Those of us who check none of the above seldom make headlines, though we are the third largest group. We often live our days allowing others to imagine we are believers...sometimes out of fear, sometimes out of a simple polite desire not to make a stir. We get labeled as Christians, Muslims, and Hindus when we are not. In our hearts we reject these labels. All my life Ive been happy to be among the 1.1 billion... Atheists, agnostics and those claiming no religious affiliation now rank as the world’s third largest “religious” grouping, according to a new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which looked at 230 countries and 2,500 censuses. The Pew study found 2.2 billion of the world’s people, or 32 percent, consider themselves to be adherents of the Christian faith. Islam follows in second place, with 1.6 billion believers. In third place is the category “none,” consisting of 1.1 billion of the world’s people who claim no religious affiliation or proclaim themselves to be atheists or agnostics.
Posted on: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 02:26:05 +0000