Religion; the elephant in the room; a Super Giant! (hell, churches, fanaticism)

[Mickiel]

Originally Posted by PoppySead

Fear indeed has it's place. How do you think CNN got it's top hold on news! To me it's not so much that God dominates society, fear does. I wonder how many followers God could muster without it? Food for thought anyway.

Do you know of a list by country? I'd like to see which countries have what percentage of theists, atheists

I've found a few but you might have one that's up to date, if you don't mind sharing.

I did find a strange contridiction on the site, Adherents.com;

Here are just some of the stats on Secular/ Atheist/ Agnostic - in millions;

Vietnam - 82 m
Japan - 127 m
France - 60 m
Russia - 143 m
Britian - 60 m
USA - 293 m

But look at what it list for China ( I'll write the number just as they did)
1,298,848,000. Now I read this as in the " Trillions". But if thats true, it throws off the pie graph they listed. So I am curious about that.

[PoppySead]

Adherents.com: Atheist Statistics | Agnostic





Number of Atheists/
Agnostics

Country population percent (minimum - maximum)

Sweden 8,986,000 46 - 85% 4,133,560 - 7,638,100

Vietnam 82,690,000 81% 66,978,900

Denmark 5,413,000 43 - 80% 2,327,590 - 4,330,400

Norway 4,575,000 31 - 72% 1,418,250 - 3,294,000

Japan 127,333,000 64 - 65% 81,493,120 - 82,766,450

Czech Republic 10,246,100 54 - 61% 5,328,940 - 6,250,121

Finland 5,215,000 28 - 60% 1,460,200 - 3,129,000

France 60,424,000 43 - 54% 25,982,320 - 32,628,960

South Korea 48,598,000 30 - 52% 14,579,400 - 25,270,960

Estonia 1,342,000 49% 657,580

Germany 82,425,000 41 - 49% 33,794,250 - 40,388,250

Russia 143,782,000 24 - 48% 34,507,680 - 69,015,360

Hungary 10,032,000 32 - 46% 3,210,240 - 4,614,720

Netherlands 16,318,000 39 - 44% 6,364,020 - 7,179,920

Britain 60,271,000 31 - 44% 18,684,010 - 26,519,240

Belgium 10,348,000 42 - 43% 4,346,160 - 4,449,640

Bulgaria 7,518,000 34 - 40% 2,556,120 - 3,007,200

Slovenia 2,011,000 35 - 38% 703,850 - 764,180

Israel 6,199,000 15 - 37% 929,850 - 2,293,630

Canada 32,508,000 19 - 30% 6,176,520 - 9,752,400

Latvia 2,306,000 20 - 29% 461,200 - 668,740

Slovakia 5,424,000 10 - 28% 542,400 - 1,518,720

Switzerland 7,451,000 17 - 27% 1,266,670 - 2,011,770

Austria 8,175,000 18 - 26% 1,471,500 - 2,125,500

Australia 19,913,000 24 - 25% 4,779,120 - 4,978,250

Taiwan 22,750,000 24% 5,460,000

Spain 40,281,000 15 - 24% 6,042,150 - 9,667,440

Iceland 294,000 16 - 23% 47,040 - 67,620

New Zealand 3,994,000 20 - 22% 798,800 - 878,680

Ukraine 47,732,000 20% 9,546,400

Belarus 10,311,000 17% 1,752,870

Greece 10,648,000 16% 1,703,680

North Korea 22,698,000 15%* 3,404,700

Italy 58,057,000 6 - 15% 3,483,420 - 8,708,550

Armenia 2,991,000 14% 418,740

China 1,298,848,000 8 - 14%* 103,907,840 - 181,838,720

Lithuania 3,608,000 13% 469,040

Singapore 4,354,000 13% 566,020

Uruguay 3,399,000 12% 407,880

Kazakhstan 15,144,000 11 - 12% 1,665,840 - 1,817,280

Mongolia 2,751,000 9% 247,590

Portugal 10,524,000 4 - 9% 420,960 - 947,160

USA 293,028,000 3 - 9% 8,790,840 - 26,822,520

Albania 3,545,000 8% 283,600

Argentina 39,145,000 4 - 8% 1,565,800 - 3,131,600

Kyrgyzstan 5,081,000 7% 355,670

Dominican Republic 8,834,000 7% 618,380

Cuba 11,309,000 7%* 791,630

Croatia 4,497,000 7% 314,790

Thanks so much, what a great site!

