Religion Statistics

Christianity:                                
CIA- 31.4%
Adherents- 33%

Islam:
CIA- 23.2%
Adherents- 21%

Hinduism:
CIA- 15%
Adherents- 14%

Buddhism:
CIA- 7.1%
Adherents- 6%

Judaism:
CIA- 0.2%
Adherents- 0.22%

The CIA World Factbook and Adherents.com statistics are very close to each other for the percentage of the five major religions in the world. Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism seem to be growing because the adherents.com information is from 2005, but Christianity and Judaism are a little less than it was in 2005.

Christianity and Islam

Today in class we started talking about the five major religions in the world. The first two we covered, which are the two largest, were Christianity and Islam. The number of adherents of Christianity in the world is around 2.2 billion (largest in the world) and they are of course called Christians. Christians are mostly found in Europe, the Americas, and Southern Africa with a bunch of denominations such as, the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants (Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, etc). The founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ and the holy book is the Bible (especially the Gospels in the New Testament). Christians believe Jesus is both human and the divine Son of God and in his lifetime he was crucified, died, buried, resurrected, and then ascended to heaven to be with God the Father. The clergy in Christianity is the Pope is the head of the Church and there are priests that are local authorities. The number of adherents of the Islam religion is 1.5 billion (second largest in the world) and unlike the predictable name of Christians, they are called Muslims. Muslims are mostly in Indonesia, the Middle East, and North Africa and only have two denominations which are the Sunnis (75-95%) and the Shias (10-20%). The founder of the Islam faith is Muhammad and their holy book is the Qur'an (Koran). Muslims beliefs are monotheistic, Abrahamic, and the 5 pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage). Muslims see the purpose of life is to serve and submit to God.