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That joke got me wondering which actually is bigger, the number of Christians or the number of Windows users. A couple of google searches found me these pages:

• http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
• http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2163005,00.asp

FTA: Scientology has 10 million members

Looks like Scientology's media goons have gotten to this article- adherents.com quotes it as probably having fewer than 750,000 active members.
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml#Scientology

A car is an inanimate object, religion is a set of codes designed to promote evil behavior.
Really? Love thy neighbor. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do not covet thy neighbor's wife, neighbor's ass, neighbor's wife's ass. Honor thy mother and father. Turn the other cheek. All that is Evil? I think your definitions are a bit skewed. My church feeds the hungry, clothes the poor, and gives aid to those that need it. We do not force religion down their throats in exchange either. Sure, the offer is there, but no one is forced to do anything. It's not a trade. It's a gift. And the Bible says it's our duty to do that sort of thing. We don't give something and expect something else in return. If all this is what you call evil, you really need to look up the definition.

Also, I think your view of history is a bit off. This page lists all of the founding father's religions. Strange. They are all listed and none of them are labeled "Atheist". 100% are listed as some flavor of Christianity.

It doesn't matter. You are either completely misguided or a troll. You are no different that the Creationist who believes that God created Adam and Eve 6000 years ago and nothing will change their minds. No matter how many facts I present or how many times I disprove your assumptions, you already made up your mind as to what you believe and nothing can sway you from that. Your hatred for religion has become a religion in itself. You are like a "9-11 Truther" only mixed in with hate and bigotry.

Either way, I'll pray for you.

I'm ready. I'd bet you're ready. But most of humanity is not.

Three out of four Americans are Christians, and they're definitely not ready. So are most other people of faith - since little green men from Tau Ceti would pretty much blow their creation stories out of the water.

It would be instant chaos. Three out of four people...or more, depending on what part of the world you're from. Suddenly, the foundation and moral code they've all built their life on - is provably false. And therefore...gone. They would go nuts.

If these guys are smart enough to cheat physics and be here, they're probably smart enough to not go public. As a species, unfortunately...we couldn't handle it. Which is a real bummer for me, personally. I'd like to meet them if they're around. I've got nothing to lose, it wouldn't change my world views by very much at all. But for most other folks it would be simply too traumatic.

Chick Corea
Nancy Cartright
Kirstie Ally
Mimi Rogers
Juliette Lewis
Priscilla Presley
Kelly Preston
Lisa Marie Presley
Isaac Hayes
Shaka Khan
Sonny Bono
Linda Blair
Ex adherents include: Oliver STone
JD Sallinger
William S Burroughs
Van Morrison
Patrick Swayze
Rock Hudson
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_scientologis t.html

"When religion builds an airplane,"

Religion cannot build an airplane, and science cannot explain a Creator. They are mutually exclusive. Because some one believes in one, doesn't mean they can't believe in the other, even if you don't understand this.

And, just so you realize this: From ... http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Wright_Brothers .html

Orville and Wilbur Wright: The Wright Brothers were the sons of a minister for the United Brethren Church. So much for ignorant fundamentalists.

About 44% of US adults say, when polled, that they go to church once a week. About 20% actually show up. People thus self-report much higher levels of religion than they actually practice. Polled numbers should be derated according.

The 2001 National Survey of Religious Identification, the largest study on this in the last decade (113,000 respondents) came up with the following self-identified stats, for religions with 0.1% or more market share:

1. Christianity: 76.5%
2. Nonreligious/Secular: 13.2%
3. Judaism: 1.3%
4. Islam: 0.5%
5. Buddhism: 0.5%
6. Agnostic: 0.5%
7. Atheist: 0.4%
8. Hinduism: 0.4%
9. Unitarian Universalist: 0.3%
10. Wiccan/Pagan/Druid: 0.1%

Major trends are that "Secular", "Islam", "Buddism" and "Hinduism" were all up over 100% since 1990.

Even this source:
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml
Does not support your claims. You also are generalizing about Buddhism. There are several branches of Buddhism and not all of them adhere to the belief in no gods.

