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 3 of 11)
31. First off, Islam is a religion that does not believe in conversion, the religion does looks down upon forcing others to convert to your way of life. In fact Islam in its purest form believes that other Abrahamic religions are fellows and should not have to be converted. It is said that if a follower of any religion is devout as a Muslim then he too is considered a Muslim in the eyes of Islam. Christianity uses the poor to their advantage, they bribe them with materialistic items in order to convert. Whereas Islam believes that the religion should speak for itself and not have to preached in order for conversion but instead for knowledge.
Effat at 1:00PM on Oct 29th 2007
32. After much thought, I actually find it funny that people worry about numbers and percentages at all. True religion is inside of you, and keeping faith - no matter what name or dogma you ascribe to it - requires you to adhere to your beliefs in times of plenty *and* in times of struggle and oppression. So what if Christianity or Islam is the majority or minority? Inside my heart, my faith is never the minority because there is nothing to compare it to. As it fills me, so it changes my life and then the world around me, the world I alone perceive, changes with it. True religion starts from the inside out.
Those who worry about the promulgation of their religion really worry about the safety and posterity of their current lifestyle - the potential change and discord that follows a loss of control and power. They aren't thinking of losing God. It's human fear that creates this "religious race", this "finish line" of who is greater than the other. True faith keeps you walking a peaceful path inside your own mind, instead of your anxieties getting ahead of you and leaving you in the dust. True faith or belief of any sort means steadiness of the heart, even if the world passes you by or beats you to the ground.
No major religion (except maybe Buddhism? I'm not familiar with a time any Buddhists murdered people for the sake of forced conversion) is free of blame when it comes to violence and oppression. I rather think it's a cyclical thing, a growing pain, albeit a violent one. It's like religious puberty or something. A faith, trying to find itself, lashes out at those different than it with anger, resentment and violence, instigating a power struggle and suffering from a bloated superiority complex. Christianity *certainly* had its day of being a murderous, pompous jack*ss, and now, concerning the extremists, it's Islam's turn. Religious violence is a mask worn to protect human vanity, a way to stir to mob to follow the selfish whims of the powerful few.
And as another long-winded sidenote, I actually think many of the Muslim extremist leaders are very well educated. In any situation, it's the goons that aren't. There's a sucker born every minute, after all.
mary C. Seay at 12:58PM on Oct 29th 2007
33. I am a Christian . I will always be a Christian. I've read some of the comments written and I have to say that ingorance is bliss. Most comments are really sad. The facts are that 89% of Americans belive in a higher power. There is proof that the world is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old. For instance there is a fossil in Texas where man and dinosaur tracks are in the same fossil. Explain that one. By the way the inventor of the carbon dating machine himself says it is only accurate up to 2,000 years. They don't seem to mention either of those facts in texts. You say religion can't be reproduced, try the one organism theory or the Big Bang theory. Evoltion is just a theory. If then by your standards it would be a religion. Oh, my favorite is that all things were created out of a single cell organism. Many things are so intricately made that that is imposible. May be instead of closing our borders with Mexico we ought to close the borders around the ocean. What do you think? Try watching A Creation Seminar by Steve Grohman. Then try to explain away God. Or ask one of us Christian's why we beleive. By the way your children which you believe you are raising as atheists. Well, if they were to die in their childhood God would accept them into heaven. Because children don't have the oportunity to think for themselves. They are taught what their parents teach them. Jewish people are God's choosen people and will receive the opportunity for heaven on judgement day. Atheists too will come before God and be judged and asked why they didn't believe. It's not my place to judge anyone but, my quess would be you'd get a chance to interview Hilter,Stalin,and Lucifer himself. My aren't you lucky. The rest of us will see are family and friends and live on in bliss.
Global warming(the turning to one season), huricane increases,tsunamis,war, Israel's plan to build the third temple, AIDS, the Rapture is coming. Two third's of the worlds population will be destroyed. Read the Bible it will explain what is to come. Christians do not live in fear. We look forward to the Second Coming. We know where we will be. We won't be the one's left on earth. Our souls will be taken. Where will will your soul go? Or will you remain on earth with the devistation?
Something to think about. I know some of you die hards will reject all and write nasty comments to this. That's what fear causes one to do. For that I am sorry.
