Why

[sugarmagnolia]

^
no china is not a majority of the worlds population dude. It has one of the largest populations, but not a majority. plus it is only "officially" atheist. don't forget all the buddhism and taoism there.

Ur definitely very very wrong. the largest religious group is Christianity.

nice try though.

[weirdo79]

Sorry its only 1.4 billion my mistake, I should have said "asia". Also though "christianity" isnt a religion if your counting "catholicism, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox,Lutheran,Latter day saints,Jehovah's witnesses, Nominal etc etc" all as the same group. Theres over 50 major "sects" for so called christianity. The only people who claim christianity as a whole is those who wish to push their religion to the largest. (not saying your a "christian trying to do this") But I perused over 40 websites all claiming anyway from 2.5% atheist/agnostic to 20% atheist/agnostic. Also anywhere from 22%-30% "christian". When half the groups included in "christian" don't believe that jesus was their messiah etc (which is the definition of "christianity"), I'm inclined to believe that they (christians) would like to believe they're the biggest but if you go deeper than an actual claim it shows more along the lines of each of those groups (catholicism etc) to be separated into actual different religions and not just "sects" as they dont even come close to believing the same thing, for instance Jehovah's witnesses tend to fall in line with Lutherans, but neither comes close to Roman Catholicism. Well I will admit I was wrong , christianity is certainly not the biggest unless you lump all their denominations together which by definition makes them "non christian" as many don't believe Jesus was their saviour (see above). That would make Muslim the largest as the sects in muslim religions all have the same prophets(but not necessarily the same worldview, but the same religious view nonetheless, unlike those we define as "christian" despite their major differences).

Also you define Chinese as having many other religions ie: buddhism and Taoism unfortunately the adherents of such will tell you one thing. Only a "non buddhist or Taoist" would call it a religion (along with confucianism) when the actual practitioners call it a philosphy something entirely different from religion. Which is also why Taoism and Buddhism are generally not taught in university level Religion courses but instead in Philosphy courses , same with confucianism. Also they account for still less than a quarter of china's 1.4 billion. Also it still has the highest population of any country not one of the largest , it is simply still the largest. And, technically speaking still after all those stats that would still make China "1 billion atheists" despite statistics online from major groups (mostly christian based ironically....)

Plus just saying im "very very" anything doesnt make your point backing it up does though

[weirdo79]

China and the UN have their own websites where this information can be found. I'll admit theres only roughly 1.4 Billion Atheists in the world , but according to every "stats" website I could find theres less than 900 million worldwide...Alot of atheists seem to be missing....Or in limbo...Or , simply religious groups would rather not count them at all. if you take the world population numbers and numbers reported internationally on "followers of religion" and atheists are only supposed to be 2.5%-20% even, that means alot of people out there are imaginary as christian , muslim , etc etc all added up still leaves an over 20% margin after calculation.

For instance the following is the rough numbers from the majority of websites out there.
1. Christianity: 2 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million
5. Buddhism: 360 million
6. Chinese traditional religion: 225 million(confucianism a philosphy not a religion)
7. primal-indigenous: 150 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 14 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 6 million
14. Jainism: 4 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 3 million
17. Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
18. Neo-Paganism: 1 million(only a million people? Wiccan's would tend to disagree)
19. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
20. Rastafarianism: 700 thousand (we need more of these....especially considering the site were on )
21. Scientology: 600 thousand (only 600 thousand celebrities with too much money how weird?)
22. Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

This as you can see still doesnt sum up the world population of roughly 6.4 billion In fact it goes below it , but I guess they skipped a few hundred million people and religions. Or decided not to count babies/toddlers etc which account for roughly 1/10 th of the world's pop also throwing this off (as they arent old enough to even know what religions is). Basically all this illustrates is don't believe everything you see online do the math yourself. Also realize that religions will always want to be on top. Also most of the sites claim either "declining" or "growing" each one that isnt governmental says "christianity" is growing, every government website says "falling" (as does every study done on the subject). So im inclined to find anything they report suspect. As would I be suspicious if someone reported Islam was the largest. But if it was actually supported by empirical evidence and not just over generalizations of the different sects then I would believe it. Suffice to say "christianity" only includes those that think of jesus as gods son and the messiah(by definition), which means many included with such arent actually christian at all...I'll admit I was wrong , but just assuming christianity is the biggest because of a few websites without digging deeper is just as "very very wrong" .

