From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Thu 06 Feb 2003 - 20:13:42 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Henson" <hkhenson@rogers.com>
In addition,
Humanity becomes more religious,
The number of adepts of the great religions rise comparatively faster
than the world's population. The augment of the number of non- re-
ligious people and atheists falls short.
The Dutch Reform Gazette bases its case upon the youngest figures
given by the American religion- statistics David Barret and Todd
Johnson.
Those calculated that 1/3 of the 6. 28 billion people belong to
Christianity and 1/5 to Islam. 849 million are Hindu ( 13. 5 %)
and 5 % ( 371 million) are Buddhist.
About 939 million say they are non- religious or are atheists
( 15 %) . The other part adhere other religions.
The part of non- religious people and atheists rises respec-
tively with 0. 8 % and 0. 2 % where in the meanwhile world's
population rises with 1.2 %.
Of all great religions Islam grows fast (2.1 %).
Christianity rises with 1. 3 % barely faster than the grow of
the worlds population. The number of Buddhists augments with 1%.
Translated out of Dutch by Kenneth Van Oost, February 2003.
Initial article Gentenaar 3 / 2 / 2003
Personal notes,
Such things I always take with more than 1 pinch of salt, not in
the least that 1_ I think the investigators are biased and 2_ I think
there is more ' religious ' stuff going round than the kind we can
observe within the worlds religions.
Today there is the belief in the economical growth, in economical and
political significance, in prosperity, and belief in a better, more peace-
ful future. There is indeed good evidence so to speak, (but I don 't
possess any) that those things mentioned above can be evocated
as ' religions '.
Wall Street, the NY stock exchange, financial markets like Frankfurt,
Brussels and Tokio are the Temples of Doom for many, profit is the
God and money is the jesus to get to it ! Devotion has sweeped the
planet and is now a central value of our existence.
But, IMO, there is still another belief, and more to it, I think it is
more a kind of religion_ in the same sense we generally constitute
for the worlds religions_ and that is the belief in freedom, equality
and democracy.
Don 't get me wrong_ I don 't see those as some inglorious and
pathetic results of some bizarre social/ cultural cult, but there is
within the human constitution a fundamental thing at work.
Ambition, in the sense that humans are always trying to achieve
something that they possibly can 't_ isn 't this what occupies our
mind !?
Isn 't this not a question about existentalism !? Aren 't we all the
time in search for " a right to live " !?
Aren 't we in such a matter not convinced that we are ' self- de-
terminated ' beings and in such ways we act like Gods, don 't we !?
Isn 't this than not the same religious aspect we find within other
religions !? I think it does !
In the ways where along we try to reach our goals, the ends, the
absolutes, the holy things, the glimmer lights, freedom, democracy,
...we explore aspects of " idolation ".
Freedom, equality and democracy ( for all) are tokens of an utopian
view upon the world. The platitude of life forces us to dream and in
many ways it forces us to pursue those dreams....
Regards,
Kenneth
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