The map above shows which religion is the fastest growing in each country around the world based on data from Pew Research Center’s The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.
The colors are as follows:
- Green = Islam
- Red = Christianity
- Purple = Unaffiliated
- Pink = Folk/Other
- Yellow = Buddhist
- Brown = Hindu
- Grey = No Change
It’s important to note that the map shows which religion will have the largest relative, not absolute, increase between 2010 and 2050.
So for example, Folk and other regions are expected to grow from 0.8% of the US total in 2010 to 2.0% (150% increase) in 2050, while Christianity is expected to fall from 78.3% to 66.4% (15% decrease) in the same time period.
However, the total size of the Christian population of the US will still increase from around 243 million today to 261 million (18 million more) in 2050, while folk and other religions will increase from 2.5 million to 7.9 million (5.4 million more) in the same time period.
In relative terms Islam is doing well, becoming the fastest growing religion in both China and India (the world’s two most populous countries) and Russia and Canada (the world’s two largest countries by area). However, despite anti-immigrant feelings in the UK or France it’s not the fastest growing religion in either country.
Christianity is growing fastest in a few interesting place such as the predominantly Muslim countries of Turkey and Indonesia.
Unaffiliated groups are growing fastest in some of the more Catholic countries around the world in South America, Mexico and Poland along with several countries in Africa.
Folk/Other religions are doing well in the United States, UK, France, Brazil and many other countries.
Buddhism seems to be growing fastest in the Scandinavian countries (plus Austria and the Netherlands), far from its base in Asia.
Hindus are growing quickly in an interesting mix of countries from Muslim Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to Catholic Italy, Ireland and Belgium.
Here’s how PEW defined each group:
Islam/Muslims:
There are two major branches of Islam – Sunni and Shia. As of 2010, it was estimated that the overwhelming majority (87-90%) of Muslims were Sunnis; about 10-13% were Shia Muslims. However, with little data on population differences among Muslim subgroups around the world, this report does not project the future size of Sunni and Shia populations.
Christianity:
This analysis looks at Christians as a single religious group and does not project changes
among Christian subgroups.
Note: the report includes Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox as Christians along with Mormons, Christian Scientists and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Unaffiliated:
The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion. However, many of the religiously unaffiliated do hold some religious or spiritual beliefs.
Folk/Other:
Folk religions are closely tied to a particular people, ethnicity or tribe. In some cases, elements of other world religions are blended with local beliefs and customs. These faiths often have no formal creeds or sacred texts. Examples of folk religions include African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions.
Other:
“Other religions” is a residual category composed of groups not classified elsewhere. This very diverse category includes followers of religions that often are not measured separately in censuses and surveys: the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca, Zoroastrianism and many other religions. Because of a lack of data on these faiths in many countries, the individual religions within this category are not projected separately. Rather, they are combined and treated as a whole. This means the growth trajectories of specific religions in this category could vary greatly.
Buddhist:
The three major branches of Buddhism in the modern world are Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism and Vajrayana (sometimes described as Tibetan) Buddhism. […] The Buddhist population figures in this study also include members of other groups that identify as Buddhist, such as Soka Gakkai and Hoa Hao.
Hinduism:
Major traditions within Hinduism include Vaishnavism, which is devoted to worship of the god Vishnu, and Shaivism, organized around worship of the god Shiva. Because of a lack of census or survey data on subgroups of Hindus in most countries, however, reliable estimates of the global size of various Hindu traditions are not available.
You can see data for each country in the full report here.
For the current state of the world’s religions check out: Incredibly Detailed Maps Of The World’s Religions
We need a world map that illustrates the worlds fastest failing religions.
Lie-in-tology would be handsomely represented.
Or
How about a map that shows the religions with the most empty well lit buildings with nobody there?
Outstanding idea, Brian!
Strange, the incredibly detailed map shows that $camology is non-existent but that can’t be true if they millions and millions of followers all around the world. It must be a mistake because Daft Mushycarrots keeps telling us they have millions and millions of followers.
(Sudden appearance of light bulb.) OOHH, I know what he means now. He must mean he has millions and millions and millions of dollars. That solves it for me. (Light bulb fizzles out until next coffee.)