[juggalo420]

1. Christianity: 2 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million
5. Buddhism: 360 million
6. Chinese traditional religion: 225 million(confucianism a philosphy not a religion)
7. primal-indigenous: 150 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 14 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 6 million
14. Jainism: 4 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 3 million
17. Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
18. Neo-Paganism: 1 million(only a million people? Wiccan's would tend to disagree)
19. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
20. Rastafarianism: 700 thousand (we need more of these....especially considering the site were on )
21. Scientology: 600 thousand (only 600 thousand celebrities with too much money how weird?)
22. Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

also take into account many people listed as christian are listed simply because they were baptised, it doesnt mean there practicing there religion.

[juggalo420]

Sorry its only 1.4 billion my mistake, I should have said "asia". Also though "christianity" isnt a religion if your counting "catholicism, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox,Lutheran,Latter day saints,Jehovah's witnesses, Nominal etc etc" all as the same group. Theres over 50 major "sects" for so called christianity. The only people who claim christianity as a whole is those who wish to push their religion to the largest.

to be fair though theres different sects/denominations in every religion (islam-shitte, sunni) hinduism as more than i can think of, (judaism- orthodox, liberal, ultra-orthodox, other ones also). every major religion has different denominations, it isnt a question of belief or doctrine it has to deal with interpretation and power (power being whose in charge). so inconclusion just because theres different christian denominations doesnt mean there different religions,

i hate defending christianity, but fairs fair.

[weirdo79]

You missed one point I made Jug , those that dont believe christ is the messiah , can't be defined as christians as the definition is those that believe christ is their saviour , god incarnate and the messiah are christians the rest are simply faiths of Yahweh. , I clearly said this (in the part you didnt quote)

[weirdo79]

Oh and jug totally off topic but I used to have some Juggalo neighbours (and man what great partiers) but I was wondering because I really enjoyed their music and had alot of songs downloaded but I forget the majority of the bands "juggalo's" listen too could you give me a few names (besides ICP of course I remember them, ahhh the dating game is still my fave....). I know its commercial (ICP) but I love em , they were great wrestlers too in my estimation (im no expert on that though usually have my nose in a book instead of watching wrestling like I should be ). I miss that stuff. Ever since my HD got wiped out last year I've been having trouble finding all that music

[juggalo420]

You missed one point I made Jug , those that dont believe christ is the messiah , can't be defined as christians as the definition is those that believe christ is their saviour , god incarnate and the messiah are christians the rest are simply faiths of Yahweh. , I clearly said this (in the part you didnt quote)

my bad, but i dont know that many christian denominations that deny christs the messiah, i know some like johovahs wittnesses and mormons deny the trinity, which is suppose to be one of christianitys central doctrines, but there not a large percentage.

[juggalo420]

Oh and jug totally off topic but I used to have some Juggalo neighbours (and man what great partiers) but I was wondering because I really enjoyed their music and had alot of songs downloaded but I forget the majority of the bands "juggalo's" listen too could you give me a few names (besides ICP of course I remember them, ahhh the dating game is still my fave....). I know its commercial (ICP) but I love em , they were great wrestlers too in my estimation (im no expert on that though usually have my nose in a book instead of watching wrestling like I should be ). I miss that stuff. Ever since my HD got wiped out last year I've been having trouble finding all that music

twiztid, blaze ya dead homie, anybody killa, jumpsteady, dark lotus

[weirdo79]

Thanks for the bands, and there's over 20/of the roughly 50 "sects" (but I would define them as separate religions as I would sunni or shiite in all honesty as well by the classification of "religion"). And Thanks again for the bands I've already downloaded a few (I really like Dark Lotus, I dont think I had any of that before my crash)