Comments on: Beliefs Around the World

By: Loren Petrich

Loren Petrich — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:50:12 +0000

There’s an old Chinese saying, and a very true one:

Religions are many, but reason is one.

And more seriously, science is an international and cross-ethnic business. But with religion, one gets the circumstance that the most segregated hour of the week in the U.S. of A. is 11 AM Sundays, as MLK Jr. noted.

By: Oh well…onward August 18 « blueollie

Oh well…onward August 18 « blueollie — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:51:38 +0000

[...] Science (hat tip to Friendly Atheist) [...]

By: Jeremy White

Jeremy White — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:45:40 +0000

But atheism isn’t a religion or faith, so it wouldn’t be included on the map.

By: joel

joel — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:06:08 +0000

Despite the small number of errors, this map is a stunning arguement against the infallibilty of any one religion. Most people believe what they believe because of where they were born. Period.

By: hoverFrog

hoverFrog — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:13:35 +0000

According to the World Values Survey 2005

In Britain, only 42% of those interviewed said they considered themselves “a religious person”. While 72% claim to believe in God, this is one of the lowest proportions in the world, and only 33% believe the church offers answers to moral problems.

With 42% claiming a particular religion Britain cannot be considered “Mostly Protestant”. I’d like the colour changed to white please…like Antarctica who also have no dominant religion.

By: Ramon

Ramon — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:34:47 +0000

The Philippines is also marked wrong, being predominantly Roman Catholic with Roman Catholic + Muslim southern regions.

But I guess that’s besides the point.

By: Skeptico

Skeptico — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:30:41 +0000

Not sure “mostly believe in the theory of evolution” applies to that block in N. America – you know, the bit below Canada and above Mexico. What’s that place called, again? Otherwise, though, good graph.

Actually, the bottom map shows agreement with scientific consensus. You don’t have to applied one iota of critical thinking to accept the germ theory of disease.

1) Actually, I think that’s the whole point

2)Tell that to Bill Maher.

By: Sabayon

Sabayon — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:14:43 +0000

Another small error, the French speaking (western, hugging lake Geneva) area is mostly Protestant, Geneva being the home of Calvinism and all. Still it’s a good point that most people follow the religious beliefs they were given, and so religion really is rarely a conclusion one arrives at.

By: hoverFrog

hoverFrog — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 11:50:15 +0000

I recently picked up a copy of Mapping History: World Religions which shows the spread of various religions through time. Very interesting. My assumption would be that the truth (with a capital T) would spread everywhere simply by virtue of being true…much like the spread of scientific learning.

Then again the Abrahamic faiths are pretty worldwide so maybe that’s not too good a point.

By: Gene

Gene — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:42:36 +0000

well, there is one small error.. Czech Republic is actually mostly atheist/agnostic. Wiki:
According to the 2001 census, 59% of the country is agnostic, atheist, non-believer or no-organised believer, 26.8% Roman Catholic and 2.5% Protestant.
AFAIK it’s the only country in the world where atheists are majority.