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Omar al Hashim
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Topic: Roman Catholics have lost a place! Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 09:33 |
This thread is dedicated to Ponce, for his recent thread of similar name, but mostly to Leonardo, for reasons I am sure we are all aware!
Originally posted by http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Now-Islam--overtakes-.3929010.jp
Now Islam overtakes Catholicism as the world's biggest faith
By CLAIRE GARDNER
ISLAM has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, according to new figures.
In
its newly-released 2008 yearbook of statistics, the Vatican claims
Muslims now make up 19.2 per cent of the world's population with
Catholics at 17.4 per cent.
In the Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, wrote: "For the
first time in history we are no longer at the top: the Muslims have
overtaken us."
However, he said that if all Christian groups
were considered, including Orthodox churches, Anglicans and
Protestants, then Christians made up 33 per cent of the world's
population or about two billion people.
The Vatican recently
put the number of Catholics in the world at 1.13 billion. It did not
provide a figure for Muslims, estimated at about 1.3 billion.
Numbers for other major world religions include an estimated 785 million Hindus, 360 million Buddhists and 17 million Jews.
Mgr
Formenti said that while the number of Catholics as a proportion of the
world's population was fairly stable, the percentage of Muslims was
growing because of higher birth rates.
However, Bashir Maan,
convenor of the Muslim Council of Scotland, said he thought that Islam
was probably the largest religion in the world.
And he said it was not just down to higher birth rates, but because more people were converting to Islam.
"It
is difficult to get a true figure of the number of Muslims in the world
because trying to establish numbers in underdeveloped Muslim countries
is very difficult.
"But if proper figures could be obtained from
those countries then I think it would show Islam as the largest
religion in the world."
He said that people were attracted to the religion looking for "spiritualism". He conceded that recent terror attacks had turned many people against Islam but added the religion
had benefited from other people studying the religion to find out its
true message.
"These people are discovering a tolerant and accommodating religion," he said.
A spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said it was important to look beyond the figures.
"While
it is a little unseemly to swap figures, a more realistic comparison
would be between the Christian population of the world and the Muslim
population, a comparison which would show the Christian world to be
significantly bigger," he said.
He added: "Christianity and
Islam are both 'religions of the Book' they share their origins in
the Old Testament and although there are some hot spots of tension in
the world, there is also a wide area of common concern for Christians
and Muslims, especially on such issues as the family and the sacredness
of life." |
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Paul
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 10:32 |
Is that Shiites plus Sunnis or just Sunnis.
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gcle2003
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 10:47 |
Why pick out one Christian sect, and compare it to all Islam?
I'm reminded of Bob Jones and others in the US and probably elsewhere who refer to 'Christians and Catholics'.
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Leonardo
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 11:46 |
Originally posted by Omar al Hashim
This thread is dedicated to Ponce, for his recent thread of similar name, but mostly to Leonardo, for reasons I am sure we are all aware!
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I'm not aware ... (I'm not even a believer)
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Parnell
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 12:00 |
Bob Jones University? Thought they were the KKK of acadaemia?
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Zagros
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 13:58 |
Do these statistics take it for granted that the whole population of Poland, for example, is Roman Catholic - or that everyone in Turkey is Muslim? What about Atheists and Agnostics? Or is this an indicator that the whole world will succumb to Islam?
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Guests
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 15:01 |
The extent or vigiour of faith is huge variable and best left out. Many people identify with a religion even if they do not practice it.
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gcle2003
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:10 |
Originally posted by Sparten
The extent or vigiour of faith is huge variable and best left out. Many people identify with a religion even if they do not practice it. |
Roman Catholicism is not a religion.
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pikeshot1600
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:18 |
Originally posted by Parnell
Bob Jones University? Thought they were the KKK of acadaemia? |
I wouldn't equate it with anything evil, or even especially political. As with a lot of these "non-denominational" organizations, you file as a religious organization, and get yourself exempt from Federal tax. That makes a much bigger reservoir of money for the Jones family, and all the in laws, to draw on.
Just a con game with a legal face: As long as suckers empty their wallets, it is a pretty good gig.
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The Charioteer
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:18 |
Originally posted by Omar al Hashim
This thread is dedicated to Ponce, for his recent thread of similar name |
This is for both of you
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Zagros
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:19 |
For this thread - given the thread starter - I believe it can be treated as such, for argument's sake.
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HEROI
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:27 |
Originally posted by gcle2003
Originally posted by Sparten
The extent or vigiour of faith is huge variable and best left out. Many people identify with a religion even if they do not practice it. |
Roman Catholicism is not a religion. |
So what is it?
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Me pune,me perpjekje.
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HEROI
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:30 |
As far as i know Islam has overtaken Catholicism but still over all Christians have the largest population in the world,about 30% of the worlds population is Christian.About 20% is Islamic.
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Me pune,me perpjekje.
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Zagros
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:43 |
Christianity is a religion; Catholicism which is exclusive of many other Christian denominations is obviously just a section of Christianity, like Orthodoxy etc... and does nmot represent Christianity as a whole and as such is not a religion.
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pikeshot1600
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 16:48 |
Originally posted by gcle2003
Why pick out one Christian sect, and compare it to all Islam?
I'm reminded of Bob Jones and others in the US and probably elsewhere who refer to 'Christians and Catholics'. |
That has been going on since the early Germans became Arian Christians and the Catholics looked upon them as more profane than the pagans. These things splinter and fight among each other, and then recognize common roots. It happened with the 11th c. Schism and again with the Reformation.
AFAIK, nearly all Christian sects other than the most fundamental (who sometimes are like Old Testament Jews) recognize the Nicene Creed as a statement of faith. That has been pretty consistent since the 4th century.
Christianity is Christianity regardless of what con artists like the TV evangelicals say.
Edited by pikeshot1600 - 31-Mar-2008 at 17:14
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Akolouthos
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 17:28 |
Originally posted by Sparten
The extent or vigiour of faith is huge variable and best left out. Many people identify with a religion even if they do not practice it. |
This is especially true in the West, where secularism has certainly detracted from religious faith. I would wager that a huge portion of those identifying themselves as Christians in Western Europe -- and, to a lesser extent America -- do so for reasons that center as much on culture as they do on faith. I don't know to what extent this is true of the broader Muslim world as well. Anyone care to educate me?
-Akolouthos
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Akolouthos
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 17:31 |
Originally posted by Zagros
Christianity is a religion; Catholicism which is exclusive of many other Christian denominations is obviously just a section of Christianity, like Orthodoxy etc... and does nmot represent Christianity as a whole and as such is not a religion. |
An interesting distinction, the discussion of which could take up a thread all by itself. Perhaps we should start a thread on the distinction between "sects" and "religions", as well as the contexts in which these terms may be inserted.
-Akolouthos
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HEROI
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 21:29 |
Originally posted by Zagros
Christianity is a religion; Catholicism which is exclusive of many other Christian denominations is obviously just a section of Christianity, like Orthodoxy etc... and does nmot represent Christianity as a whole and as such is not a religion. |
Catholicism is a sect??
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Me pune,me perpjekje.
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Zagros
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Posted: 31-Mar-2008 at 21:54 |
By definition, actually.
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gcle2003
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Posted: 01-Apr-2008 at 12:18 |
Originally posted by HEROI
Originally posted by Zagros
Christianity is a religion; Catholicism which is exclusive of many other Christian denominations is obviously just a section of Christianity, like Orthodoxy etc... and does nmot represent Christianity as a whole and as such is not a religion. |
Catholicism is a sect?? |
And that should be 'Roman Catholicism'. Omar happily got it right in the topic title.
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