This site says that only 19-30% of Canadians are atheists or agnostics, and this article quotes a survey that says that 62% of Canadians believe in the statement "through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God provided the way for the forgiveness of sins." There are more atheists and agnostics in Canada than in the U.S. per capita, but there are still quite a few religious people here. They just tend to be less outspoken about it and more private in their worship.

9% of USA Americans are non believers in God. They are no more representive than Swedes (85%) http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html .

Belief in god simply is not universal. The numbers above make that clear. If it is a hard wired function of our brains, then explain the variation in brain wiring between Swedes and Americans. On the nature vs. nurture line, this one is at the nuture end.

I know my brain isn't wired for belief in god. My parents ran the Sunday school and brought me up a methodist. My grandparents were religious. My genetic inheritance should make me religious if its a preset brain wiring. Yet as a young child I saw the teachings as a system of inconsistent threats (be nice or go to hell, believe and be saved etc). As an older child I suspected the stories and teaching of being untrue. By the time I was in comprehensive school (age 11, UK) I knew I didn't believe a word of it and knew I was an atheist.

My personal experience leads to the opposite conclusion. We may be wired to follow the logic we understand or are taught. If we are taught how to think rationally and scientifically, then belief in God is vulnerable to rational analysis.

Moving to the USA (from the UK) had transformed atheism for me. It used to just be a fact. Relgious people went to Church and wasted their Sundays. There was no issue. In the USA I find people scared to be frank about their atheism. They find themselves in the minority, and a mistrusted minority at that. The outward effects of religion on society is caustic to education (e.g. evolution in schools), civil rights (e.g. bigotry in law and elsewhere towards homosexuals), personal freedoms (e.g. illogical drug use laws) and public policy (e.g. supporting abstinence education over contraceptive education).

I see the 'war' described in TFA as being an outcropping of this politicized environment and the research around it skewed by the politics.

I wonder if I can find work and a visa in Sweden?

Every time someone is killed by a US soldier (or even UN peacekeeper for that matter), more enemies of the United States are bred. It doesn't matter what the conditions were or the whether or not the rule of engagement were followed....

It is much easier, more effective and cheaper to kill humans than to render them unable to continue combat but still alive. Afterward, corpses don't sue or raise a human rights ruckus. And remember, we're talking about Singapore, not the U.S.

33% is hardly a vast majority. http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml. Plus, Christianity is one of the youngest religions out there. What makes you believe that Hinduism and Buddism are wrong and this new upstart of a religion is correct?

Here is a list from the book The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present by John Galbraith Simmons. It has the religion of each scientist listed. Enjoy!

Heh, only the majority of all Christians use it, as Catholics and Orthodox comprise the majority of Christians in the world.

http://www.adherents.com/adh_rb.html#International

They need more Catholics to compete with the Muslims being the largest religion on the planet,

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_world_religions
http://www.assiah.net/religion-and-groups/islam/is lam-the-second-largest-religion.htm

Give them a hardcore left liberal, but who happened to be pro-life, and neutral/quiet on gay issues, and you'd have a viable candidate for the nation's republicans. IT IS the only reason many people vote republican.

How true. Abortion is a powerful and polarizing issue.

Abortion is the biggie because many of us cannot in good conscience vote for "pro-choice" candidates, although we might be in favor of the more compassionate liberal agenda as it pertains to social programs and civil rights. This leaves us with a no-win situation and we just end up choosing the lesser of evils, which is often a "pro-life" candidate.

The reason those women voted for Bush is because their church told them they should.

That's a little condescending don't you think? While some people *do* march in lockstep, many of us have wrestled mightily with this issue and come to our own conclusion through our own reasoning processes. After all, if people unflinchingly did what their churches told them to, then we would see churches with a lot more money ( http://www.adherents.com/misc/giving.html ). Although many of us are coming from a religious perspective, there are also secular "pro-lifers" ( http://www.godlessprolifers.org/home.html ) as well.