Daft Mushycarrots. ?! Lol. Sooo cute
I declare I am a Dudeist. I’ll bet I’m not the only one who comments here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudeism
Dudeism is great, but I think I’ll stick with Devout Lapsed Catholic, occasional Pastafarian, fervent SubGenius, Trainee Lord of the Sith, and militant atheist.
In the smorgasbord that is modern religion, Scientology is the green Jell-O mold with the sad looking pieces of fruit embedded in it that no one will touch.
Well, there may be no “God” as S/He is represented in most major religions, but there sure in hell is “something” that functions in a highly intelligent manner. Simply watching the development of a sperm and egg over 9 months pretty much puts me in awe. And I don’t believe in such things occurring billions of times “accidentally”.
Awww shucks… I thought you guys were talking about me. Story of my life…
Well, Dude, if you wish to claim it, go ahead. Let me know when the cult is formed and let me be your very first parishioner! The old guys are always smarter!
I wager there are more Jedi than Scientologists these days
That is actually a FACT….
I wonder if Miscavige thinks he is the fastest growing Scientologist.
The height of his pompadour has increased 47x!
On topic is a WWP entry on Source 100, which details the planned growth of Scientology from 2000 forward. THE TRUTH, THE TRUTH!! It hurts.
https://whyweprotest.net/threads/monique-yingling-says-scientology-doesnt-want-clearwater.133016/#post-2610587
When you read their promotion you would think they are totally ubiquitous. Millions of followers around the world?
When you go on Google all you find is their paid ads and tweets at the top of their google page paid for by social media experts. Then as you scroll down the rest of the world starts to surface. And a very credible world it is. Here’s an article from a very good magazine The Week.
http://theweek.com/articles/699202/what-scientology-teach-about-gop
Wonderful positioning of Trump to Scientology.
Ron Hubbard wrote a song that was eventually recorded by the rapper Doug E. Fresh.
We’re Going Up While The World Goes Down.
The real title should be:
“We’re Going Down While We Bring The World Down”
Thanks Mike for putting the cult in perspective.
Interesting map and article. I have to wonder if the reason Scn didn’t even show up in the study or map is because the people putting it together never classified Scn as a religion to begin with? If they thought Scn was merely a cult, then it wouldn’t show up as a religion at all. I wonder if that had something to do with it?
No, it’s because it is so tiny it does not show up on anyone’s radar in the real world.
Now that’s what I call a small cult.
OSD,
A small cult is in keeping with a small (3 feet 25 inch) leader.
Whoa! He’s actually that tall?
Not that I am pro Scientology, but in all fairness, it is mentioned under “other” in the study you talk about, page 125.
Wow — never went into that sort of deep dive. Thanks.
It gets mentioned as an example of all the “other faiths” including “Cao Dai, I-Kuan Tao, Mandaeism, the Rastafari movement, the Rātana movement, Scientology and Yazidism,”
How many of those, has anyone even heard of? And yet most if not all are larger than Scientology, some significantly (for instance, Cao Dai is a 20th century NRM that apparently actually has a couple of million followers in Vietnam, and an estimated 30,000 in the rest of the world – Hubbard’s followers should be jealous).
Scientology must love being grouped with the Rastafarians. I think that Scientology only even rates a mention, because they’ve made themselves so infamous.
Someone or a group got paid big bucks from the Pew Foundation to do that study. If scn was even mentioned in it then I’ll bet that someone well versed in scn history (not me) could get a juicy grant for a treatise on scn. The Foundation would surely be interested in publishing a treatise about the world’s fastest growing religion. I’d say act fast while star power keeps scn in the news. Even the Pew judging panel would be curious.
Scientology has always gotten publicity far out of proportion to its actual size (or influence), probably as a result of Hubbard’s desire to “smash [his] name into history” and the resulting organizational imperative to engage in inordinate self-promotion and publicity-seeking.
For comparison, the Jehovah’s Witnesses probably do have around a million members in the US, and by some accounts even Eckankar (another religion created by a sci-fi writer, who was heavily involved in Scientology for a while) has more members than the CofS’ estimated current 20,000. In 2008 about 2.8 million Americans identified as members of new religious movements (NRMs) or “other religions” and scientologists were about 1% of that total.
