"No religion" = one third of people

[Luddly Neddite]

'No Religion' Is World's Third-Largest Religious Group After Christians, Muslims According To Pew Study

REUTERS - People with no religious affiliation make up the third-largest global group in a new study of the size of the world's faiths, placing after Christians and Muslims and just before Hindus.

Christians seem to be more and more paranoid and afraid. Maybe this is why - more than two thirds of the world do not share their beliefs.

 

[G.T.]

I think Religion will cease to exist in like 150 years, or so.

Which is a good thing. There need to be no Earthly, man-led docrinal(work?) control of people in order for people to praise whatever higher being they may believe in.

 

[Leweman]

It shows

 

[G.T.]

It shows

Good!~

 

[TakeAStepBack]

1/3 believe government is omnipotent.

 

[G.T.]

1/3 believe government is omnipotent.

Where's that poll at?

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Probably up 1/3 of statist asses.

 

[G.T.]

ohhhh......neat-0

 

[Leweman]

It shows

Good!~

obviously

 

[Avatar4321]

There are alot of ignorant people. This shouldnt surprise people. But that will change. there will be more and more people who are converted to the truth.

 

[ABikerSailor]

You know...................religion divides people even more than politics does.

Me personally? I believe that each and every one of us is a small piece of God, and Jesus, Buddha, Lao-Tzu and all the other great teachers were trying to tell us that.

I choose to believe in God, but won't get bogged down by dogma.

 

[Tuatara]

There are alot of ignorant people.

Yeah, but you shouldn't be so hard on religious people. Most of them were indoctrinated when they were children

This shouldnt surprise people. But that will change. there will be more and more people who are converted to the truth.

That's what GT said in post #2.

 

[Mr Natural]

I suspect a lot of "religious" people are just hedging their bets.

 

[Avatar4321]

There are alot of ignorant people.

Yeah, but you shouldn't be so hard on religious people. Most of them were indoctrinated when they were children

This shouldnt surprise people. But that will change. there will be more and more people who are converted to the truth.

That's what GT said in post #2.

Actually, im not being hard on you. and no that's not what he said at all. God is real. Denying it wont change it. Nor will making excuses on why you dont need to get to know Him.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I suspect a lot of "religious" people are just hedging their bets.

I suspect a lot of "atheists" secretly believe in God.

 

[Avatar4321]

I suspect a lot of "religious" people are just hedging their bets.

I suspect a lot of "atheists" secretly believe in God.

I suspect alot of people have no clue what to think.

 

[zombiehunter696]

1/3 believe government is omnipotent.

What does this have to be with being non religious?

Oh, and to the OP, good. I hope that percentage gets larger.

 

[oldfart]

I believe that each and every one of us is a small piece of God, and Jesus, Buddha, Lao-Tzu and all the other great teachers were trying to tell us that.

I choose to believe in God, but won't get bogged down by dogma.

Every monotheist believes in God, properly defined. That's the problem.

Back in the Sixties I heard a lot of the Kum-ba-ya "all religion at it's core has the same basic good message" stuff. This only confirmed in my mind that the people stating this had only a superficial understanding of the religious beliefs of the two-thirds of the world they were not a part of.

No offense, but nothing in the canom of Taoism, supports that view, and I suspect the same can probably be said of Buddhism, Confucianism, Zen, or Shinto. That "universalist" view may be accurate applied to some animists, Hindu, Jains, and indiginous religions, but certainly not all of them.

As a side note, most religious scholars today regard "traditional Chinese religion" as a combination of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, with a bit on animism and the little gods of hearth and home thrown in. This is the religion of at least a billion people who thirty years ago were being called atheists. In fact most of them deny the existence of any personalized deity such as the Abrahamic religions adhere to, but they were doing that a millenium ago also. Many are explicitly "atheist" in that sense of rejecting personified deities, but are the inheritors of a rich 2600 year old religious tradition that centuries of Westerners have found profoundly attractive.

To give up the richness of these traditions in search of a lowest-common denominator synthesis is a huge mistake.

But then I have often been completely wrong many times before. Perhaps Oldfart should stick to his fishing.

 

[Tuatara]

Actually, im not being hard on you. and no that's not what he said at all. God is real. Denying it wont change it. Nor will making excuses on why you dont need to get to know Him.

You know most athiests actually believed in god at one time. Mostly when they were children or very young so they've all heard it before, the "let him into your heart" "you need to get to know him" argument. These are all empty phrases with no substance. Other people believe in other gods. Did you get to know them? Those gods are just as real to them as yours is to you.

Saying something is real over and over without evidence does not make it true.

 

[turzovka]

I think Religion will cease to exist in like 150 years, or so.

Which is a good thing. There need to be no Earthly, man-led docrinal(work?) control of people in order for people to praise whatever higher being they may believe in.

What "control?" You and yours love to use that word as though Christians do not reason for themselves? Just because you cannot connect the dots does not mean you hold the truth on your side or that we are being controlled.

Maybe those under Sharia law in some Arab countries are under some control, and maybe some people in godless North Korea and totalitarian China are being controlled, but not in the West. Yet, you want to pretend you think you know that being Christian is a big part of what is wrong with this world. Pathetic.

And don't forget to remind us how we are "shoving our religion down your throat." :0