I agree that Christianity has been the banner for countless murders. But that does not mean these guys were Deists. I never said they were devout Southern Baptists or anything of the kind. I think that they saw corrupt religion for what it is. A Deist basically says that God has abandoned us. If so then why did they pray to God and seek his help? They recognized a Supreme Being as the author of our rights. The Constitution does not say the government has to be irreligious but should not establish any specific one. For me that includes atheism. If you accept that rights come from man then man can take them away. I believe that rights come from God and are for all man. Corrupt government can infringe upon those rights as ours infringes upon the right of property. I believe that the Founding Fathers were inspired men of God. They saw what current religion was like and I believe they awaited the day when God would bring back his true church. Of course I believe that to be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In this church we believe that you must be baptized to enter into heaven. We also believe that a man can be baptized after he is dead through a proxy if he did not have the opportunity to be baptized during his lifetime. I also believe that the Founding Fathers appeared to the prophet Wilford Woodruff and requested they be baptized by proxy. You can read about it at http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_lds.html

Well that was a stultifyingly ill-informed post.
Have a look at a ranking of countries by percentage atheists. Here's the one at the top of Google:
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html

The nations at the top of that list are not known for their totalitarian governments. You have to get down into the thirties before you hit one that is. It's also worth pointing out that many at the top of the list are majority atheist.

For a start, no religous movement of any size can ever agree amongst its own members as to what are the actual laws of the system. Your concept of any legal consistency arising from religious law is pretty nonsensical.
More importantly, atheists do not implicitly accept "personal preference" as the only source of law. Only a small minority of nihilists would ever support this. The vast majority believe in some level of social order; the value to the individual arising from an ordered society is quite clearly greater than the costs. I do not know why you think atheists are incapable of seeing this. A great deal of the world's philosophy regarding sacrificing for the greater good is written by atheists, proposing systems of law that have everything to do with serving the needs of the general public over the needs of the individual. Because atheism is, by its nature, non-divisive compared to national and religious belief systems, atheists are generally much more willing to follow laws in the public good. The reason they do it is because they know that, if they don't support the guy next door, he won't be there for them. They don't need a bearded guy living in the sky to tell them that. And they don't expect that sky-dwelling feller to save them; they have to hope the guy next door will.

"Since India is unique in that there is representation of almost every major religion in the world..."

You didn't clearly specify that representation meant "governmental officials of that religion", hence the confusion.

As far as representation in the population, U.S. wins that one. As far as gov reps: Jewish, Catholic, Baptist, Unitarian, Scientologist, Quaker, Unspecified...

Don't get all high and mighty.

http://www.adherents.com/adh_congress.html#109

But I never claimed that I had somehow logically deducted the FACT that the US is a Christian-run country. A simple Google search will provide you with the religious affiliation of congress. You don't need logic to see that almost all of the congresscritters are Christian. Every single US president has been Christian. 48 of 50 governors are Christian. The supreme court actually has 2 Jews, so Christians "only" make up 78% of that branch of government.

I respectfully ask you to pass the joint along - you've had enough. I can't even believe that anyone could challenge the statement that the US is a Christian-run country.

Science is an antidote to blind faith. Fortunatly, some have taken the time to carefully tease out what works and what doesn't. We don't throw virgins into volcanos to appease the gods any more.

Your estimates on the world's religions are way off. Judaism is way down the list. Here is one site:

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.3 billion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
primal-indigenous: 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 15 million
Judaism: 14 million
Baha'i: 7 million
Jainism: 4.2 million
Shinto: 4 million
Cao Dai: 4 million
Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
Tenrikyo: 2 million
Neo-Paganism: 1 million
Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
Scientology: 500 thousand

My guess is that their statistics undercount the "Chinese traditional religion" and overcount "Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist"

Anyway, just because you label blind faith and superstition as part of the human condition doesn't mean that others are constrained by your limitations.

As is clearly shown here... all who dare to defy Xenu shall be subsumed by a wave of his volcanic wrath.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu

Tom Cruise respects the power of Xenu.
John Travolta respects the power of Xenu.
Sonny Bono respects the power of Xenu.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/fam_scientologis t.html

Björk also shall join this venerated list....

It is only a matter of time.

The only way the human race will ever be free is if we all stop paying taxes, stop using their money, stop joining their militaries, stop building bombs for them under contract, stop obeying their laws.

Because if it had passed, we could also have insisted that all churches have to prefix their sermons with "not all theologians agree on which theory regarding the origins of life, or the origins or present state of the human race, is correct".

