Most Religiously Diverse Country

[Kyriakos]

Bosnia is pretty diverse /mischief

 

[warpus]

The first religion split into two parts: east and west. Western religion split into Abrahamic, Egyptian, and European. East split into Hindu, Buddhism. They all kept splitting down even further in more diverse forms.

I mean, that's not happened at all, though. You make it sound like all world religions, past and present, come from the same starting religion, which couldn't be further from the truth. Also the thing abut "the first religion" doesn't make sense to me, because Judaism wasn't the first religion to exist, unless you are referring to another religion there? And I mean, even then, it split into east and west?

Sorry, but none of that makes sense to me

 

[timtofly]

The first religion has no name. It was there at the start of groups spreading out with the Indo-European language migration.

 

[Traitorfish]

The first religion has no name. It was there at the start of groups spreading out with the Indo-European language migration.

Eh?

 

[Kyriakos]

It was the worship of Cronos and the other titans, human sacrifice and so on. After the titanomachia, the loser's supporters fled to the new world, and founded the Maya-Aztec civ

 

[timtofly]

Eh?

If you know what it is, why are you asking?

Every one has convinced me that there has to be a religion for every one who makes claims on unknown spiritual matters.

All the origin stories are too similar to have developed separately, yet different enough no to be the original one. I am sure there are some who will disagree though.

 

[Lexicus]

I think the consensus position among archaeologists is that religion (in a broad sense) is at least 30,000 years old, and probably much older. Some anthropologists/archaeologists have argued that religion predates homo sapiens.

The Proto-Indo-Europeans, by contrast, lived around 6,000 years ago.

 

[timtofly]

I think the consensus position among archaeologists is that religion (in a broad sense) is at least 30,000 years old, and probably much older. Some anthropologists/archaeologists have argued that religion predates homo sapiens.

The Proto-Indo-Europeans, by contrast, lived around 6,000 years ago.

In the context of current diversity we are talking about religions in the last 4000 to 5000 years. Some think they are less diverse, but that depends on how similar even the major known religions are, and they seem to be splits off of a common one, and it does not have a name that we know of. The Indo European divide came from a common lingual source and it could be assumed that this one source had one religion, just like they all split off of a common linguistic source. In fact religion is still being split, but I bet that if the world continues to combine back into one economic-political system, it will also pull humans back into one similar religion, for those so disposed to participating in such a practice. It will also be monotheistic, because most know, that humans have basically figured out the difference between physical reality, and a single spiritual reality. I am not sure if humans will figure out how to eradicate good and evil, so there will always be a "coin" with two sides. A little competition goes a long way.

Not withstanding a catastrophic event that splits humans apart, and puts them back in a bronze or iron age, without modern technology, and we have to discover science all over again. I assume one can interpret the past and be just as split on what happened as there are religious and non-religious ideologies.

 

[Lexicus]

In the context of current diversity we are talking about religions in the last 4000 to 5000 years.

Are we? News to me.

 

[warpus]

You know, if you read any cursory introduction to the history of world religions you will save yourself a lot of time. I mean, I'm not an expert by any means, but nothing that you're saying makes any sense.

 

[Traitorfish]

If you know what it is, why are you asking?

Every one has convinced me that there has to be a religion for every one who makes claims on unknown spiritual matters.

All the origin stories are too similar to have developed separately, yet different enough no to be the original one. I am sure there are some who will disagree though.

Why do I get the feeling we're just a few way posts away away from ancient astronauts?

 

[timtofly]

Why do I get the feeling we're just a few way posts away away from ancient astronauts?

Every one knows except a few believers that it is impractical to travel between star systems. It is impractical to mention them, unless one is referring to a very good sci-fi author, and even some of those threads are split, as to who accepts what as being practical.

I am not sure why reality has to be so complex in order for some to understand the nuances of reality that are not really that complex. I realize that most religions are given to young people in a fashion that induces some sort of complicated hidden mysticism? Other than to keep such a one coming back, until reality takes over, and the targeted audience has tossed aside the ideology, religion seems to be lacking in the ability to figure out the mysticism that they are trying to portray.

