Theology: Major World Religions defined by Population
Theology is the study of God. It can be understood as a rational inquiry into questions of religion.

One way to define a major world religion is by the current number of current adherents. Population numbers by religion are computed by combination of census reports and population surveys (in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example USA or France), but results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used, and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count.

This listing does not draw distinctions between organized world religions, which has a single belief code and religious hierarchies, and informal world religions, such as Chinese traditional religions, which are a mix of different informal religious ideas.

Christianity 2 billion
Roman Catholicism: 1.1 billion
Protestantism: 360 million
Eastern Orthodoxy: 220 million
Anglican: 84 million
Other Christians: 280 million

Islam 1.3 billion
Sunnism: 940 million
Shiism 120 million

Hinduism 900 million

Secular / Nonreligious / Agnostic / Atheist 850 million

Buddhism 360 million

Chinese traditional religion 225 million
Not a single organized religion, includes elements of Taoism, Confucianism, and traditional nonscriptural religious observance.

Primal indigenous 150 million
Not a single organized religion, includes a wide range of primarily Asian traditional or tribal religions, including Shamanism and Paganism.

African Traditional and Diasporic 95 million
Not a single organized religion, this includes traditional African beliefs such as Yoruba as well as Diasporic beliefs such as Santeria and Vodoun.

Sikhism 23 million

Juche 19 million
Not considered a religion by adherents. Juche is the political ideology taught by North Korean communists; some have argued it constitutes a religion.

Spiritism 14 million
Not a single organized religion, includes a variety of beliefs including some forms of Umbanda.

Judaism 14 million

Bahá'í Faith 6 million

Jainism 5 million

Shinto 4 million

Cao Dai 3 million

Tenrikyo 2.4 million

Neopaganism 1 million

Unitarian Universalism 800,000

Rastafarianism 700,000
Not an organized religion

Scientology 600,000

Zoroastrianism 150,000

Source of statistics: adherents.com (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html), updated 2002

Theology: Classically defined World Religions
Major religions have also been identified based on their importance, whether theological or temporal. The earliest Christian scholars, the first to define major religions, recognized only three religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism (which they considered to encompass every other religion). Views evolved during the enlightenment, however, and, by the 19th century, Western scholars considered the five major religions to be Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. As the exposure of Westerners to other religions increased, five other religions were added to the original five: Confucianism, Taoism, Jainism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. Later, the Bahá'í Faith was added to this list, resulting in eleven classic religions:

Bahá'í Faith
Buddhism
Christianity
Confucianism
Hinduism
Islam
Jainism
Judaism
Shinto
Taoism
Zoroastrianism

The standard modern definition of major religion comes from the classical definition, often expanding on "Christianity," and omitting Jainism and Zoroastrianism, like this list found in the New York Public Library Student Reference:

Bahá'í Faith
Buddhism
Confucianism
Hinduism
Islam
Judaism
Orthodox Eastern Church
Protestantism
Catholicism
Shinto
Taoism

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just 850 millions are sane.

I am the 8,499,999th one that is sane here. lol

I like Jainism and Sikhism.

I have to look that up! lol

Why are they delusional again?

because the other third suggests we are?

do I get it?

Well, if Christianity believes that 100% of the world are sinners, I don’t know why they’d have a hard time believing that a mere 66% of them are delusional. Makes perfect sense to me.

Let's not forget that 33% of their God's angels were so unhappy with their "perfect God" and his "perfect heaven" that they freely chose to go to hell over heaven.

The other 66% of the angels may have simply been too terrified of this "perfect God" to speak up. Who knows?

If the stats are correct (which I seriously doubt they are because 99.9% of people who call themselves "Christians" genuinely don't really believe in the Bible anyway), but if the stats are correct I think it's comforting to know that at least 33% of the world is sane. Personally I think the number is much higher than that because most people who check the "Christian box" on surveys really only do so, because like the poor terrified angels, they are simply too afraid not to check the box.

The vast majority of Christians are only Christians because they were taught on their mother's knee that if they deny Christ they'll go to hell and will be forever banned from the 'perfect heaven' that the angels thought was so terrible.

So they check the box quite literally in hopes of saving their soul.

Then they run off and do all the things that the Bible says not to do!

They're delusional to be sure!

wow abra.
you must be very lonely, or very hurt.
or you are lonely because you've been hurt...
or you hurt because you are lonely.

either way,
bless your heart...

the 33% of angels turned on God because they were lied to.


just a morsel of info you 'left out'.

Abra.....granted...there are Christians out there, who may say they are christians....and even believe they are...simply because they go to church, but may not neccessarily be christians at all.


But what is more important here is...what is keeping YOU from finding out about God for yourself....rather than continuously focusing on what you DON"T understand about God and christians..or don't agree with......

there are sane or insane everywhere

The point is, to be delusional you have to be living under a delusion.

"In the most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a delusion is defined as:

A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith). "

So, faith isn't a delusion. Thus they are not delusional. Crazy maybe, but not delusional .

Sane or not, God loves us all and asks, will you accept that?

The inference, then, is that the third is good company in your estimation?

I am laughing at the parallel you just painted, Abra.

Not at you.

I find that incredibly amusing.

I don't know why you keep suggesting that I don’t know about God. I’ve known God since very early childhood. God has been living in my heart my entire life.

I think you misunderstand my comments about ancient dogmatic mythology to have something to do with God. The Bible has nothing at all to do with God. That’s my stance and I’m totally convinced of that. People who worship the Bible are idol worshipers who worship ancient mythologies. The Bible has nothing to do with God.

You seem to constantly be suggesting that because I don’t worship an ancient mythology that I don’t know God. God cannot be found in a book that was written by male-chauvinistic bigoted men who solved all their problems using violence, blood and guts.