Imagine seeing that in bright, red, 28 point text in the front of every bible, outside every church...

After all, only about 33% of the world's population is Christian... What proportion of scientists (and I don't mean the people who say they're scientists, but are just pushing a religious agenda) don't believe in Darwin? Is it more than 33%? More than 66%? No.

If the churches (and I know it's a vocal minority, not everyone who claims to be a 'believer') want to mess with science teaching, let's make sure we do the same to them. After all, kids are smart enough to make up their own minds, right?

Mark

PS Read the link, it explains how they come up with the estimate of 33%.

Christians = 2.1 billion

Islamic = 1.3 billion

Hindu = .9 billion
That would be 4.3 billion here on our planet. Maybe more.

Remember, just because you and everyone you know believe something, doesn't make it true!

"Unless you happen to be Buddhist."

No it isn't http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

"Well, there are about 215 million Muslims worldwids."

More like 1.3billion http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

"And most christians do interpet Genesis literally."

Quoting from one of the pages noted below, the global percentages for Catholics and Protestants are as follows:
  * Catholic & Near Catholic (Catholic, Orthodox, High Church Anglican) - 65%
  * Protestant (Protestant, Independent, Low Church Anglican) - 38%

Even the Catholics on their own would disprove your misinformed view on literal interpretation of Genesis.

http://www.geocities.com/richleebruce/churchstat.h tml
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

That's true, but OTOH, the big two religions are Christianity & Islam (http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.h tml): Both of these, afaik, put a large amount of stress on belief as well as action. While buddhism, hinduism, etc, put a stress on action taken, these religions aren't as large as Christianity or Islam. Even if you don't believe that, I did add an "often" qualifier - I didn't mean for my comment to involve "sweeping generalizations about religions". Sorry.

Name a president that wasn't Christian.

The vast majority of members of congress are Christian: http://www.adherents.com/adh_congress.html

85% of the total population of the United States is Christian: http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_christian.ht ml


Yeah, Christianity should be put on the endangered-religions list, ASAP.

Name a president that wasn't Christian.

The vast majority of members of congress are Christian: http://www.adherents.com/adh_congress.html

85% of the total population of the United States is Christian: http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_christian.ht ml


Yeah, Christianity should be put on the endangered-religions list, ASAP.

Like I said that is another debate. I will spout anti-religious remarks because that is what is taking control and ruining America. This is my break down on why I mentioned it. This is on the whole of America in general.

You got main cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, San Fransico, etc. that are filled with people from all over the world. People who are in these places have a since of actual understanding of humanity. They realize that there is more to society than religion. They usually are broader minded people who live in big cities and experience other people who have been all over the world and can give a different perspective. Now when you get into the middle area of America, it tends to be conservative christians who do not really accept anything but what they think is right. The whole mindset of abortion is wrong, gays cant marry, evolution is nonsense is polluting our society. They are the ones that get all upset when a nipple flash shows on screen but dont get upset at all the violence that is on tv. The religious right are the ones who elected the asshole that is in office today. This asshole who controls a lot of things. This simple minded people who live in america elected this guy to run office. I got a question for you. Do you think in this day and age that a scientist would ever be elected to office? How about a person who isn't religious? These religious nutjobs are the ones that are holding everything back. Religion in general is holding people back.

Religion is for the weak minded and the simple minded. The more educated you are, the more likely to question things around you, instead of believing in something blindly. Whatever happened to believing in yourself? I don't need a "higher" power to believe that I can do something. When people pray, that someone will get healed or it is god's will to save them, that makes me mad. How about trying to thank the doctors and modern medicine for that. Religion plays a big factor on how screwed up our country is and other countries around the world. I dont know but there is a lot of people in our congress that is pretty damn religious. http://www.adherents.com/adh_congress.html/

Here is the thing. I blame the simple minded conservative religious people that live in little town middle America for a lot of all the retarded yet powerful morons that run this country. These powerful morons would pass a bill like getting rid of all devices that burn our creativity and well humanity to disc or any other form of media. So yes you can say I am a little mad.

This is long, and it could be debated further. I don't want to type any more.

