The thing I love about religion is that there are thousands of them, yet yours is the correct one? Those are pretty low odds.
Yeah… “thousands of them” is overexaggerated. That being said, there have been a lot of faiths, myths, and mysticism throughout human history..
Here’s an interesting timeline of belief systems.
I grew up Mormon and had a hard time believing that we were the “true church,” “taught the true teachings.,” etc., when I learned about how many different current and old religions and beliefs people had throughout human history. Cracks started to form in my faith foundation then. The following thoughts throw me for a loop back then. Exibit A. Exibit B. Exibit C.
There are over 40,000 sects of christianity last I knew. I’m going to say thousands isn’t an overexageration. I won’t consider religions the same if they have different beliefs.
Part of it is probably what determines what counts as “a religion.” My mind went to indigenous groups in the Americas, Australia, and Africa - thousands seems appropriate there!
Historically, religions as practiced on the ground were very syncretistic - like in the late medieval Muslim world, a Christian might carry a verse from the Koran as a charm or Muslim might visit a rabbi. Not to say that there wasn’t religious persecution and attempts by religious authorities to make sure that everyone was following the rules, but the species of religious fundamentalism we see today is a product of the 19th century and widespread literacy.
Even within a modern Protestant church of a specific denomination, there’s probably a mix of people who are universalists, into spiritualism, etc.
I don’t really think religions can be considered discrete in a way that one could report “there are X religions in the world.”
That timeline leaves off The Babis, The Baha’is, The Mormons, and tons of fracturing among Christians and Muslims, that I am aware of.
It also ignores Shintoism, Daoism, and the other far eastern belief systems.
Also I am intentionally not counting Scientology, because that was a bet.
Do you happen to know where a higher resolution version of this image is?
I am not very knowledgeable about religion but that chart buckets European Animism as one “Religion” while I think it was not organized and refers to the disparate beliefs of folks in the area at the time, so one could argue that there were lots of version I think.
Regardless really fascinating info.
Both the Tree of Religion and the Religion Timeline use Common Era as their year notation.
Honestly, I think the variant on it, Pascal’s mugging, evidences why it’s nonsense as well.
Dude more than half of the population on thr planet are asians… and last time I saw, the Chinese main religion is not christianity
I have no idea
Christianity. … 31% Islam…24.9 % Unaffiliated… 15.6 % Hinduism… 15.2 % Buddhism… 6.6 %
… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations
We protect them with a piece of paper that says no guns please. The thoughts and prayers come later.
It’s so ridiculous! I too have thoughts and prayers. Thoughts that one day we’ll follow the examples of more civilized and developed countries - ones that truly care about the safety and well-being of their citizens - by supporting social policies like universal healthcare, publicly-funded education and reparations for historically marginalized communities. And I pray that we one day find the courage to meticulously seek out and destroy every gun owned by an American civilian (with exceptions for heavily regulated licenses for hunting and sport, like with tractors or race cars).
A man can dream…
If only they would use ACTUAL thoughts! Sure and actual prayers too, as in the kind that require you to stand the fuck up and do something, instead of asking to be given all the credit as if they had. e.g., you just paid off my college tuition? THANK YOU! Oh wait, you only offered me your thoughts and prayers about my potentially lifelong crippling debt situation. Nvm, you may fuck all the way off now!:-(
As someone who grew up in an Evangelical church, I’ve never in my life seen the kind of prayers that “require you to stand the fuck up and do something.”
Not once.
More’s the pity:-|. Jesus did stuff, reportedly, so those who claim to be “His followers” choose to do the opposite. Jesus Himself would be rejected out of nearly all churches in America today.:-(
Even so, churches on the whole still used to serve a useful societal role - lessening rates of theft & murder, fostering community ties with irl people, helping the disenfranchised (feeding homeless, aiding widows & orphans, job-training services, etc.) - but especially after overturning Roe v. Wade I think the public perception has shifted. Now we see more clearly than ever before how the people in those churches are killing innocents, by converting average people into single-issue voters who will vote for the likes of Donald Trump or George Santos so long as they just do that ONE thing that the religious higher-ups want. Forget how climate change is going to radically transform our world - and in the process kill millions - and similarly automation and globalization are making slaves of us all, desperate to hold onto a job that pays increasingly less and less dividends plus may kick you to the curb no matter what you do.
Fwiw, I even say this as a Christian myself: I do not stand with those who call themselves by that name yet condone genocide, even cause it themselves, and ignore the plight of the innocents who suffer (e.g. Ukraine). I am also a patriot (by the technical, acurate definition) but do not want to call myself that either, especially after January 6. So I guess I am a “godless heathen” now, who “hates my country”, or whatever it is that they say about me? Or else NOT THAT, and they can fuck all the way off, as they destroy themselves and yet in the process take us all down with them.:-(
The true power of Facebook can finally be realized!
1 Like = 1 Prayer = 1 less illegal immigrant stealing our jobs/raping our women/dealing drugs/etc
Donald Trump even shared this fun statistic: 80% of the women crossing the border to come to America report being raped. Let that sink in… (by who?)
What a great sign!
I think the right is pretty consistent on this.
They want more guns in schools AND at the border.