On the other hand, I think it’s worth keeping in mind that Scientology seems particularly dangerous because of the damage and harm it can cause to members and other people caught up in it (non-members are affected by disconnection, and when employed by scientologists), and as an example of particularly insidious use of influence and control techniques. I think that as individuals and as nations, we should learn from Scientology as an example and make some changes in attitudes and laws, before some even more insidious and destructive group exploits the same weaknesses to even worse effect.
Completely agree with your last sentence. A good start would be returning to the Constitution which has been decimated over the last few centuries by the pols and others seeking to get their own ways. We sure do not have a “leadership” OF the people, BY the people or FOR the people, sad to say.
When you read their take on Hubbard you’d think he’s ubiquitous too. That he wrote more books than anyone else (as long as you compare a short story in a pulp magazine to works of literature that take years to write), was more widely translated than anyone (“provable BS,” to quote 4’13”).
To appreciate his real impact on our culture, check out the catalog of your county library. Easy to do online. See how many of his “works” they carry, and if anyone checks them out or if they are languishing on the shelf. For extra credit, look up Wright or Remini or Miscavige Sr for comparison. This will tell you all you need to know about the literary giant as well as humanitarian/philosopher he wasn’t. Speaking of “cult classics”…
OK, I checked our entire county, which is large – here’s what wikipedia says about it:
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 10,491 square miles (27,170 km2), of which 10,427 square miles (27,010 km2) is land and 64 square miles (170 km2) (0.6%) is water.[5] The largest county in Wyoming, Sweetwater County is larger than six states and is the eighth-largest county in the United States (not including boroughs and census areas in Alaska).
There are 35 total Hubbard books, 23 of those are from the “encyclopedia” series and in the library at the college, 8 more are sci fi which leaves 2 dianetics, 1 Fundamentals of Thought and 1 Clear Mind Clear Body across the entire state. All hardback. Nothing in ebook format.
8 copies of “King of Queens” shows all seasons and 8 copies of “Troublemaker” Also available in ebook format.
4 copies of Lawrence Wright’s “Going Clear” also available in ebook.
4 of “Ruthless” Miscavige Sr. also in ebook
4 of “Beyond Belief” Jenna Miscavige also in ebook
Out of time to check more, but I don’t see “Blown for Good” – good thing I own it.
Wana bet Scientology would claim this as irrelevant as it is SP controlled propaganda as they are busily obtaining “native state” and Earth is just a portal for higher spiritual attainment or some such nonsense.
RIP or burn in hell, both apply equally to Scientology, it is a dead organisation, and globally never really got of the ground in the first place! It’s only real significance on the world stage is the media attention it gets for being a cult and attracting the attention of some Govt’s legal entities. It’s clever use of legal systems and religious status protection bought it some time however. Everything about Scientology Churches is composed of smoke, mirrors and lies. The interesting point in its advertising is that all of its front groups don’t use the word Scientology, such is the toxicity of the name.
However, it is somewhat of a phenomena how one man could kick it off and obtain so much money by deception. Considering it as a criminal venture it didn’t do too badly at all. Surely it has to rate highly on the most effective scam artist’s list, if such a list were to be complied.
Wouldn’t the correct term be World’s fastest disintegrating religion? Is Dave that delusional? I personally wouldn’t want anyone downing my religion this harshly but my religion doesn’t chase people with private investigators or tear apart family’s,we unite and love and pray and help, it’s uplifting.Mike I was wondering if you Know the answer to this question,with Scientology being a tax exempt cult do the $10,000 a week fees count as tax exempt, I wonder do they pay with cash check or direct deposit, to keep a record of what they do with tax payers money? that right there should be looked at what is wrong with our government have they gone weak or possibly getting hefty payoffs , you’re awesome Mike Rinder God bless you and your beautiful family!!!
Obviously, the failure to report the factual expansion of $cn is no mere accident or oversight! The Evil Psychs, in league with SMERSH, and aided by the Deep State here in the U.S., MUST be diddling those numbers to give the incredibly false impression that $cn barely exists, in terms of its total membership numbers!
This crystal clear example of the depth and pervasiveness of the world-wide conspiracy to suppress all that is good and helpful to mankind can not be tolerated! So, you’re strongly encouraged to attain your next IAS status RIGHT NOW, so that CoB and his loyal officers can effectively combat the lies, disinformation and entheta that is being wantonly spread by the many enemies of the One True Faith!
Thanks, FP. I’ll get right on it.