Looks like your numbers are a little off but the percentages are roughly correct. Perhaps you are using older figures?

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

Shows this...
# Christianity: 2.1 billion
# Islam: 1.3 billion
# Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
# Hinduism: 900 million
# Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
# Buddhism: 376 million
# primal-indigenous: 300 million
# African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
# Sikhism: 23 million
# Juche: 19 million
# Spiritism: 15 million
# Judaism: 14 million
# Baha'i: 7 million
# Jainism: 4.2 million
# Shinto: 4 million
# Cao Dai: 4 million
# Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
# Tenrikyo: 2 million
# Neo-Paganism: 1 million
# Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
# Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
# Scientology: 500 thousand

Now, personally I think this is a little bit tricky since christianty ignores some fundamental differences which some branches would say other branches are going to hell (which would indicate to me that they don't think they follow the same reliigion).

Adherents.com, which cites Kane, Joseph Nathan. Facts About the Presidents (Fourth Edition). New York: The H. W. Wilson Co. (1981), pg. 360; DeGregorio, William A. The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (Second Edition). New York: Dembner Books (1989).

I agree that Jefferson was a deist but that still doesn't change the fact that he admired much of the philosophy of Christianity. Rejecting Jesus's divinity and refusing to cede to fundamentalist demands that the Government recognize the primacy of Jesus does not mean rejecting what's good about Christianity. I wish Evangelicals who are up in arms about church-state separation could understand this as Jefferson did.

". . . this is a part of my faith that I have increasingly taken seriously of being bi-cultural.. There was a time when I used to think how can I be Christian and yet Buddhist? Increasingly as I become aware of the extent to which my Japanese culture and its Buddhism is still a part of me, I'm beginning to say how can I be Christian without being Buddhist?''

Whaddya mean, "anymore"?? I read that mumbledy-decades ago. Both books, in fact.

Zenna Henderson page: http://www.adherents.com/lit/bk_Zenna.html

... and regarding our uniqueness, uh, so? We're the smart primate - depending on if you think what man's doing is smart after all.

The obvious implication of that would be, of course, that Mormons do indeed commit suicide, albeit at a lower rate.

So is it worth investigating? Maybe, but not because "Mormons do not commit suicide."

Utah is a prosperous state with a highly educated and industrious populous. Anything bad that you are hearing is generated by Left-Wingers who are threatened by the Right-wing slant of the state.

Basically they have all the good and bad of every state in the union; in varying degrees. They have a lot of rural areas which drag then down a bit in the statistics.

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_dem.html

http://www.netstate.com/states/alma/ut_alma.htm

Just to clear up possible misconceptions:

About 72% of the population of Utah is LDS/Mormon.

About 50% of those could be considered "active" members of the church.

So we're really talking about 36% of the Utah population, not 80%, who would be likely to vote a certain way based on active church participation.

But yeah, the people in Utah tend to vote for people who promote their moral standards and worldview? The question is, where are the people in the U.S. that consistently vote against their own moral standards and worldview? It's a non-issue. How else are they supposed decide whom to vote for? Based on things they don't believe in?

Also, as mentioned by others, the LDS church itself goes out of it's way to rarely take sides on political issues, pretty much restricting themselves to what they see as large and important moral issues.

Christianity isn't even the *dominant* religion on the planet, in terms of number of believers.

Actually, it is

Christianity isn't even the *dominant* religion on the planet, in terms of number of believers.

Yes it is

Right now, there are a lot more Christians than Muslims. However, there are more Muslims than there are Roman Catholics. Roman Catholics are just one sect.

Please see this, one of many references. I am not mentioning this to say that one is better than the other, but to correct a demographic statement that was not true.

"Atheism is the most fashionable belief"

Really? Fashionable in what circles? At my workplace religion is not much spoken of, but when it is, folks generally conclude with something along the lines of "I disagree with some of the tenets of the church, but I can't understand how people can look at the world and not believe in God."

But that's my personal experience. According to statistics widely available online, a full third of the world's population is Christian, over a fifth is Islamic (add these together and already over half the world's population believes in a God). Secular/agnostic/atheist is somewhere around one sixth of the world's population. I'd say that historically, theism is unquestionably the most popular position, and even today, atheism is decidedly unfashionable.