 

[Tahuti]

Good thing people mentioned Suriname: You've got a mosque and sinagogue neighbouring one another over there! If only we got to rule Palestine during the mandatory period instead of perfidious Albion, we wouldn't have as much clickbait threads on CFC.

Splitters!
And the far left groups though they were doing something new in the 70s...

Don't know how it went in Britain or Portugal, though Dutch intelligence services created their fair share of Far Left groups in the 1950s to fracture it purpose. A notable highlight included conning the PRC into funding internal security services through a Dutch "Maoist party".

 

[innonimatu]

Don't know how it went in Britain or Portugal, though Dutch intelligence services created their fair share of Far Left groups in the 1950s to fracture it purpose. A notable highlight included conning the PRC into funding internal security services through a Dutch "Maoist party".

That one never gets old. And may have happened in the UK also. But in Portugal the dictatorship we had went for repression, with the end result of pushing all the left opposition into the communist party and greatly increasing its influence. The multiplication of far left parties came after democracy was established. With the inevitable maoist party here also. A mix of lunatics and opportunists, some of its militants even thought it was fitting to plunder public universities to stock the party. One such militant (unsurprisingly) moved on to sell laws to Goldman Sachs...

In some things politics is not that different from religion: small (and sometimes not-so-small) groups of unsavory people can tarnish the reputation of much larger groups they claim association with. Or they can be deployed and used by others for that same purpose, as you pointed out.

To go back on topic, mosques and synagogues coexisted without major problems across north Africa and much of the middle east. Better that mosques and churches in Europe. Until Israel.
The seemingly religious motivated wars there were not an inevitability. Are not one.

 

[Lexicus]

The seemingly religious motivated wars there were not an inevitability. Are not one.

It's because the conflict at bottom has very little to do with religion.

 

[stfoskey12]

Good thing people mentioned Suriname: You've got a mosque and sinagogue neighbouring one another over there! If only we got to rule Palestine during the mandatory period instead of perfidious Albion, we wouldn't have as much clickbait threads on CFC.

Apparently Suriname has a large Hindu population as well.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Throwing Canada into the mix. We've got all religions covered, have Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, and probably Jews represented in our government in some capacity, and walking down a random street in Toronto you're likely to run people of all creeds and faiths and colours and so on.

We don't really care about religion too much, it almost never comes up in our politics. You worship what you want to worship, or you don't, do whatever, just be a good Canadian. We're probably not the most diverse, but we do have a lot of diversity and deserve a mention.

It depends on which issues come up. When Pierre Trudeau decriminalized homosexual relations in 1967, that upset a fair number of people on religious grounds. Trudeau said - in one of his most famous speeches - "There's no place for the State in the bedrooms of the nation." This has been remembered with every issue since that people have objected to on religious grounds when it involves changing the laws or definitions of what a couple is, who can marry, or what a family is.

There was quite a hullabaloo here in Alberta when same-sex marriage was legalized all across Canada. Our Premier was urged to use the notwithstanding clause to make it illegal in Alberta, by people who howled about "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."

There is considerable opposition to the assisted-dying bill the Liberals brought in earlier this year. The Catholic-owned hospitals are doing everything they can think of to not have it apply to them or their employees, and preferably anyone else including all doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. One group has decided that they're not going to perform funerals for people who opt for a physician-assisted death. There's controversy over whether or not the bill is constitutional; the cabinet minister responsible insists it is, but I predict lawsuits and the Supreme Court telling the government to go back and redo it to conform to the SCC directions from before.

And of course there's the last change they need to make to the anthem. It was changed earlier this year to get rid of the sexist language, and that was a bit controversial for some. There will be considerably more opposition to removing the word "God" from the anthem, even though it's only been there for the past 30 years (some people have short memories).

A Canadian voice of reason?? I was beginning to think that Canada was a Christian Nation stuck in the 1800's.

Some people - usually the right-wing voters - insist that we're a "Christian nation" and conveniently overlook the indigenous people whose children were kidnapped and placed in Christian-run residential schools and who had their religions, languages, and other customs literally beaten out of them.

We're a diverse country, still quite old-fashioned in many ways, but while it's still the norm to find at least one place of worship in every neighborhood, nowadays it's not necessarily going to be a church.

