Muslims more numerous than Catholics

[WoodPeckr]

Did Pope Benedict XVI cause this???....
No wonder the Pope is against birth control......

Muslims more numerous than Catholics

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 15 minutes ago

VATICAN CITY - Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.

Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

 

[scouser1]

well he has already had one neo con convert only a few more to go

 

[Chimpanzeethat]

For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top:

Typical euro-centric view. I bet there were a lot more Buddhists than Catholics around in 1 B.C.

 

[Don]

Muslims more numerous than Catholics

Why is this is a surprise? Most muslim nations are developing countries. Developing countries have much higher birth rates. Many of the catholic nations (with the exception of Central/South America) are western countries with declining birthrates. Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in the world.

 

[scouser1]

Muslims are comprised of different sects:
Shi'a, Sunni, Sufism, Alimadiyya.

http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/sects.htm

Not necessarily an accurate comparison.

Sufism isnt a sect of Islam but a mystic brand of the religion, one can be a Sunni or Shia Sufi

 

[Mia.Colpa]

Then we have the moderates and the extremists who dance to a different drum, but they still all call themselves Muslims.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Then we have the moderates and the extremists who dance to a different drum, but they still all call themselves Muslims.

This can be said of all religions be they RC, Protestant, Jew and Muslim.

 

[Cinema Face]

Not a fair comparison.

2 billion Christians World's largest religion

1.2 billion Muslims World's largest cult.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Not a fair comparison.

2 billion Christians World's largest religion

1.2 billion Muslims World's largest cult.

You forget about the Asian and religions of India.
Don't have the figures but there may be more Buddhists than both Christians and Muslims combined.

 

[Cinema Face]

1.6 billion buddhists in the world. Yup that's a lot, but there's still more Christians.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Total_population_of_Buddhist_in_the_world

 

[scouser1]

Not a fair comparison.

2 billion Christians World's largest religion

1.2 billion Muslims World's largest cult.

Cinema Face TERB's biggest bigot and dumb ass

how this guy hasnt been banned yet I will never know.

 

[fuji]

Typical euro-centric view. I bet there were a lot more Buddhists than Catholics around in 1 B.C.

I bet there still are. Many Buddhists will claim to have no particular religion, and yet they are practicing Buddhists. (It almost seems to be part of the religion to downplay it.)

Not sure how the statistics handle that.

 

[basketcase]

Cinema Face TERB's biggest bigot and dumb ass

how this guy hasnt been banned yet I will never know.

He's up there but not quite at the top of my list. At least he tries to debate his opinion (as opposed to drive by propaganda), even if most of think he's wrong.

 

[frasier]

I saw the article...the question is....why does it matter?

 

[basketcase]

My random chance and free will is more powerful than your random chance and free will.

or my dad's army is stronger than your dad's army

 

[Asterix]

Same thing. Power and arrogance.
We create the gods in our image so
they can say: "Well done my son."

Well, I agree we do create gods in our own image. Humans are for some reason hardwired to be so inclined. Why a god would wish to perpetuate a division among those he supposedly created to duke it out to see who can worship the best, I have no idea. Why humans would create cultures of such self absorption makes much more sense.

 

[Asterix]

Margaret Mead, cultural anthropology.

Had I to do it over again....

No way to do it over again. Religion is at it's base a human reaction for our fear of being left alone, and an almost constant awareness of our own mortality, unshared by any other species.

 

[Cinema Face]

No way to do it over again. Religion is at it's base a human reaction for our fear of being left alone, and an almost constant awareness of our own mortality, unshared by any other species.

Religion is man’s attempt to make sense of the things that we don’t understand, such as the random unpredictability of nature.

Religion answers the questions that we can’t, such as, “Why are we all here?” or “What happens to us when we die?”

 

[frasier]

The right of one religious denomination to global dominance.

Thus far, most of the continents have been controlled by Christians.
And the ones that aren't used to be 3rd world places to live.

Its all about ethnocentricity. My god is stronger than your god.

I was afraid it would be something like that.....