Numbers taken from: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ml

So whom are you going to fight? Just have a look here and ask yourself http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions can you fight anyone and do you have a chance of winning. In fact it is pretty amazing and admirable that Kerry got whatever he got in first place.

A google search for "President bush denomination" reveals some interesting information, most of it from the 2000 election. These three links where the first to jump out to me as interesting.
Bush was raised in Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches which are certainly not on the born again side of the christian theological spectrum. He had a conversion experience in 1985 when he quit drinking and has been an active United Methodist ever since. The term born-again Christian is more often associated with Baptist and non-denominational Baptist like groups than it is with United Methodist who tend to use the term conversion. President Bush is in disagreement with the official position of the United Methodists Church on many issues including but not limited to the death penalty, abortion, gays in the military, affirmitive action, and the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. The United Methodist Church allows and encourages a person's own consceince to determine what is right and thus has a membership with diverse views often in disagreement with the clergey and/or official heirarchy. They are not the sort of denomination that excumminicates or kicks people out for that sort of thing.
Politics make strange bedfellows, and President Bush finds himself agreeing with the Baptist position on public policy issues more often than he does his own church and certainly uses Baptist rhetoric and speaking style. This however probably has more to due with the Bush's being Texan than being Christian. I am a Catholic Texan myself and many if not most of the United Methodist I know would probably agree with Bush on most of these positions. See for instance Hank Hill from King of the Hill who is also a United Methodist. I realize he is a cartoon, but he is a cartoon written by an actual Texan not someone from the "outside." The stereotypes and preconceived notions we have about ourselves, say a lot more about us and have a lot more truth to them than the stereotypes of outsiders, see excentric Texan oil barron billionare with big cowboy hat from the Simpsons who says things like "In Texas we got rid of the envirionment. Nobody seems to have missed it," and in the end does not beleive in protecting the environment as Lisa does but stops destroying it because he likes her character, style, actions, or some such thing, just as an excentric Texas oil-man billionare found in so many movies, shows, etc. would. Not that we find that particular stereotype to be negative, insulting, or the like, but it has no particular basis in reality or maybe it does and I just do not know many (read any), Texas oil-men billionares.
As a fairly devout Catholic I know I should believe that capital punishment is wrong in a modern society that has the ability to easily imprison people who are a danger to society for the rest of their natural life, but as a Texan I really want those bastards to be killed. In the end fiscal conservitism wins out, and I decide we can imprison one murderer and two rapist or child molesters for life instead of sticking a needle in one murders arm. Drug users are rehabilitable and we should all take a page from of all places Alabama's book and sentence them to mandatory treatment. Their reoffender rate is quite low.

- About 190

- Too many! No, seriously, there's Judaism (sp?), Catholicism, Prodestantism, Islam(ism?), Bhuddism, Zoerastrianism (that can't be the right spelling!), and Scientology (joke!) - that makes 6, plus or minus a couple

- 40000km ; 3/10 the total (cheat, I know!) ; 20000km^2

- 10 days ; 4 ; depends on the car, but about $200 (Cdn)

Now, with google, the answers are:

- 192 (Including East Timor)

- 22! (I knew there were too many, though that includes the serene rastafarians)

- 40,075.16 km (damn, I was close!) ; 148,300,000 km^2 (technically I was right, because the total is 510100000km^2) ; 9,161,923 km^2 (not even close! I should have known that..)

The final question is a little vague, depending on your driving habits, etc, so I won't bother googling it. Anyway, all of this goes to show you : 1. I'm not qualified to be President of the United States of America, and 2. I'm bored.

Adios,
AC

1. Christianity: 2 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million
5. Buddhism: 360 million
6. Chinese traditional religion: 225 million
7. primal-indigenous: 150 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 95 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 14 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha'i: 6 million
14. Jainism: 4 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 3 million
17. Tenrikyo: 2.4 million
18. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
19. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
20. Rastafarianism: 700 thousand
21. Scientology: 600 thousand
22. Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

But, this list is from 2002. I could not find a similar list from 2004 (although I didn't look too hard). Source: Adherents.com.