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Twenty million Umbandans can't be wrong.
Jan. 27th, 2009 09:09 amI came across a question the other day. Seemingly quite a simple one: how many religions are there in the world? Well, I thought to myself. There can't be all that many - even counting the various subdenominations such as The Baptists and Quakers in Christianity or Sunni and Shia Islam, there can't be more than a few hundred.
Thinking about it, you have to assume there are loads of Animist systems in Africa and South America and places like that, and there's all the Eastern religions to count as well, so maybe a thousand or so.
Turns out I was badly wrong. According to the most up-to-date study into such things, by the end of 2007 there were almost ten thousand different religions (as defined by self-identification and liturgy) globally. What's more, as time goes on more religions are popping up. The report estimated that during 2007 new religions were being founded, identified or discovered at a cracking rate of two or three every day. That's a whopping number, and far more than you or I have ever heard of.
Take Umbanda, as an example. Before this weekend if you'd mentioned Umbanda to me I'd've assumed that it was a fictional African country in an Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie, but as it turned out it's a major South American religion with more than twenty million adherents in Brazil alone, making it that country's second most popular religion.
If there's one religion you've never heard of with tens of millions of followers out there which you've never heard of before there's bound to be others as well. It's a sobering view of just how big and complex and relatively unexplored so much of the world is.
The report got more interesting from there; the number of different religions in the world has risen rapidly since the middle of the twentieth century, and the number which might be called 'cults' has risen fastest of all. The conclusion is that this is because of, not despite, the wave of secularisation which was so popular in the 1960's and 70's; as the children of that secular generation are growing up, many are seeking some sort of spirituality and as their parents don't talk about that sort of thing, then they are seeking out people who will - making them easier prey to the more evangelical religions and cults out there even as the more mainstream churches are in some decline. It does appear, quite strongly, that if you don't take your kids to your local C of E church (or whatever) when they're younger to give them some sort of mainstream religious grounding then they will grow up more, not less, likely to become Scientologists. You'd think that members of Anonymous of breeding age would be concerned by this.
You know what? I'd give good money to be a fly on the wall the day one of Richard Dawkins' kids walks into his living room with an e-meter and says "Dad, you've got engrams. Let's work them out."
Thinking about it, you have to assume there are loads of Animist systems in Africa and South America and places like that, and there's all the Eastern religions to count as well, so maybe a thousand or so.
Turns out I was badly wrong. According to the most up-to-date study into such things, by the end of 2007 there were almost ten thousand different religions (as defined by self-identification and liturgy) globally. What's more, as time goes on more religions are popping up. The report estimated that during 2007 new religions were being founded, identified or discovered at a cracking rate of two or three every day. That's a whopping number, and far more than you or I have ever heard of.
Take Umbanda, as an example. Before this weekend if you'd mentioned Umbanda to me I'd've assumed that it was a fictional African country in an Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie, but as it turned out it's a major South American religion with more than twenty million adherents in Brazil alone, making it that country's second most popular religion.
If there's one religion you've never heard of with tens of millions of followers out there which you've never heard of before there's bound to be others as well. It's a sobering view of just how big and complex and relatively unexplored so much of the world is.
The report got more interesting from there; the number of different religions in the world has risen rapidly since the middle of the twentieth century, and the number which might be called 'cults' has risen fastest of all. The conclusion is that this is because of, not despite, the wave of secularisation which was so popular in the 1960's and 70's; as the children of that secular generation are growing up, many are seeking some sort of spirituality and as their parents don't talk about that sort of thing, then they are seeking out people who will - making them easier prey to the more evangelical religions and cults out there even as the more mainstream churches are in some decline. It does appear, quite strongly, that if you don't take your kids to your local C of E church (or whatever) when they're younger to give them some sort of mainstream religious grounding then they will grow up more, not less, likely to become Scientologists. You'd think that members of Anonymous of breeding age would be concerned by this.
You know what? I'd give good money to be a fly on the wall the day one of Richard Dawkins' kids walks into his living room with an e-meter and says "Dad, you've got engrams. Let's work them out."