The reason for the lack of Scientologists in this survey is simple – at the time the survey was performed all Scientologists were exterior (bodies were in pawn) and attending an IAS event in the Van Allen belt. 😉
That “study” might be ok as a general reference, but it’s difficult to say how much of it is statistical guesswork. Too many variables. Almost soothsaying.
I was curious as to who pays people to do these studies. From wiki: “The Pew Research Center is a non profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization and a subsidiary of the Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. Some projects are funded by the Evangelical Protestant John Templeton Foundation.”
They’re both think tanks and at least they’re not totally taxpayer funded. When researching an “ology” or “ism” and so on in wiki I usually look at the “controversies and criticisms” first, a hangover from scn.
Regarding the Templeton Foundation, atheist Richard Dawkins referred to the Templeton Prize as “a very large sum of money given . . . usually to a scientist who is prepared to say something nice about religion.” Lol
I think I’ve noticed recently that they seem to have started to qualify their claims a bit, by saying that Scientology is “one of the world’s fastest growing religions.” I suspect that the lie has become too great and too obvious, to be forwarded even by Scientology staff, who still have some vestiges of normal human characteristics like a hesitancy to blatantly lie – they can often be seen inserting weasel words like that, similar to what children do when they explore playing with social rules and misleading language.
What they really mean is “was once one of the world’s fastest growing religions.”
Actually, I checked and see them using the claim “The Fastest-Growing Religion in the 21st Century.” I’m not quite sure what that odd, qualified turn of phrase really implies. Maybe it’s a “postulate” for the future to include the remaining 8 decades, not a claim of current or historical fact, and so could be rationalized in a child-like way as somehow not actually untrue.
I am Christian. Never a Scientologist, but very supportive of Mike and Leah. I have a question and not sure where to place it, this seems as good a spot as any….
I wonder when someone leaves Scientology do they go to a real church of some kind normally? Do they believe in God? I feel bad if they don’t have something in their life the is positive that replaces what they thought they were getting in Scientology originally.
Other than Mormonism, which often insists on members donating the literal biblical “tithe” of 10% to the church, I don’t know of any religions, modern or otherwise, that require members to spend as much as possible of their disposable income on religious “products”, dogma packaged as courses, in order to stay in good standing.
Consumer organizations that use high-pressure or belligerent sales tactics are generally looked at as shady; it stands to reason that religious organizations that do the same thing would receive the same scrutiny or suspicion. You can’t run a religion like a business with “trademarked” material that you market sell at inflated prices and force members to buy over and over without getting compared to such bad practices. It just looks to outsiders like a slick scam for profit.
Bally Fitness tried that, aggressively roping people into signing up for expensive, irrevocable, bait and switch gym memberships, then refusing to let them cancel. They even signed up people who had never visited a facility and threatened them with collection agencies unless they paid. That business scandal ruined the company, resulted in a huge fine on their accounting firm for ignoring fraudulent business practices, and almost earned their CEO a stint in jail. Our country is full of examples of this kind of financial abuse and extortion, and generally the companies are prosecuted. A “religion” that operates the same way (forcing ex-members to sue for reimbursement of costs) cannot expect to be taken seriously by the outside world, or be deemed as legitimate, even if it technically meets the criteria for one. Financial wolves in sheep’s clothing are pretty obvious to society. And when they engage in other shady practices, like violating labor and trafficking laws, alienating members from non-members, etc. it doesn’t reinforce their claims.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I’ve read. Mormonism doesn’t “insist” on the 10% tithe as a requirement for membership. You can still be a church member and though you may get “leaned on” to tithe, you won’t get kicked out or disconnected for not coughing it up. I have no love for the LDS church, but $cientology takes the prize for pure, unmitigated evil.
+1! Nice post, bixntram!
LDS pretty much insists on tithe. If you don’t pay, you may not be allowed in the temple.
A 10% tithe over a lifetime might equal the cost of The Bridge To Total Freedom. The difference is scn demands payment in advance. A person who quits tithing might be denied entrance to heaven but the scn-ist would remain FREE! It’s kind of like a paid in full life insurance policy.
The cost of The Bridge To Total Freedom in the Freezone or Squirrelzone or whatever it’s called might be equal to only a 5% lifetime tithing. Maybe even less!
