Comments on What Will Be America's Next Top Religion?

I read a couple of years ago it was Pentacostalism, especially among blacks and Hispanics.

I'm more interested in knowing what the fastest growing religion is in the world. Do you have that statistic?

"The Post in Athens, Ohio" is actually the student paper at Ohio University and is kind of crappy. I tend to only skim the articles as I search for the crossword puzzle and I wouldn't put much stock in its reporting. The article on Wicca that quote is lifted from only names its sources by their first names, saying the paper wanted to protect their identities because of the "stigma surrounding the religion." So it's interesting that there could be such a stigma if it's also the fastest-growing religion in the country.

depends on how you define "fastest growing."

the most obvious interpretation is the actual rate of growth, relative to its baseline count. as such, a religion with a small following could make gains much faster than one with a large baseline count. for example, a religion with one follower would double it's membership in a single day by adding one member. this is how wicca is defined as fastest growing.

or it could be interpreted it as the religion that has the greatest total number of new members in a given period. in which case, larger religions will more likely be fastest growing. hence, the 'unaffiliated' rate.

You have to have a definition for fastest growing before you can tell which religion is growing the fastest. If my religion has 100 members in 2007 but 900 in 2008, I have 800% growth. If you have 15 million in 2007 and 15.6 million in 2008 you've grown by 4%. But I would say that 600000 new member greatly trumps 900 new members.

Then you factor in the method of growth. Is it conversions? Is it because you breed really fast (Mormons)? Is it immigration (Islam)?

There are too many variables to answer the question.

I wonder if that JW statistic for "new members" is net or gross? That is, have they counted the number of people who leave and subtracted that from the number of people who join?

I have no statistics-- but ex-witnesses have independently told me the religion was growing until about 10 years ago, when people started leaving faster than converts were joining. It seems to have happened about the time the internet became available to the masses.

The only good religion is no religion.

I think it's time for a reality TV competition to find out!

John Curley should host.

I'm only interested in the fourth derivative of enrollment in the mainstream faiths.

Mormons increase mostly by conversion, not breeding. Mormonism is probably a minority-white religion world-wide now, making huge gains in Africa and Asia. Here at home, they're not just growing but spreading, opening churches in all sorts of places that are far from their Utah-Idaho heartland.

Religion, like fashion, changes a lot. Mormons may be growing rapidly one decade, slowing the next.

One thing that I don't get about the Jehovah's Witnesses is that they believe that only 144,000 followers are going to go to Heaven when they die -- but there are 7 million Witnesses. Why would you join a religion that only gave you a 2% chance of salvation?

Can I pick what religon I want to be the fastest growing? I would pick Buddhism. And it comes in plenty of different flavors so it can work for pretty much anybody.

@7 they make it work via an elaborate timesharing system.

@12 that's funny. but i think they believe the 144K will go to heaven, the remaining will get to populate a "new earth". like a paradise-lite.

I think it's time for me to invent a religion. Hell, if L. Ron Hubbard could do it, why can't I? Of course, I'd have to be the Grand High Muckety-Muck.

Obviously it's Heliolatry.

The fastest growing religion in The Puget Sound Area is asshat-ism.

My religion has one member today. If tomorrow I have two, it will be the fastest growing religion in the world.

Or, what #5 said.

"The only good religion is no religion."

I used to think that too until I realized the chaos that would result in having masses of born-stupid people milling about with no clear direction in life. A conceptually simple (JESUS IS LORD) religious faith is necessary to keep those types in check. I think of it as brain welfare.

Pastafarianism.

No, I'm not joking.

Just like the UK wasn't joking about becoming Jedi.

You may laugh at us, but if we have to choose an Invisible Friend, we choose the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Based on my peers (35-45 or so), "spiritual but not religious" is the fastest growing. I know a ton of people who have turned their backs on organized religion but haven't given up belief in...whatever they believe in.

i would be more interested in how people are defining their religion...are they going down the fundamentalist route, the its open to interpretation thing...i would conjecture that alot of religious traditions among the younger generations are becoming more tolerant

@19 The war is coming, the Invisible Pink Unicorn will destroy your italian noodle dish

Dang, you know that the IPU is stronger on St. Patty's Day ... but only because we tend to eat corned beef and cabbage and drink green beer this one night ...

Survey says: the religion of being openly LGBTQ.

"Pew Forum on Religion" is a good unintended pun. The Pew Foundation is named after a family, not church furniture.

What's the fastest growing "dis-organized" religion. We gotta study their path to success.

If you look at the numbers linked in the Pew survey ( http://religions.pewforum.org/reports ) it breaks down growth/shrinkage for the major religious groups. (Chapter 2)

For instance: (percentages are of total US population)

Mormans:
Raised as: 1.8
Joined: 0.4
Left: 0.5
Currently: 1.7
Losing the faithful.

Jehovah's Witnesses:
Raised as: 0.6
Joined: 0.5
Left: 0.4
Currently: 0.7
Great at conversions... lousy retention.

Muslim:
Raised as: 0.3
Joined: Left: Currently: 0.4
Holding steady.

Catholic:
Raised as: 31.4
Joined: 2.6
Left: 10.1
Currently: 23.9
Need more (or less?) youth pastors ;)

Unaffiliated
Raised as: 7.3
Joined: 12.7
Left: 3.9
Currently: 16.1
Tired of the system?

No numbers for wiccans/pastafarians/jedi but "other faiths" has quadrupled in size to 1.2%

Sadly these numbers aren't great as they are comparing childhood religion to current religion of adults but they give a good look at the trend lines. And seem to mostly suggest that people aren't happy where they are. I guess the faith is always greener... ?

The Mormons say they are fast growing (the fastest!) but, in fact, they are probably contracting in membership.

Note that the Mormon church does not subtract people who resign from the church from its membership numbers. Over time the percentage of people on the rolls who actually show up at a Mormon service continues to decline. Many of these people are recent converts who participated for only a short time before dropping out.

Jesus Christ goddamn it Kathleen, I hope it's that last one.

I don't know if it's because I live in the north west or what, but it sure seems like most people I know don't go to church/mosque/temple. I think it's because our busy lifestyles have made it so the perceived spiritual gains are outweighed by the chance to sleep in on Sunday.

@10 That's because Jehovah's Witnesses believe that God has promised a new earth for all man kind and that a majority of all the humans that have ever lived will be resurrected and given a chance to live in a paradise earth. The 144,000 are a spiritually gifted group such as the apostles that will ascend to the new Heaven and became a new creation neither angel nor human that will be co-rulers over the new earth with Christ.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?

Maybe the answer is: none of the above.

Atheism. Which is not a religion at all. And that's the point.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
The only religion based on empirical evidence

RAmen

#28 is right. Once you sign on as a Mormon, it's extremely difficult to get officially out. The last estimate I heard was that roughly half of the people claimed by the LDS church as Mormons were in fact people who are no longer adherents but haven't gone through the arduous process of getting their names off the books.

Yeah, but the Wiccans throw the best parties.

It's almost impossible to measure something like that accurately, especially if you're comparing numbers from different years.

But it's also a fairly meaningless designation, because the smallest, newest groups will have the fastest growth. Flying Spaghetti Monsterism probably has the most growth in the last few years, because there were zero adherents two years ago, and now there are thousands. But that doesn't say anything about its importance as a religion or its staying power.

#16 FTW - spit iced tea all over my monitor.

35 - Disagree. Wiccans I know only drink mead and/or diet pepsi, and you can't pry the XBOX controller out of their hands.

I've got a catapult with a flaming tarball for the next Jehovas Witness entering my fence - should help keep the population down.