Re:Religious 'Nones' in America: Who They Are and What They ...
by jfengel on Friday February 02, 2024 @02:08PM
(#39232823)
You're especially correct when it comes to the Jews: they actively discourage converts. They don't believe that their deity condemns people for believing wrong, and Judaism is a duty rather than a reward.
They are also, unsurprisingly, by far the smallest of the three groups you mention. But if you're trying to understand the impact of religion, you should also look outside of the Abrahamic faiths. They do comprise about half the religious believers in the world, but you're missing a lot of people if you exclude the Hindus and Buddhists.
There are also a great many Shintoists, Sikhs, Jains, etc. Each religion is comparatively small, but they represent a very wide diversity of what "religion" can mean.
The Christians and Muslims do seek converts and do think that people who don't convert are punished. (Depending on sect; there's a wide variety of approaches.) A lot of people outside those religions would see that as self-serving, but it does hold a certain internal logic: "God wants everybody to be this religion to avoid whatever punishment, and sent me to make sure it happens."
That's not a particularly compelling argument to me, but it does attract billions of adherents, so it's can't be dismissed trivially.
They are also, unsurprisingly, by far the smallest of the three groups you mention. But if you're trying to understand the impact of religion, you should also look outside of the Abrahamic faiths. They do comprise about half the religious believers in the world, but you're missing a lot of people if you exclude the Hindus and Buddhists.
There are also a great many Shintoists, Sikhs, Jains, etc. Each religion is comparatively small, but they represent a very wide diversity of what "religion" can mean.
The Christians and Muslims do seek converts and do think that people who don't convert are punished. (Depending on sect; there's a wide variety of approaches.) A lot of people outside those religions would see that as self-serving, but it does hold a certain internal logic: "God wants everybody to be this religion to avoid whatever punishment, and sent me to make sure it happens."
That's not a particularly compelling argument to me, but it does attract billions of adherents, so it's can't be dismissed trivially.