Many people think Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. Not true. Islam is growing fast, but Christianity is growing faster. Indeed there are twice as many Christians as Muslims in the world today and the gap is becoming larger. Moreover, Christianity has become the world's only religion that is truly universal.
Islam too has a wide reach, but Islam has only a small presence in the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and Australia. Christianity, by contrast, is strong everywhere in the world except the Middle East. Islam is growing mainly through reproduction, which is to say by Muslims having large families. Christianity is growing both through reproduction and through conversion.
So if Christianity is growing so fast, why don't we see it? Because the growth is occuring mainly in Asia and Africa. The full story is told in What's So Great About Christianity but here are some examples. In 1900 less than 10 percent of Africa was Christian. Now it's around 50 percent. That's an increase from 10 million Christians in 1900 to more than 350 million today. The story is pretty much the same in Asia. China now has an underground church numbering in the tens of millions. In Korea, Christians outnumber Buddhists and, in a remarkable historical reversal, now send missionaries to Europe to convert the natives. Some Asian and African churches have so many members that pastors have to tell people not to come very Sunday, because there is not enough room in the pews.
In a way the new atheism in the West can be understood as an angry backlash against these developments. The new atheists once expected that with modernity religion would simply wither away. It hasn't happened. In fact, the most rapidly-modernizing countries like India and China are ones where religion is booming the most. Consequently the atheists have mobilized a ferocious attack against religion and specifically Christianity, attempting to stop its alarming growth.
The atheist campaign is aggressively and intelligently mounted, but it's not likely to succeed. Mainly this is because atheists have forgotten how to reproduce. What I mean is that the typical secular couple has one child while the typical religious couple in the West has two children and the typical religious couple outside the West has 3-5 children. Guess who is going to own the twenty-first century!
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 11)
1. Is there a link to a transcript of the "Is Religion the Problem" debates?
C at 10:51AM on Oct 29th 2007
2. "Islam is growing mainly through reproduction, which is to say by Muslims having large families. Christianity is growing both through reproduction and through conversion." - Dinesh, above
Exactly. Centuries and centuries and centuries of polygamy is why there are so many Muslims. In addition, the centuries and centuries and centuries of treating females as good for nothing but reproducing (Mohammed said that a woman's job is to "manufacture men") is why there are so many Muslims. IOW, the vast demographics have NOTHING to do with because Islam is fabulous - it's not. It's oppressive, cruel, misogynist, hateful and murderous - commanding the killings of all non-Moslem people if they don't convert to Islam (See: Qur'an). In addition, another reason why so many Muslims is due to "apostasy" - a death-penalty crime in Islamic countries. Why? Because Mohammed proclaimed, "If a man leave his religion, kill him." Which 7th century proclamation, still honored today in Islamic countries as is everything Mohammedan, serves to keep a great many Muslims in line.
Concerning conversion, not a whole lot of people voluntarily convert to Islam! Well, an exception is large numbers of incarcerated African-American males (fact), which is surprising since - don't they know -? Mohammed was a slave-owner, including black slaves. He had one black slave in particular whom he would burden the most with lugging around Mo's possessions. Jesus, of course, a true Prophet, unlike false prophet, Mohammed, never owned any slaves. Seems to me the non-slave-owner (Jesus) would appeal much more to black folks than slave-owner Mohammed.
Stephanie at 10:54AM on Oct 29th 2007
3. Dinesh is once again distorting the facts. There's no doubt that Islam is the fastest-growing religion. Today, up to 1.8 billion individuals identify themselves as Muslim. While Dinesh is correct that Islam's representation in Europe and the United States is low, in both places Christianity is declining while Islam is continuing to grow. Just look at the latest polls, Dinesh!
Dinesh is also wrong about secular individuals. The number of nonreligious Americans has doubled in the 1990s and is continuing to grow while Europe is almost entirely secular. It is true that in the developing world, secularism hasn't spread like it has in the West, but this is a matter of time. Once these nations develop into prosperous, egalitarian, and educated societies, secularism will take over like it has in the West.
So please stop lying, Dinesh. You are making a fool of yourself.
Konstantin at 11:04AM on Oct 29th 2007
4. Has anyone noticed that DD keeps using words like "angry" and "Ferocious" to describe atheists. I know lots of atheists, and they are by no means angry at anyone. Maybe a little bit arrogant, since we rely on reality to live our lives. DD would present a better argument if he didn't infuse his language with inaccurate, polarizing terms.
