Barney Zwartz

December 13, 2010

CHRISTIANITY remains the world’s biggest religion, but Islam is catching up while non-belief increased enormously over the past century but is now in sharp decline, according to the Christian Research Association.

Australian religious trends of rising agnosticism and declining Christianity contradict most of the world, the association reports in its December bulletin.

The bulletin quotes the findings of the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity, which compares the state of global religions in 1910 and 2010.

Muslims have risen from 12.6 per cent in 1910 to 22.4 per cent today, and Hindus from 12.7 to 13.7 per cent. Agnostics have risen from 0.2 to 9.3 per cent or 640 million people, while atheists have risen from less than 0.1 per cent to 2 per cent, or 138 million.

The biggest decline is in Chinese folk religion, from 22 per cent of the world’s population to 6.6 per cent. Buddhists have also declined, from 7.8 per cent to 6.8, but a rise in numbers from 138 million to 468 million.

Christian Research Association director Philip Hughes said the rise of communism in China was responsible for the loss of Chinese folk religion, and the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and China had led to a sharp decline in atheism.

Both Christianity and Islam were growing fast in China, where the huge population meant that whatever happened there had a significant impact on global figures, Dr Hughes said.

Catholics made up just over half the total of 2.3 billion Christians, followed by the fast-rising Pentecostals with 600 million.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/belief-in-christ-still-the-biggest-20101212-18tzy.html