Category Confusion?

From an Reuters article:

Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

Wow – what a jumbled mess of misconceptions, all wrapped up in one sentence. A few reminders for our friends at the Holy See:

  • Christianity has several branches, not all of which are contained in or represented by the Roman Catholic church.
  • Islam also has at least two main branches (Sunni and Shia), not to mention smaller branches like Wahhibism.
  • If you compare the number of Christians worldwide (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox), we still outnumber the Muslims by quite a bit.
  • The numbers aren’t nearly as interesting as the rate at which the numbers are changing – the first derivative, if you will. The real problem for the Vatican isn’t bragging rights for the largest group, but the fact that the number of Muslims is growing much more quickly than the number of Catholics.

April 01 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »