Nations Rise and Fall. Religions Rise and Fall.

Nations rise and fall, and religions rise and fall. Species evolve and face extinction. If human beings are still here in 2,000 years, will the religions of our day still exist? Or will they fall away, like the other primitive religions (Egyptian, Greek, Persian, and Roman) that co-existed with Christianity and Judaism only 2,000 years ago?

Jim Palmer, who wrote the foreword to The Way, recently said, “We all preference our own traditions.” That is, we all give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. I recently wrote about the need to test our assumptions and to support our conclusions here. Otherwise, we can develop a false sense of security about our untested assumptions and our unsupported conclusions.

Most of us think that we are centrists. We see people who are more conservative or more liberal, so we assume that we believe what most people believe, at least the “normal” rational people. Then, we find ourselves in silos (churches, communities, neighborhoods, and schools) where most people act like us, look like us, and think like us.

In the United States, it is easy to think that Christianity is the dominant belief system, and that might be the case within our silos. However, that is NOT the case in the larger scheme of things.

Christianity and Other Religions

First, I have begun to discuss many Christianities, rather than one Christianity. Of the approximately 2.5 billion Christians in the world, around 1.3 billion are Catholic, 600 million are Protestant, 400 million are non-denominational Pentecostals, and 200 million are Eastern Orthodox. There are big differences in beliefs and practices among these groups.

Second, of the approximately 8.2 billion people in the world, around one-quarter are Christian, one-quarter are Muslim, one-quarter are unaffiliated, and one-quarter are other religions.

Wait, only one-quarter? Yes, what we think of as the Western world (North America, Europe, Northern Asia, and South America) is about one-quarter of the people (blue in the chart below). Meanwhile, one-quarter live in India, one-quarter live in China and Southern Asia, and one-quarter live in Africa and Australia and the Middle East.

Third, can you guess how many human beings have ever lived in the last 250,000 years or so? No, that’s way too low. Approximately 120 billion human beings have ever lived. Of this number, about one-half lived before Jesus’ time and one-half lived after Jesus’ time. Analysts estimate that 10 to 15% of those who ever lived or 20 to 30% of those who lived after Jesus were Christians.

Do you believe that only people who identify as Christian, belong to your denomination or attend your church will be saved? So, what happens to the other 100 billion innocent people, including many who never heard of your religion, your denomination or your church? Would the Good Shepherd who seeks one lost sheep really abandon 100 billion sheep to the wolves?

Nations rise and fall. Religions rise and fall.

Eastern and Western Worldviews

I write a lot about Eastern and Western worldviews. Christianity is a Western phenomenon. Christianity shaped the Western worldview, and the Western worldview shaped Christianity.

But the Western worldview is NOT the universal worldview or even the predominant worldview. The Eastern worldview largely developed without any influence from the Western worldview.  Thus, despite centuries of Christian evangelization, of the approximately 1.4 billion people in China, only about 44 million or three percent (3%) of them are Christian.

In The Way, I wrote that the United States is at a crossroads. During our lifetimes, our influence has declined steadily, and this is consistent with the lessons of history:

In the 1700s, France had the world’s largest economy.
In the 1800s, Great Britain had the world’s largest economy.
Then, in the 1900s, the United States had the world’s largest economy.
In the 2000s, China will likely have the world’s largest economy.
In the 2100s, India may well have the world’s largest economy.

As we realize that the largest economies in the world will soon be China and India, we can expect that Eastern culture, including Eastern religions, will rise in influence, while Western culture, including Western religions, will decline. “But, we developed the polio vaccine.” Yes, that was 70 years ago. “But, we landed a man on the moon.” Yes, that was over 55 years ago.

“But, we are developing artificial intelligence and the internet.” Yes, and China is pulling ahead. “But, we are developing alternative energy sources.” Yes, and China is pulling ahead. After all, Americans spend over $1 trillion annually on military expenditures. This is more than four times what China spends on military expenditures. China can afford to invest more.

Nations rise and fall. Religions rise and fall.

Nations Rise and Fall. Religions Rise and Fall.

This is NOT intended to be a beatdown of Americans or Christians or American Christians. The point is that (whatever we believe and wherever we live) our positions are NOT that exceptional. Billions of people live (or have lived) meaningful lives, and many of them hold (or have held) different belief systems and/or live (or have lived) in different places.

The Buddhists remind us that everything is impermanent. Nations rise and fall. Religions rise and fall. Species evolve and face extinction. If human beings are still here in 2,000 years, will the religions of our day still exist? Or will they fall away, like the other primitive religions (Egyptian, Greek, Persian, and Roman) that co-existed with Christianity and Judaism only 2,000 years ago?