The Mormons in my hometown would give (That means no charge, Madman Pompadour) the Book of Mormon to anyone who was interested. That was years ago, like before McDonalds charged for water. The house across the alley housed the young mission men. The LDS also had a long late night commercial, and a 1800# to call for the free Book of M mailed to you.
In my opinion, thats a good way to spread the message.
The survey purposely left CoS off because there’s a work-wide effort by Wogs (psychology, drug companies) to counter the frightening growth of this church cuz they know CoS is putting them out of business…
Damn big pharma – still waiting on my check…. 😉
Where are we going to go when you get your check, Val?
@OSD: The safari your wife is leading this fall, Someone needs to pet those giraffes.
You got that right. Let me know if you ever want to go. Karen knows Kenya like the back of her hand! This will be her 10th trip!
Definitely off topic.
Hi folks! I’ve been lurking here every day for MANY years, reading most everything and posting very little, mainly because I was too lazy to dig out my password.
I’m attempting to post this on BOTH Mike’s and Tony’s sites, because those are the main ones I religiously read, so please excuse me for that.
So, my name is Jory (Giora) Kenneth and I’m from Israel. I fell into Scientology in 1978, had really fabulous results doing Life Repair, got my sister & a few friends in too and flew off to LA (dual citizenship) for 7 years – closer to Source you know… Being a professional musician I studied at CC, got objectives, Method one, did the Book One auditors’ course and the NED course. I audited and got audited on both ‘Dianetixes’ and wasted my time on a shitload of minor courses. NON of the above auditing & courses did me any real good, although I was impressed by the ‘thoroughness’ of the NED system. Like most of us I did my best to drown out ‘the bad voices’ in my head. One day it was adjudicated that I became ‘Clear’ at some mysterious junction on an earlier cycle. Aha. Yep. For sure.
Leaving the cult took a while. Non surprisingly I was connected almost exclusively to $cientologists – friends, work “and so forth, don’t you know, it’s fascinating really” (a kind of a joke). A lot of time was spent (read: wasted) at CC. I remember in ’82 when these excommunication pamphlets started to appear on the walls. It took me nearly a year to actually LEAVE the ƒÚ©∆ing Turdch. I shudder to think about it, but if it were not for that great upheaval I may still be in, Dear God. It was a sort of avalanche. The way I see it, LRH, the CMO or whatever kicked out too many people all at once.
More crazy info seeped out of cult. As far as I was concerned it was all lies and the people spreading them were all SP’s, even though I had known most of them previously. Slowly, step by step, a year maybe, as if painfully pealing off so many band-aids it dawned on me that these rumours were probably true, and then finally things started to make sense!! I got a glimpse of the immensity of the lie. It was an incredible time for me, I felt that I got my brain and self-determinism, MYSELF really, back and I was energised by just knowing that I was on the ‘good’ side now.
Finally I did leave – I insisted on doing it by the book because I knew I was right: letters (to Ron too, how pathetic), O/Ws with the MAA, A Rollback cycle and finally some hard core auditing (free! Offered by the powers that be, unheard of!). A newfangled-Class-whatever auditor audited me at AOLA, and the funniest thing happened: I actually had this Cognition that I GOT TO LEAVE SCIENTOLOGY! And this occurred, FN and GI’s in session right in front of this auditor face! He was speechless, gestured to me to wait and returned promptly with three or four of his buddies and they proceeded to do an obviously out-tech version of Gang-Bang-Audit on me. It didn’t help them very much; I just KNEW that this Scientology thing was over for me and I told them so. I easily ‘kept my TR’s in’, gave them my natural smile and did what really amounted to a Michael Jackson Moon-Walk outa there. It was a great moment. That was in 1984 I believe. Soon after I wrote a resignation letter to ‘The group I was pretending to be part of’. Heehee.
During that time I got together with many well known and influential scientologists and came in touch with a lot of ‘new’ data. I met some great people and made new friends, all SP’s of course. I had a ‘non enturbulation order’ on me, lost almost ALL my clam friends, some of which had written Knowledge Reports on me for being, among other things, a Joker & Degrader. I detest that KR mentality, and specifically in this case because I love and need humour of all sorts in my life.
For what it’s worth, and even though so many people here have had a life-experience so much more dramatic and sometimes tragic than mine, I do feel like continuing my story at a later point, delineating what has become of me in relation to this cult. How I’m still obsessed with that AssHole ‘Ron’ and his craziness etc. And how I became a sort of an expert in regard to this cult in Israel. And yes: My sister is still a Scientologist and she and her family disconnected from me and mine, just as expected. What losers.
