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 5 of 11)
61. Religion problem in the next 50 years!
Earth`s worst problem today and the future is both
polution and population explosion.
Thanks to Nobel Peace Prize winner 2007 Al Gore we are finally tackling the overheating problem but not the crazy waste of fossil oil and gas resouces.
But who dares to publish a book about the worse
problem of over-population our earth experiences today which will be a human tradegy within 20 - 50 years. We already have a staggering shortage of land, forests, wildlife and water resouces. Who has the courage to stop our human accelerating over-population which is often described as the 2000 century population explosion. Thanks to Chairman Mao who legally decreed 1 child per family
in modern China with astonishing and grateful results today, better living standards in China.
Who can help stop the population catastrop in India
South America, Mexico, Phillipines, Middle East?
Not the Roman Catholic Pope nor Moslim Iman priests so I ask you the reader, who will have the courage to tackle this human problem before it
resolves itself the natural way through teritorial or religous warfare with terrible human suffering as it has occurred through the past centuries?
Realistic idealist at 8:08AM on Oct 30th 2007
62. Christianity is a religion for women while Judaism and Islam are religions for men. The growing influence of Christianity is one more data point re: the pussification of America.
Jimmy at 3:36PM on Oct 29th 2007
63. Religion in the next 20 - 50 years.
Our earth suffers today from 2 staggering problems,
polution and population explosions which are partly
results of religious dogma, Christian welldoing and
Moslem reproduction.
Nobel peace prize author Al Gore described in his book the polution catastroph, but who voulenteers to write about the population explosion which is
destroying living conditions and wildlife forests in many countries, Africa, South America, Mexico, India, Pakistan and the Middle East. Chairman Mao
proclaimed legally only i child per family in China
Not the Roman Catholic Pope or Moslem Iman priests!
Realistic idealist at 8:14AM on Oct 30th 2007
64. This reminds me of a part of the debate with Hitches were Dinesh rained triumphant. A questioner in the audience was a Pacific Islander who reminded Hitchins that before Christianity his people were OK with eating each other. Hitches had no answer to the obvious civilizing influences of Christianity….
He could only sputter out something about Christianity coming with colonialism. As he well knows, multiple countries that have overthrown colonialism, nevertheless have enthusiastically embraced Christianity. The people themselves have always distinguished between the two.
Christianity outpaces Islam because it is a religion of the heart not the sword.
Fitz at 3:52PM on Oct 29th 2007
65. Even if we question the article on the basis of the beliefs of the author, are not all these responses rooted in the beliefs of the responders? Are not we all true-believers in something? Are not the true-unbelievers also true-believers? The article appears to me to be more analytical than critical. The choice of "angry backlash" might be regarded as offensive, especially when one sees the angry response it generated. The responses show how difficult it is for true-believers to dialogue on the statistics lifted up in the article. Christians, Muslims, and A-theists are true-believers that can not see things objectively at all. That is why no one knows what we stand for because we are always standing against one another.
That my friends is not what Jesus wanted.
Bob G at 4:05PM on Oct 29th 2007
66. Stephanie you should actually educate yourself instead of throwing around stereotypes that are based on ignorance. The number of children muslims have isn't as high as it used to be. As they become more westernized, they also practice polygamy less and less. There are cultures around the world that practice polygymy far more than Islam, you just don't know about them if you are an ignorant person. And if you consider the brainwashing done by missionaries to be "conversion" in Africa, well then it's only a matter of time before they too become more educated and more secular. And I'd really love to know where the "seculars only have one child" came from. Only certain groups of christians believe in having 20 kids, and those groups are not in great enough quantities to ever affect the overall population. Not to mention the number of seculars is growing in America and is already high in Europe, and the number attending church in the US is dropping. It's funny how you never distinguish between secular-athiests and seculars who are spiritual. We don't all think the same, just like there are decent christians and then there's dinesh and ann coulter. What the hell is your problem? Why is this a contest to see which religion grows faster? Why is it so hard for dumb asses like you to just accept a world where many religions exist? Why do you think you and every christian is perfect? Who the hell died and made you god, all knowing and all powerful? Jesus?
Jane at 4:16PM on Oct 29th 2007
67. DD asks, "Guess who's going to own the 21st century"??? Easy answer, lots of dirt poor third world Christians who will be really angry at rich countries when they grow up.
Larry at 4:30PM on Oct 29th 2007
68. As a Christian(Roman Catholic)and the wife of a Muslim man, I am concerned with many of these comments. Islam is not a violent religion as Christianity does not bribe the poor for them to believe as some have mentioned. Both religions are based on the same thing: peace and the belief in one God. This is why there is such animosity between the two because people are not open to learning and instead of respecting someone's beliefs they would rather put them down. Who really cares if Christianity is faster growing than Islam or vice versa? Just accept people for what they believe and go on your merry way. There is no reason to push your religion on others, unless you are questioning your own beliefs.
DJ at 4:38PM on Oct 29th 2007
69. Jimmy said: "The growing influence of Christianity is one more data point re: the pussification of America."
LMAO and rolling on the ground with tears in my eyes. Thanks for the laugh
Linda at 4:42PM on Oct 29th 2007
70. ATTENTION:Better still don't get into the bible just read Revelations, your way too late for anything else. Again, I ask the question, What will you think when millions of people that Mr. D'Souza is referring to disappear in the twinkling of an eye? What will you have to say then? How will you handle that? Better check out how the story ends before you start explaining how life works and doesn't work and how our co-existence on this earth such as it is, and life has no meaning except for what you make of it. Oh, yeah one more thing before you believe these nutty professors and great thinkers better find out who put them here in the first place. Better still GOD says, we are to love the sinner not the sin. So love to all whoever and where ever you are. May GOD Bless and keep you. Rita
rita at 4:44PM on Oct 29th 2007
71. It's a little hard to stomach a lot of these posts, as most people are too busy bashing whatever side they're not on. Christians do this! Muslims do that! Arg! Athiests are the devil! Christians are po-dunk idiots! Muslims are medieval tyrants!
Everyone...CALM DOWN. Getting so angry and defensive does nothing to support your point, it only drives people away, stirs up animosity and excaberates the argument. Where is arguing the "truth" going to get you? Where is it going to get me? Does it make anyone see the proverbial light? No much. If your religion means so much to you, practice it. Practice discussion and temperance, not arrogance and pride or self-righteousness. Invite people to understand your position, don't shove it down their throats.
mary C. Seay at 12:57PM on Oct 30th 2007
72. Ronald B. Zeh said:
"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."
First of all, the original foundation for the Judeo-Christian religions, the Old Testament, was very violent.
Secondly, there are plenty of religions that not only claim to be non-violent, but have actually succeeded in avoiding it. Try researching Buddhism, for example. If you want some more examples, let me know.
Tem at 5:40PM on Oct 29th 2007
73. "but have actually succeeded in avoiding it."
It being violence, not non-violence.
Tem at 5:42PM on Oct 29th 2007
74. rita asks:
"What will you think when millions of people that Mr. D'Souza is referring to disappear in the twinkling of an eye? What will you have to say then?"
Be sure and wake me when that happens, k? Oh, and let me know if Superman shows up, too.
Brian Westley at 6:14PM on Oct 29th 2007
75. Who cares! There is no god.
Chris at 6:26PM on Oct 29th 2007