The first religion split into two parts: east and west. Western religion split into Abrahamic, Egyptian, and European. East split into Hindu, Buddhism. They all kept splitting down even further in more diverse forms. There has even been a lot of cross evolution between even the major branches. I think that it can be pointed out that some religions make a distinction between a single God and that God's attributes. In strict definition all religions hold to monotheism. The way they view this one God's attributes and even entities created by this God is what make them polytheistic. Western views are of familial decent, as it makes up the pantheon of gods. The further removed from the single God, the more diverse these gods become. Diversity comes from distinction, and distinction is what causes splits in a belief system.

I don't think that you will find any cult that started out on it's own separate from the first religion. Even animism and pagan cults are not created from a void, but from rejecting one of the splits and running with a system that just cuts out the single God aspect. Then there are theist, deist, and spiritualist who pit good/God against an opposing force.

Of course my knowledge is limited, and there may be some proof that someone came up with an original thought outside the established set of religions at some point in history.

*sigh*

Please realize that the first religion came along even before our particular brand of humanity did. The Neanderthals had religion; there's archaeological evidence to support this.

All the origin stories are too similar to have developed separately, yet different enough no to be the original one. I am sure there are some who will disagree though.

At least you're correct about the bolded sentence.

I think the consensus position among archaeologists is that religion (in a broad sense) is at least 30,000 years old, and probably much older. Some anthropologists/archaeologists have argued that religion predates homo sapiens.

Correct.

In the context of current diversity we are talking about religions in the last 4000 to 5000 years. Some think they are less diverse, but that depends on how similar even the major known religions are, and they seem to be splits off of a common one, and it does not have a name that we know of. The Indo European divide came from a common lingual source and it could be assumed that this one source had one religion, just like they all split off of a common linguistic source. In fact religion is still being split, but I bet that if the world continues to combine back into one economic-political system, it will also pull humans back into one similar religion, for those so disposed to participating in such a practice. It will also be monotheistic, because most know, that humans have basically figured out the difference between physical reality, and a single spiritual reality. I am not sure if humans will figure out how to eradicate good and evil, so there will always be a "coin" with two sides. A little competition goes a long way.

Nope. You're always going to have people who have differing ideas, even if they start out as pop culture. L. Ron Hubbard started his own religion, Scientology, in an attempt to get rich. When Frank Herbert's novel Dune came out in 1965 (earlier in the pulp magazines), people asked him if he was trying to start a religion. He denied it vehemently, yet I can see at least a couple of things he wrote making it into some new religion that someone might choose to invent. The Litany Against Fear is one of them (Bene Gesserit litany intended to promote calm and clear thinking in the presence of life-threatening danger or imminent death), and another is a commandment from the Butlerian Jihad: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a man's mind." This one actually makes sense to me, as the increasing efforts to create realistic AI robots gives me the utter creeps.

Not withstanding a catastrophic event that splits humans apart, and puts them back in a bronze or iron age, without modern technology, and we have to discover science all over again. I assume one can interpret the past and be just as split on what happened as there are religious and non-religious ideologies.

I would really hope that people would have the foresight not to burn all the library books. Assuming, of course, that books would still exist in physical form and people were still literate instead of degenerating into a society of people who can only communicate through emojis.

Why do I get the feeling we're just a few way posts away away from ancient astronauts?

SHH!

Don't encourage them.

 

[NovaKart]

Iraq is overwhelmingly Muslim but has a surprisingly large number of native religions. There are Yazidis, Kakais and Shabaks as well as Mandeans as a remainder of Gnostic Christians.

 

[Takhisis]

Iraq is overwhelmingly Muslim but has a surprisingly large number of native religions. There are Yazidis, Kakais and Shabaks as well as Mandeans as a remainder of Gnostic Christians.

What about the many Chaldean/Assyrian Christian denominations?
Also, how many variants of Islam are there really in the country?

 

[Krajzen]

http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/04/religious-diversity-4.png


Either Singapore or Guyana win this thread by far.

Honorable mentions: Suriname, Bosnia, Albania.

I'm less interested in the religious diversity by absolute numbers (in this regard China and India would, obviously, always win) and more about percentage distribution.