Apparently I can’t let go, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Another great “My Life as a $cilon” tale! Like you, I got in for the Life Repair, then stayed for all manner of nonsensical idiocy, until I wised up and GTFO.
“I actually had this Cognition that I GOT TO LEAVE SCIENTOLOGY! And this occurred, FN and GI’s in session right in front of this auditor face! ”
I call that the REAL Clear Cog. Most of us have it outside of session, but I can totally picture the looks of alarm and bewilderment of your auditor, who not only witnessed your good indicators upon having it, but had to acknowledge the F/N which accompanied it…too funny!
Ex-members have also reported similar wins while doing the ethics Doubt formula and realizing that $cn really was a group that they no longer wished to be a member of; and also, during PTS handlings when they cognited that it was $cn or CoB who was the real SP in their lives who’d been holding them down.
Now, looking back, it’s all just so screamingly hilarious, but then it was a deadly serious matter in which (gulp) the whole agronomised furniture of mankind for the next umpty trillion years hung in the balance…such utter nonsense, so complete a waste of time!
“the whole agronomised furniture of mankind”. Deliberate or spectacularly funny accident?
In my case I don’t consider it a waste of time. I was looking for some intellectual stimulation since I hadn’t read a book in two years and scn fit the bill. If I didn’t land in scn I might have become a Moonie or something. (shudder)
So glad you didn’t, Richard. Combating Cult Mind Control, by Steven Hassan. You can get in e-book form. He was a devout Moonie.
Rev. Moon or whatever his name was might have married me off to a nag. Or maybe she would have become the love of my life. You never know about such things.
Welcome, Quackery; I’m glad you got out, and glad you’re posting here. I have to say, I got lost with some of the jargon and the acronyms in your post – just something to be aware if you share again here. As I look back over the decades, I’ve made a lot of huge mistakes in my life, but joining scientology was not one of them, thank God. I wish you all the best.
Quakery –
WELCOME and thank you for your wonderful write up!
Actually – you are on the RIGHT subject.
$cientology claims to be the fastest growing religion and that is a bold face lie.
People like you are coming out in droves…speaking out.
Good job on getting your self back!
Hey Quackery,
I’ve decided to google you, found an online letter you wrote three years ago addressed to Scientologists who are still in:
https://www.facebook.com/InfoKatot/posts/824272150967974
At the end of the letter you invited Scientologists to talk to you so you can expose them to the truth. Has this had any effect?
Quackery – sooo happy for you. God can speak to us thru anything…He still loves you.
Great exit story, Quackery 🙂
In trying to figure out how they can still justify this particular claim (since I assume book sales have dropped), I assume they must now be down to counting literature being distributed (such as WTH pamphlets being handed out), number of Twitter/Facebook shares/mentions of their propaganda (whether positive or negative), square footage increase of property, or some other arcane statistical determination.
It sure as hell isn’t the number of people. Even in Ireland, a census in 2016 estimated only 87 total Scientologists in that country (out of a total of 4.7 million people), or 0.001851% of that country’s population. They were actually behind the 92 Pastafarians in this Irish census (yes, those of the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” religion). Let that one sink in for just a minute…..
And some of those 87 might have even been “squirrels”.
Maybe more?
I have worked as a Chaplain in major cities hospitals for the past bunch of years, I have worked with “Jedi’s”, Pagans, and even a “Vampire”… But never a Scientologist. In fact there are more self identifying Jedi’s than Scientologists. May the Force be With You!
That’s me, Nancy! I’m still a Jedi Night! Ahhh…. I mean Jedi Knight. If Scientology can play make believe, so can I! Hey Yoda! Did you bring the beer?
May the Force Be With You dear old surfer dude…
Much cleaner, clearer and simpler religion that Scn
Thanks, Nancy! However, I view Scientology as a cult! A vicious, evil, toxic cult. I walked away in ’82 and never looked back. I didn’t even bother to attest to beer…..ahhhhh…..ummmmm….I mean to Clear.
Oooops you’re right it was only a “religion” for accounting and legal reasons…
As far as I know the Jedi’s are free spirits and nothing like a cult…
That we are, Nancy! A Force for Good!