So, in some countries theist are the elephant, some not so much, maybe a goat, or horse. It's interesting to see by country.

I'm curious how these numbers coincide with peaceful countries, less war or conflict depending on which belief is dominant. I'm going to try and match those figures up, I'll get back to ya.

[PoppySead]

Originally Posted by Mickiel

I did find a strange contridiction on the site, Adherents.com;

Here are just some of the stats on Secular/ Atheist/ Agnostic - in millions;

Vietnam - 82 m
Japan - 127 m
France - 60 m
Russia - 143 m
Britian - 60 m
USA - 293 m

But look at what it list for China ( I'll write the number just as they did)
1,298,848,000. Now I read this as in the " Trillions". But if thats true, it throws off the pie graph they listed. So I am curious about that.

Well, best for us to use the same site that you posted. But I'm sure a lot of things vary between sites. For one I believe some of the years differ on information collected. I found some interesting stuff on there though. For accurate numbers I'm sure there is a government listing of faith somewhere.

[Mickiel]

Originally Posted by PoppySead

Well, best for us to use the same site that you posted. But I'm sure a lot of things vary between sites. For one I believe some of the years differ on information collected. I found some interesting stuff on there though. For accurate numbers I'm sure there is a government listing of faith somewhere.

Well I like the site and consider their stats as comprehensive, but I question that " Trillion number in China." Maybe I am reading it wrong? Because if that were true, their whole pie graph would have to be changed on the amount of Atheist in the world.

[sanspeur]

Originally Posted by Mickiel

Well I like the site and consider their stats as comprehensive, but I question that " Trillion number in China." Maybe I am reading it wrong? Because if that were true, their whole pie graph would have to be changed on the amount of Atheist in the world.

The number is not in the trillions.. ....The population of China is---one billion, two hundred and ninety eight million, eight hundred and forty eight thousand..........1,298,848,000

[PoppySead]

Originally Posted by Mickiel

Well I like the site and consider their stats as comprehensive, but I question that " Trillion number in China." Maybe I am reading it wrong? Because if that were true, their whole pie graph would have to be changed on the amount of Atheist in the world.

Well, it did give this note:

These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.

[sanspeur]

Originally Posted by PoppySead

Well, it did give this note:

These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.

I would say that anyone who does not believe in god is conforming to the definition of atheist, regardless if the label themselves as such or not. As a matter of fact I think the number of atheists in the world is far greater than these numbers indicate....

Many of them probably don't care enough one way or the other to even declare their non belief, and others who live amongst the devoutly religious know that they will be ostracized or in some cases lose their position in society, or even their careers if they exit their closet, so they too do not wear the label of atheist. In America atheists are the least trusted demographic, simply because of the prejudice of the religious.

[brightdoglover]

If the supposed large percentage of the world's population follows religion, then it could be thought that religion is powerful and has majority support.
Or.
One could understand that people will turn themselves inside-out to figure out why life is the way it is and there is always someone with a hand otu ready to tell them.

Remember that one can be atheist and Buddhist, and I'm sure there are other groups that don't have a monotheistic god figure.

[catman]

I'm glad I don't have any elephants in my rooms. They are difficult to house-train.

So the thrust of the argument is an argument through popularity? Ooh, a "Super Giant". That's what happens when parents teach their young children to believe in the parental religion. What young child is going to tell his parents that they are full of it?

[LuminousTruth]

The list of religions reminds me of a list of parasites, or demons. its definately interesting and ghastly.