Diana at 1:01PM on Oct 29th 2007
34. It simply proves that the primitive side of our minds is difficult to overcome. Maybe through evolution, a concept rejected by most religious people, we will eventually rid ourselves of superstition and save many lives as a result in the reduction of sectarian killing and ethnic cleansing. Until then, while an uphill struggle, atheists must keep up the good fight for human values not based on any dangerous authoritarian view of orthodoxy which typifies most religious doctrine.
eric at 1:02PM on Oct 29th 2007
35. BTW, Joe Bob, I really loved your post as it brings up a good point, not to mention some inspiring quotes.
mary C. Seay at 1:09PM on Oct 29th 2007
36. With the immoral behavior exhibited in most christian churches the atheist are looking better all the time!
dean holman at 12:50PM on Oct 30th 2007
37. Diana: "By the way the inventor of the carbon dating machine himself says it is only accurate up to 2,000 years."
_________________
Your brain is so washed, you scare me. Carbon dating is accurate to WITHIN 2000 years.
Linda at 1:12PM on Oct 29th 2007
38. Eric, I agree with your view that authoritarian orthodoxy (that's a 50 cent phrase, my friend. ;) is what keeps people oppressed, but I tend to disagree that a complete separation from any spiritual ideal will lead to a egalitarian utopia. What most humans always fail to do is *act* upon what these religions tell us to do, or what humanism tells us to do, for that matter. We waste so much time debating dogma and supposed "facts" (all of which are impossible to proove. I mean, hell, even scientific fact evolves. How many examples are there of a new theory being lambasted by the men in charge, only for it to be proven correct later on?) that we forget the core message, which, in every example, is be kind, be honest, be merciful, be responsible and put others before yourself. Treat everyone you encounter as your brother, sister, yourself...as someone worth something. Show compassion with actions, not words, because words are empty.
It's always said that the fool is one ranting and raving through the town square, while the wise man is the one walking silently amid the crowd...or something to that effect.
And considering the length of my posts, you can all tell where I fall. ;)
mary C. Seay at 1:20PM on Oct 29th 2007
39. I think Dinesh is much better than many rightwingers who are extremely hostile and deliberately lie to insult other faiths other than theirs. But the fact is that Islam is the fastest growing religion in Europe which is the heart of Christindom. It has an enormous presence in Africa not because there ever was a conquest but by individuals own free will. Prophet Muhammad went to Ethiopia who was ruled by Christian King with a handful of his followers to spread Islam. This was the beginning of Islam in Africa. Africa has a large Christian population because of European conquest through military force. So we should not feel we need to distort facts to make our religion great. Christianity is a great faith but so is Islam.
Abdi
Abdi at 8:06PM on Oct 29th 2007
40. WHAT A SHAME SCIENCE AND EDUCATION IN GENERAL HASN'T AWAKENED FOLKS TO THE REALIZATION THAT . . .
THERE IS NO GOD !
Daniel Mullane at 1:27PM on Oct 29th 2007
41. For every "radical" Muslim, there are just as many "radical" Christians out there. Every religion has its fanatical followers and to say that the Arabs have perveted Islam is reaching quite a bit. If you say that then you mus also say that radicals have perverted Christianity. Christians do set fires to abortion clinics in opposition, "Christians" are running this bush Administration and several people have been killed in the name of "fighting terrorism". Religion has a way of putting one group above another and not seeing things from the lens of the other group. All religions have their fanatical followers and those followers tend to "pervert" the true message that was intended for its followers.
runtune at 1:29PM on Oct 29th 2007
42. Has anyone else seen that episode of South Park where Richard Dawkins and Mr. Garrison start an atheist revolution?
Then, thousands of years in the future, everyone is atheist, but there are numerous Atheist factions at war with eachother just like any other religion. Great episode. Great satire.
Also, if I remember correctly, the humans coexisted with intelligent otters, who were also atheists. Not sure why they stuck that in.
Tony Messinger at 1:36PM on Oct 29th 2007
43. Diana, the man/dinosaur tracks claim has been debunked long ago. If you are still reading about it, then someone is feeding you old material. The so-called "man tracks" were either metatarsal dino tracks, or (in some cases) out and out handcarved frauds. It is sad to think that the ICR was so desperate to prove their creationist claims that they had to resort to falsifying evidence to do it. Very sad indeed.
And as someone has already pointed out, carbon dating is accurate to within 2000 years...that does not translate to "only accurate for 2000 years". If you are going to quote pseudo-science, please at least have some grasp of the science you are discussing. Otherwise, you just end up looking like a spoon-fed fool.
Phoenix at 1:42PM on Oct 29th 2007
44. Because Tony, otters are destined to rule the world. I mean, what else will be available after the Rapture? ;) They're real cute, too.
mary C. Seay at 4:33PM on Oct 29th 2007
45. Actually, the otters were one of the warring factions. A very funny south park.
Linda at 2:11PM on Oct 29th 2007