Are religions the World's Future? or are they the World's Past?

April 3, 2015 Philip Waring Leave a comment

One view of our future, that of individual achievement:

James Harden Scores 51 and Makes Case for M.V.P. in Big Night.

Harden, right, being considered for the N.B.A. Most Valuable Player Award, shot 16 for 25, including 8 for 9 from 3-point range putting up a career high of 51 points while beating the Sacramento Kings Wednesday night. DeMarcus Cousins for the Kings had 24 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists.

And here, another view of the future? These men, all members of religious sects of the distant past, all lined up, but ready to go where, pulling us along with them into the past?

From left, a Hindu, Muslim, Christian and a Sikh prepare to give oaths to newly inducted army personnel in Bangalore, India, on March 25.

Although India is projected to remain a Hindu-majority nation, it will have the world’s largest Muslim population by 2050, a new study shows.

lede_globalsurveymuslims-II — Overwhelming percentages of Muslims in many countries want Islamic law (sharia) to be the official law of the land, according to a worldwide survey by the Pew Research Center.

Ought we not to apply sanctions to those who would have us march with them back into the Middle Ages, much as we apply sanctions to the Iran of the Mullahs and to the Russia of Putin?

The Pew Foundation’s Forecast: Future of World Religions

Muslims Are Rising Fastest and the Unaffiliated Are Shrinking, as a Share of the World’s Population

The religious profile of the world is rapidly changing, driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world’s major religions, as well as by people switching faiths. Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion. If current trends continue, by 2050

The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.
Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.
The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.
In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.
India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050, and Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion. Muslims will be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa.