Fastest-growing religion?
Inducto
>CoS often claims that it's the fastest-growing religion in the world.
This is one of the more tired and ludicrous pieces of their hyperbole.
I think it's based on their presuming that since they're the only significant
religion founded in the 20th century (which may not even be true in the case of
B'ahai, a religion which is documented to be amongst the fastest growing
worldwide) they can start a zero, and of course any whole number is an infinite
percentage larger than zero. It may also be based on their claim of something
like 3000 churches, missions and "groups", which claim has grown over 300% in
the last decade; but it's little more than a PR stunt somehow reshuffling the
membership into a bunch of small "groups" that can be counted -- their number
of churches and missions has stayed essentially the same, and is even declining
slightly.
Below are some figures from a current reference that Rob Carr posted a while
back:
In the world, in decreasing order
1 Christianity
2 Islam
3 Hinduism
4 Buddhism
5 Sikhism
6 Judaism
7 Confucianism (5,254,000 adherents)
8 Baha'ism
9 Jainism
10 Shintoism
In the US, in decreasing order
1 Protestant
2 Roman Catholic
3 Afican-American Christian
4 Orthodox Christian (5,602,000 members)
5 Jewish
6 Muslim
7 Episcopalian
8 Buddhist
9 Hindu
10 Baha'i
Fastest Growing
1 Sikh 18,900%
2 Hindu 810%
3 Muslim 537.5%
4 Buddhist 290%
5 Baha'i 117%
6 Evangelical Christian 42.8%
7 Orthodox Christian 28.4%
8 Roman Catholic 14.2%
9 Jewish -16.4%
10 Episcopalian -27.3%
All these are from _The Top 10 of Everything 1998_.
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The Goblin Wizard
Fastest Growing
> 1 Sikh 18,900%
> 2 Hindu 810%
> 3 Muslim 537.5%
> 4 Buddhist 290%
> 5 Baha'i 117%
> 6 Evangelical Christian 42.8%
> 7 Orthodox Christian 28.4%
> 8 Roman Catholic 14.2%
> 9 Jewish -16.4%
> 10 Episcopalian -27.3%
>
> All these are from _The Top 10 of Everything 1998_.
Yowsers! Holy scary statistics, Batman!!!
Is there something wrong here, or are numbers 9&10 on the top ten
fastes growing religions worldwide shrinking? Fast!
Is religion worldwide shrinking, am I hallucinating again, or is
something else happening?
cheers,
the wiz
"Pass me the Shark-repellent Batspray, Robin!"