Graphic: A demographic breakdown of the world of religion

Reblogged from National Post | Life:

With the “world’s largest” gathering of atheists this weekend in Washington, D.C., the National Post‘s graphics department takes a look at how the world’s religions break down.

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The diversity of religious belief systems worldwide can obscure important distinctions. Not all religions clash with modernity, logic, science and the cause of human well-being in the same way. Abrahamic religions still dominate political theology, and they disproportionately continue to nurture extreme factions that militate against the separation of Church and State, reason and revelation. In some corners of the world, the yearning for theocracy remains as strong as the thirst for liberty. Since Abraham's covenant with God, this tension has shaped the evolution of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Although they have birthed quasi-liberal and rationalist offshoots (e.g., Humanistic Judaism), these traditions remain fundamentally literalist in their interpretations of Scripture.

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