Nonbelievers Unpopular in America, But We're Gaining on 'Em
By Lee Russ
Saturday, January 05, 2008 at 12:55 PM
As the realtors say, location! Location! Location!
You've probably heard about the poll in 2007 that showed American voters would be less put off by a Muslim candidate than by a candidate who didn't believe in God at all. But did you hear that worldwide, there are a whole lot more nonbelievers than most people think, know, or imagine?
Characteristic:.........................Electability Quotient:
Is Catholic......................................+6
Is an evangelical Christian...............+3
Is a woman.....................................+3
Is black...........................................+3
Is Jewish.........................................-2
Is Hispanic......................................-6
Is Mormon......................................-20
Is Muslim........................................-42
Does not believe in God...................-58
Unbelievers are sixteen points less electable than Muslims! Fifty-six points less electable than Jews, and sixty-four points less electable than Catholics
Then there's the adherents.com estimate of how many people worldwide subscribe to the various religious belief systems. Nonbelievers make out a lot better on that list:
Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.5 billion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
Primal-indigenous: 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 15 million
Judaism: 14 million
Baha'i: 7 million
Jainism: 4.2 million
Shinto: 4 million
Cao Dai: 4 million
Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
Tenrikyo: 2 million
Neo-Paganism: 1 million
Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
Scientology: 500 thousand
**Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.
[Mormonism doesn't show up, so I assume it was packed in with Christianity]Hertz--Avis--Secular. We have to try harder, but....more than a billion. Without proselytizing.
Take Heart Nonbelievers, I Think We're Gainin' On 'Em.
Comments
It's interesting, back when I composed that piece on the Winter Solstice, and the "solar messiah" stuff, I reread The Jesus Mysteries again. (Freke, Gandy)
Part of their thesis is like this: There were mystics who really got the joke, and those clueless who needed rules, regs, a building, hymns and a fucking clue. Well, according to these guys, they took what was an allegorical myth (No, dummy! It's YOU who must die in the body and YOU who must become as a thing of power!) and transformed it into The Greatest Con Job Ever Pulled.
I agree with them: I think Constantine saw a kick-ass power deal in the making by transforming the many "Jesus cults" into one big company, with him as the the straw boss. I think he realized he was looking down the barrel at authoritarianism. With himself, a true authoritarian, as the POS-in-charge.
Too, Wahhabi Islam wedded themselves to the Saudi royals in 1775, one year before we colonists went to war, officially.
Point?
Throughout man's history, those in charge have used the many religions as enslavement of the masses, without the masses realizing such a scam ever was. Whether hearts being torn out to old Mayan madness or some guy being hung naked to "save us all", it's all a clever shell game to control....the masses.
It's about control. How very sad.
Number Six,
Let us not forget how Brahmanical Hinduism served as the ideological foundation for the caste system- the longest uninterrupted hierarchy in human history. The Vedas were the cement and mortar for the systematic brutalization and exploitation of a majority by a minority.
Yes, Visitor and such is most painful, considering what came from Hindu mysticism: The sciences and mathematics. Ample proof, yes, some twist poetry into such tyranny.
Yeh, I like the atheist statistics with Stalin, Pol Pot, Mau Tse Tung. Let's face it, it's the smart guys causing all the problems. They just don't know that they are not so smart. I think you're right. Communism was all about government. That's power to the few. Government(power) is the problem. Power to the people is the message of all religion, but that message was lost somewhere. Never the less, people realize that we do not live in a one dimensional world. It takes the mind two perspectives to see three dimensions and the subconscious makes idiots of all the intellect, science no exception except it is the one that found out that it is flawed also. It leaves out the scientist in the experiment. That's not very objective. Actually the subconscious, it turns out, is more objective than any scientist. Hm, that smack of direct revelation. Isn't that what I have been saying all along? It looks like about six billion people agree with me. The mind is the sixth sense. Science only uses five. Get an aspirin if it hurts.