so did I, Im a big fan of blue...

dave, that depends upon where you are in the world

According to this website, however, islam IS the most popluar religion in the world, especially if Christianity was broken up into its smaller individual categories, followed by catholicism, hinduism.. etc etc. screen shot:

The number of people adhering to Christianity is rather subjective. How many people that are baptised as Christains bears little relation to how many people are practicing Christians but you can bet that Jesus and his followers claim them all in their little graphs. Islam is probably the most popular religion amongst Muslims. Christianity is probably the most unpopular amongst non-Christians.

Hey Lynn, That is a very flawed website. Islam can also be broken down into various subgroups like Sunni, Shia, Sufi, Druze, Wahhabi etc. which have greater differences between them than Christian denominations

are you sure about that last statement tsurumi?

Sufi and Shia are very different. Like comparing Prespaterians to Amish.

greater differences between them. Jehovah and Mormon?

Boredofu...that is a very good analogy. Also, the Wahhabis could be compared to fundamentalist Baptists whereas Sufis are very mystical and believe in dancing during prayers. Druze Muslims have adopted many aspects of Christianity. Islam is not monolithic in the same way that Christianity has Southern Baptists and Greek Orthodox, and Judaism has Hasidim and Liberal Reconstructionists.

I think, thanks to people like Osama bin Laden, that it could hardly be described as "popular." Certainly it's widespread, but popular? Stretching it a bit there, at least in the West.

it is popular for over 1 billion followers.

I always thought the Druze were similar to Mormons. They seem pretty cultish in that they have a self-contained religion that they don't let anyone else know anything about.

There aren't supposed to subgroups of Islam anyway. Humans did that, and it's wrong.

On 3/23/2005 10:05:08 PM fbgenius wrote: There aren't supposed to subgroups of Islam anyway. Humans did that, and it's wrong.

Exactly. Some supgroups are not even considered muslim by the rest.

i thought hindu was

The stupid thing about this question is:

It's not a matter of opinion!

The mods are stupid.

UNDERSTAND---
there is no OTHER religion of any consequence with authorized followers to KILL those who leave the religion.
The crime of APOSTHASY is IN THE KORAN.
IT IS PRACTICED---directly in the fatwah's against those who leave the religion, and in the shunning of them by their entire community.

How can you measure religions which allow people to make choices (christianity, buddhism, Judaism, etc.) against one which KILLS those who don't chose to continue?

Look up Dimmi as well...

No, Islam as we see it even today has not moved from the 8th century---and it is not equipped to do so...it survives by force, only.

the sooner the rest of us wake up to that, the better.

On 10/14/2007 4:51:57 PM typeatme wrote: The crime of APOSTHASY is IN THE KORAN. IT IS PRACTICED---directly in the fatwah's against those who leave the religion, and in the shunning of them by their entire community.

While it may be in the Koran... The bible isn't such a joyful read either.

And while it may be practiced by some communities... that doesn't speak for their entire religion any more than nutcase, right-wing Americans speak for Christianity.

As far as 'trend' religions go, I would say Budhism. A lot of white, middle class folk are getting into the realm of budha.

^ Not that Budhism is a trend, just a religion that has been turned into a 'fad'.