God is not a barbarian. God doesn’t solve problems by using violence like the Bible teaches. And that includes sending his son on a suicide mission to be butchered on a pole.

Do you believe that the creator of this universe would say to men, “Here, buchter my son on a pole and I’ll forgive you of your sins”,…?

You must believe that God is really lame to believe that nonsense. That kind of Mediterranean butchery is commonplace in all the ancient mythologies. In fact, stories of men being born of Gods were commonplace in that era.

It can’t possibly work MorningSong. Just stop and think about it for a second. Jesus did not come into being at birth, that would negate his own words. Jesus said that before Abraham I am. Clearly if we are to believe that word of Jesus then we must believe that he existed from the very beginning.

But that flies in the face of so much of the rest of the story.

That would imply that men had no choice but to fall to sin, it was preordained even before they were created. Thus implying that there never really was any such things as free will and men aren’t responsible for a single solitary thing.

Also, this would mean that God is totally inconsistent and even confused. Why? Because of the Great Flood. You can’t have a religion that starts out with a great savior who is going to be butchered on a pole to save man from sin, and ignore that fact to stop and have a momentary mass murder of all human beings on the planet. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If the plan was to have Jesus butchered on a pole to save men from sin he would have come BEFORE the great flood to save men the first time around.

There are far too many afterthoughts in this dogma. Not to mention that the very creation of women was an afterthought.

Think about it for a minute. God creates Adam and then Adam needs a helpmate? Help to do what? Adam couldn’t even procreate. He was a totally useless bum. What would he have needed a helpmate for. He had no mission or any value.

If God was going to created a species of creature that was sexually dependent for procreation he would have created them as equals simultaneously.

Or, if you want to go with a God who doesn’t plan things well and has to change the plans midstream with afterthoughts, then it would make much more sense to create the woman first. Her purpose being to procreate which should could have easily been able to do by herself if God so desired to make things that way.

Then, since she has a mission, and has her hands full with raising children it makes sense that God would see a need to create her a helpmate to tend to the gardening chores.

Clearly the Bible was written by ignorant male-chauvinistic men who wanted to make woman second-class citizens who were divinely intended to be subservient to them. They even ultimately blamed the woman for coaxing the man into sin. It’s the epitome of male-chauvinism.

You can believe that that mythology all you want. That mythology is not God.

So please quit telling me that I don’t know God just because I don’t buy into some false mythology that has absolutely nothing at all to do with God.

I don’t believe that God is a male-chauvinist.
I don’t believe that God is a bumbling idiot who can never get things right the first time.
I don’t believe that God is so stupid that he can only solve problems with violence.
I don’t believe that God would ask men to butcher his son just so he could forgive them.

None of these absurdity even come close to making any sense at all.

This mythology holds no more water that the mythology of the Greek Gods.

In fact, it’s every bit as outrageous.

Did you know that there are references to a fire-breathing dragons in the Bible? And that those references come directly from the mouth of God.

You have to also believe that people can be possessed by evil spirits that can be cast out of their bodies. After all, Jesus himself was said to have cast out such evil spirits.

You also have to believe that 33% of God’s angels were not happy in God’s supposedly perfect heaven.

How could anyone not be happy with perfection? Clearly someone didn’t think it was so perfect.

The story is full of holes. It has nothing to do with God.

Yet you keep insisting that if I don’t buy into the book I can’t possibly know God.

Guess again.

I don’t worship the demagoguery of ancient men. I worship the real living God.

There’s a HUGE difference between the two. The Bible has nothing to do with God.

That's my message MorningSong.

I'm not searching for God. I've known God all my life. I'm just trying to help other people find him. But first they need to know where not to look!

I’m not one to follow the crowd in any case.

But just looking back over history we can note that almost all our great advancements came from single individuals, or small groups of individuals, and that usually that popular mass opinion was wrong.

So following mass opinion is silly. The idea is to think for yourself.

as statistics may be used to disguise reality. some stories as well can be put out of context by someone eloquent enough to try to support a fallacy and justify himself or herself.
the denial of God is based upon fear. the fear of those who don't want to see themselves deep inside because there is where God is more intimately, inside each one of us.

I belive in God not out of 'fear' of Him but out of his 'love' for us. People say the universe was not created by 'God' but by a single atom that held everything in the galaxy. (The Big Bang theory.) And God had nothing to do with it. My question is if there is no God where did that singularity come from. All lines of thought, if followed to the end will lead you to a created universe. If followed farther there would have to be some sort of faith in something without begining or end. Hence 'God' is real no matter by what name he (or she) is called. These are my personal beliefs I am not trying to change anyones beliefs or challenge them. I am just putting them out for a 'What if'.

One source and the personification of a 'God' are not at all one in the same thing....

Not even close...

I fail to find any logical reason(s) which support the notion that 'God' has physiological traits and/or characteristics...

One I will agree with...

Creator? As if with a purpose, intent, and reason... that contemplation requires previous experience from which to draw conclusions...

Reason requires experience... ONE before creation has no thing for a relative comparison other than itself...

If one is all, then one is not...

One finger cannot point at itself...

got it.

I shall ignore then any advise and categorically continue in my anarchy.

But it, my anarchy, won't include the licentiousness of the bottom third in the glass.

That wouldn't even be half full.

I find better opportunity to swim in the upper two thirds of the glass that I may overflow the glass and not be prey to it's constraints, even though I like deep waters.


who knows what herd will follow me off that cliff.



aahhh....brevity.

so convenient, sometimes.

I thought it was interesting to discover the 280 million Christians who were not into Christianity. I bet they would be fascinating to study.