Linda at 11:09AM on Oct 29th 2007
5. Is Islam the fastest-growing religion? I don't think so, and not to insult any educated muslim on this blog, I believe it is a religion that has been perverted by the "ignorant" arabs. If you look at the people who are extremist, basically,they all are uneducated, never went to school, and are luckly to be brainwash. The educated muslims are worst, because instead of demonstrating the "ignorancy" of these people that are destroying their religion, they glorified them. This is why the latest drawing found concerning biblical predications , if it is found to be truth, and not false, shows the Christian head of a church and cross putting a sword into the human who carries a moon @ star to death, shows that Christianity will win and our Lord Jesus Christ will reign. If the educated muslims look at this drawing, they themselves know that the moon and star indicates their religion and they themselve allowing islam radicals speak for them will see doomsday. And this destructions will be united by Europe and the West.Instead of bowing down to as pagans use to, try reading the Torah and revelation that was in tact way before any other book was worshiped.
Jaki Baez at 11:53AM on Oct 29th 2007
6. DD (to the tune of the Kennel Ration commercial): "My god's better than your god, my god's better than yours. My god's better 'cause he smites atheists, my god's better than yours!"
Joe Bob at 12:07PM on Oct 29th 2007
7. Which is growing faster! Islam! Christianity! Atheism!
... who cares?
If your nation is secularly based, it doesn't matter how many believers of X there are vrs how many believers of Y there are. Believe. Don't believe. The only people who will give a shit are the believers. To the secular nation it doesn't matter because the secular nation is dealing with far more pressing matters like economic opportunety, law enforcement, and social care... you know... dealing with real world problems that affect real people. You want to think that Christianity is growing faster than Islam. Sure. Have fun with that. You want to think that Atheism is on the run? Sure. Have fun with that too. As long as the government is religiously blind then the number of believers of X over Y doesn't matter.
Of course then there are those who think that the government shouldn't be secular. Of course to those people I like to ask if they would like to introduce the chance that they would one day be in the minority faith in places where the government gives perks to the majority faith.
Then the game's not nearly so much fun, now is it?
Somber at 12:11PM on Oct 29th 2007
8. So the fact that christians can't legally murder atheists anymore gives rise to hate-filled people like Dinesh.
Stop the hate, Dinesh.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 12:19PM on Oct 29th 2007
9. I studied all the world's religions to make my choice, since I was not brought up religious. Outside the Judo-Christian tradition, I found all the natural religions to be violent and disrespectful of individuals. The Judo-Christian tradition values life because God loves His Children and wants them all to come home to them. I studied Islam long before the current spate of Islamic terrorism, and I found the Koran violent and unacceptable. There is nothing peaceful about Islam, and if you are attracted to it, you must love killing and violence and/or you are fried by smoking too much pot and drinking too much alsohol and can't think because you are brain damaged.
Ronald B. Zeh at 12:23PM on Oct 29th 2007
10. I don't think DD is a liar. I think he looks up his facts to quote. I think like a geometry student. I think in terms of principles and values. I can see the principles behind DD's factual presentations. He doesn't impress me as a liar.
Ronald B. Zeh at 12:27PM on Oct 29th 2007
11. I cast my vote for the honesty of DD.
Ronald B. Zeh at 12:28PM on Oct 29th 2007
12. Stephanie, are you unaware that many slave owners were christian? Like almost all slave owners in antebellum U.S.?
Here are a couple of quotes from Frederic Douglass (1818 - 1895), American abolitionist and former slave:
"I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes - a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, and a dark shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection."
"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."
Joe Bob at 12:31PM on Oct 29th 2007
13. This macaca is so obsessed with religion, he has become a super bore. At least he is spending less time defending the Chimp, Cheney, and the 'pubs, he is a repub lapdog, they laugh behind his back
dan k at 12:40PM on Oct 29th 2007
14. You're a brave person for taking on atheist. These people have congressmen and Senators in this country shaking in thier boots.
willet at 12:42PM on Oct 29th 2007
15. I hope AOL is charging D'Idiot for the book plugs, since that is all he seems to be doing these days. Other than being stupid, of course.
Tim at 12:46PM on Oct 29th 2007