Comments on The viral nature of religion

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Wordwizard -- you make a valid point but you are using statistics without

telling the entire story. Admittedly, in this posting I should have either not mentioned Judaism or added a caveate. The world Jewish population is not stagnant as you suggest, nor is it completely free from recruiting efforts but the latter I must admit is unusual outside of reformists. The best guess is that there is around 15 million Jews in the world today with the lowest birth rate, at 2%, of any identifyable group on the planet. Why do you think this is so? It is primarly because over 90% of Jews live in the wealthiest countries of the world where population growth rates are low to begin with. Further they comprise one of the most highly educated identifyable groups on the planet, higher education having a direct correlation to lower birth rates and for a number of resaons.

posted by gomedome on July 7, 2005 at 7:29 AM | link to this | reply

Judaism doesn't permit prosyletysing for the following reasons...

For the past 2000 years (except for the past 50), to become a Jew is to put your life on the line as a result of persecution. So it became very difficult to convert to Judaism. Still is. The Jews have an outmarriage rate of 1 in 2. There were 12 million Jews at the end of the Holocast. Fifty years on there are still only 12 million Jews. They are not growing.

posted by Wordwizard on July 7, 2005 at 5:36 AM | link to this | reply

the mainstay

of som e is the evangelical element -- to rid the world of heretics and infidels i guess
but "truth", so called, should not have to be carried as a virus is carried. people should not have to succumb to any rendition of what is considered to be "truth".
light can be seen as light and people who seek light will find it. you don't have to threaten people with hell if they don't adhere to your idea of heaven, nor do y ou have to use physical coercion, such as torture or conquest by the sword as has been done.
hold out your lantern.
those who recognize it as the light they are seeking will then follow its glow.

posted by Xeno-x on July 1, 2005 at 12:31 PM | link to this | reply

cantey_1975 -- bingo - another analogy is information which is extremely

valuable being guarded or kept secret to stop it's widespread disemination. Everyone wants the information so there is no need to institute a means to insure it's proliferation, as this will happen naturally. Now take a religious message (of any kind) ...why is it so necessary to write a viral element into what is supposedly the word of God? The answer is frighteningly simple. It is because the message has to be sold or forced upon people. While the majority of humans claim to be searching for or trying to serve God, the truth is that they have been sold or forced into their faith at one point in their lives.

posted by gomedome on July 1, 2005 at 12:00 PM | link to this | reply

I think I see what you mean

if the message was truly worthy, it might not need a viral element to spread. It would draw people to it as they will.