In order to check if there was any religious implication of the New York 9/11 terror event of 2001, I decided to compare the share of major world religions before and after that event. Data compiled from the 2008 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica gives the following picture:
Adherents of % of World Population by Year
Religion 1996 2001 2006
Christians 33.7 32.9 33.2
Muslims 19.4 19.7 20.4
Hindus 13.7 13.4 13.3
Buddhists 5.6 5.9 5.85
Jews 0.239 0.236 0.231
From the above table the following trends can be interpreted:
• The share of Christianity which was declining between 1996 and 2001 turned into a discernible increase between 2001 and 2006. Christianity gained.
• The share of Islam continued to grow at an accelerating rate as before. Islam was not affected.
• The decline in the share of Hinduism was slowed down, probably due to reduction in conversion rate to Islam.
• The advance of Buddhism turned into decline.
• The Jewish share continued to decline as before.
The future historian, who might also compile similar statistics and corroborate it with the military activity of the Christian nations during the period, might be tempted to conclude that during the early 21st century Christianity was spread on earth with the help of bombs and rockets.
Nice comparison and analysis of the trend. But in my opinion, Islam was badly affected by the 911 incident. Stats can just show one side of the coin.
ReplyDeleteWhy is buddhism not advancing in the world specially in our region? I believe a person like Buddha can do miracles in our region and unite us. The shortage of energy and the un-natural life style adopted by the Human race can also be addressed by the Buddhist philosophy.
Your blog is very original and interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.