The Future Of World Relgions report (PEW Research)

[Minimalist]

It is the fact Islam doesn't do much to lift Islamic societies out of backwardness into modern wealth and plenty.

Correct, Chuck.  The catholics are still screaming about that.  They love the idea of people having too many kids and thus keeping themselves in abject poverty.  This makes them dependent on the church and keeps the churches full of idiots who don't know better.  The first thing Western culture did when it threw off the yoke of jesus was abandon the fucking churches.  The Imams noted that.  They know what side their bread is buttered on.

[Ravenshire]

Whatever happened to doing things for people without having a pretext?

I don't think that was ever part of the game plan. For the individual religious people, maybe. But, not for the organizations.

[Aroura]

Yeah, there are a lot of difficulties in getting accurate numbers for something like this.

For instance, I stopped going to church in my late teens. Like ever. I didn't even get married in a church, either time I did it! But I still self identified as a Christian and specifically as a Catholic until I was about 30. Between 30 and 33, I don't know what I would have answered as my beliefs were changing, probably spiritual or believe in some sort of higher power. I finally admitted my atheism to myself when I was 33.
So how many people claim they are Christian but don't actually practice, and are on the "spiritual" end of their belief spectrum, headed for "none"?



So this kind of research isn't terribly accurate in a lot of ways, I think. People lie to researchers, and to themselves as well.

[dyresand]

Yeah, there are a lot of difficulties in getting accurate numbers for something like this.

For instance, I stopped going to church in my late teens.  Like ever.  I didn't even get married in a church, either time I did it!  But I still self identified as a Christian and specifically as a Catholic until I was about 30.  Between 30 and 33, I don't know what I would have answered as my beliefs were changing, probably spiritual or believe in some sort of higher power.  I finally admitted my atheism to myself when I was 33.  
So how many people claim they are Christian but don't actually practice, and are on the "spiritual" end of their belief spectrum, headed for "none"?  



So this kind of research isn't terribly accurate in a lot of ways, I think.  People lie to researchers, and to themselves as well.

Also on the news they said islam is growing its really not i had to check unbiased news sites religion is just plain dying. 

[Cephus]

A lot of Scandinavian countries have national churches that everyone is automatically counted as a member of unless they take steps to leave the church.  I'm sure that's what the survey is referring to, which is entirely disingenuous because the majority of Scandinavians never go to church, probably never read a Bible and don't believe any of the religious crap.  This just shows you can twist the data to mean almost anything you want it to mean.

[Dystopia]

Correct, I'm probably a Catholic in my country because I'm baptised and "registered" as such.

[RobertE]

Yeah, there are a lot of difficulties in getting accurate numbers for something like this.

For instance, I stopped going to church in my late teens.  Like ever.  I didn't even get married in a church, either time I did it!  But I still self identified as a Christian and specifically as a Catholic until I was about 30.  Between 30 and 33, I don't know what I would have answered as my beliefs were changing, probably spiritual or believe in some sort of higher power.  I finally admitted my atheism to myself when I was 33.  
So how many people claim they are Christian but don't actually practice, and are on the "spiritual" end of their belief spectrum, headed for "none"?  



So this kind of research isn't terribly accurate in a lot of ways, I think.  People lie to researchers, and to themselves as well.

Also on the news they said islam is growing its really not i had to check unbiased news sites religion is just plain dying. 

I am not so sure. They are simply basing it on the number of people who are emigrating from Islamic countries to the western world. Then they get 2+2 = 4. However, with the church numbers dwindling, especially in the United Kingdom, it could become a reality where Islam is the number one religion. Only Japan is stopping muslims from living there which can be construed as racist against Arabs.

[Minimalist]

The japs always were smart.

[dyresand]

The japs always were smart.

Exactly ^

[Homeless Nutter]

Most Christians I know are in fact pagans, heretics, or agnostics, who call themselves members of their regional denomination of Christianity in order to "fit in". They make up their own beliefs, loosely based on Christianity (with all sorts of external influences, from eastern religions, to new age, to regional superstitions), but they know almost nothing about their churches' actual doctrines. Most of them barely - or not at all - attend church and don't observe the majority of religious rituals and "laws". And they hate truly devout Christians (aka - religious nuts) even more, than the atheists do.

Still - on paper, they appear as "Christians", which makes me doubt the accuracy of any reports, regarding numbers of Christians in civilized societies.