and the projected number of Muslims in the world. The figures you cite are hardly surprising since both Africa and Asia contain the majority of the world's Muslim nations. It is also unsurprising that the number of Muslims is growing faster than the number of Christians since many Christian countries have low population growth rates e.g. most of Europe whilst many Muslim nations have high population growth rates e.g. many African countries.

A far more interesting statistic to exmaine would be the comparative growth rates of religions based upon the number of people conciously choosing to adopt that religion as their own rather than simply being born into it. For example, the 142.35% growth rate given for Islam in Europe, is that mostly due to native Europeans converting to Islam or is it predominantly a result of Muslim immigrants settling in Europe?

Your figures for the growth rates of Christianity (47%), Hinduism (117%) and Buddhism (63%) are based upon the earlier data you gave, which rests upon sources from 1935 and 1983. More recent data (from adherents.com via the BBC) gives the numbers for each major religion as follows:

Christianity 2.1 billion
Islam 1.3 billion
Atheist/Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic 1.1 billion
Hinduism 900 million
Chinese traditional religion 394 million
Buddhism 376 million
Primal-indigenous 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic 100 million
Sikhism 23 million

The CIA World Factbook gives the following statistics as of 2004:

Christians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants 5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%), Muslims 20.12%, Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.89%, Sikhs 0.39%, Jews 0.23%, other religions 12.61%, non-religious 12.03%, atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)

Your figure of Islam accounting for approximately 25% of the world's population would therefore seem to be somewhat exagerated. Furthermore your figures do not extrapolate on the geographical spread of Islam, is it concentrated in certain areas or spread across the globe in a more or less even pattern?

One of the chief reasons there are large Muslim populations in the U.S., UK and France is because of immigration. The UK received a large number of immigrants following the decline of the British Empire and many of these immigrants were from Pakistan and Bangladesh, both of which are Muslim countries. France has also received a large number of immigrants from its old colonies, notably Algeria, which is a Muslim country. The U.S. receives immigrants from all over the world and since Islam is the world's second biggest religion it is hardly surprising that a large number of them should be Muslims.

As before, what would be more interesting would be to examine the composition of religious faiths in relation to those converting rather than simply being brought up with a particular faith.
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Posted: 2006-03-05 23:29:44
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scotsboyuk Posts: > 500

Quote:
On 2006-03-04 19:06:18, amnesia wrote:
thats the thing.
I wish to God that governments around the world (it doesn't matter what country it is) actually listened to the people when they say they're a democracy and don't blame their actions on God.

In my eyes, God lights the way, but it's the person who chooses the path.

I personally think saying God guided him in doing what he did is wrong, not only because it makes it seem as a West VS. East, but also because England itself is one of the most international country's in the world.

As much as I am not a fan of Blair I think it is perhaps important to note that he was somewhat reluctant to talk about religion in relation to politics. Blair obviously has his own religious beliefs and no doubt they help to guide his decisions, but I did notice that he was not going into any great detail. If one compares this with Bush who said something along the lines of the Iraq war being a mission from God, it demonstrates, in my opinion, that Blair is not looking to link his policies with the divine.

I watched the interview and as far as I remember his comments were something in the order of God being his judge. I don't think there was anything terribly controversial in what he said, he wasn't saying that he had divine guidance to go to war or that God spoke to him, etc. Having said that, I do think it would have been better for him to not mention religion at all when talking about politics, certainly not in a public forum.

I think what Blair, and other politicians have to remember, as you pointed out, is that it is the people they have to listen to. Britian is a multicultural society and I believe that any Prime Minister, no matter what his faith, has to recognise the highest authority in the land as being the people.

_________________
"I may be drunk my dear woman, but in the morning I will be sober, and you will still be ugly." WSC

[ This Message was edited by: scotsboyuk on 2006-03-05 22:48 ]
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Posted: 2006-03-05 23:45:12
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PeterKay Posts: > 500

Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Why does this fact hurt so many people? Just read the Guiness book of world records each year!

It's a fact, whether you like it or not.

Thank (God) Allah, i am a Muslim.

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Posted: 2006-03-06 00:39:42
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