Thanks for the careful explanation. What it means is that even if scientology could sign up another 20,000 newbies (heck, even 5 or 10) this would count as enormous growth in this survey.
Or for that matter, if they could even manage to rate as an “other.” Even if all you want to be an obscure “also ran,” it’s kind of helpful if you can get your horse at least remotely near the track!
So where is the 47x growth we hear too much about? Sorry, the Clampire is still shrinking. Ten years ago they may have had 30k worldwide. Now they are between 15-20k, worldwide. That includes 5k in staff and Sea bOrg. If the real, paying population of $cientology is around 15k, those 5k staff and SO are a real drag on profitability.
$cientology used to be a self help pyramid scheme, now it is an Amway type of donation scheme with bought statuses and bowling trophies. Except in Amway, you buy semi-useful cleaning products. You can’t polish anything with a bowling trophy. There is a sexual innuendo in there, but damned If I am going to point it out. Oh, too late…..
All the new ‘idle mOrgs’ are just another way to keep the IRS away and to stash money in the one place where that money is usually safe. Real Estate is the future of $cientology. When the $cieno clay bubble crumples, I can get you a great deal on office complexes in Australia, Florida, Copenhagen and Los Angeles.
Scientology LIES! It is nothing but a sham…it is all smoke and mirrors with maybe 5,000 people total around the world pretending it is the “fastest growing religion”…shrinking daily….an evil cult.
Idle, how many times have I told you! Don’t hold back! Just let ‘er rip! It’s good for the soul!
Yes Sir – will do! 🙂 LOL
Yes indeed, but it could get some sort of recognition for being a “whale-a-thon.” Never have so few been ripped off for so much to keep nothing going for so long. How such a small bunch of wealthy whales can keep donating is simply a wonder of modern idiocy (or blackmail).
Wow! That just hit me like a ton of bricks, I Yawn! “Modern idiocy”. Boy, can you nail it or what?!
They keep donating because the have to be right. They don’t dare be wrong. And the Whales and Celebs are constantly being MADE so very very right! Treated as royalty, revered. Regarding them, the Love Bombing Statistic is always in Power. Of course, we public ALL got love-bombed. I know I was. Its very seductive – being told continuously in subtle and not so subtle ways that you’re wonderful. Admiration – whew! I can really laugh at myself now for having believed it, for having been so conned, all those years. But the Whales and Celebs – maybe its not so easy for them to laugh it off, to turn away. Admiration can be addictive. Actors and creative people are, I believe, fragile and vulnerable, emotionally, needing and possibly even craving approval. As for the wealthy Whales, the few I knew were highly vulnerable to approval and flattery. Talk about controlled beings – wow.
To qualify, the few Whales I knew had inherited their money. They hadn’t earned it, hadn’t ever created anything, built anything. They lived off of family money when their parents were alive and then inherited it. This was the cause, I believe, of their vulnerability to the cult’s love bombing. That song that Billie Holiday used to sing explains it: “Mama may have, Papa may have, but God bless the child, that’s got his own, that’s got his own”. These Whales, I think, didn’t themselves think that they had “their own”. Ripe fruit.
Interesting post! I would say that Islam is currently that fastest growing religion in Canada but that is only do to the influx if immigrants from Islamic countries and specifically Syria. Scn is a fly spec on the wall compared to that. This report does put to rest the Big S’s contention that Scientology is the fastest growing religion in the world though and they have been spouting that line as long as I have been involved with them.The Bridge from the 70’s was an intentional scam that lured thousands of us with dreams of OT abilities as promised and so is the claim of $cn being the fastest growing religion in the world! Like Turmp you have to fact check them all the time and the Big S tends to come up as losers each time!
I’m wondering if, during the previous eight years, you bothered to “fact check” Obama? I’ll bet not. LOL
Hi Mike. Love your blog. I’ve been fascinated with Scientology for a couple of months and do not understand how this mind melting scam can continue to exist. I would like to bring to attention that when using the link “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.” and the link “full report here” you’re taken to the same 245 page report that does include the word “Scientology” one time.
L Shelley, Kool-Aid is like tobacco. They get you hooked and keep you hooked.
We are witnessing the Event Horizon of scamology…
Cool! Will have all those great graphics?
What do you think SuMP was REALLY purchased for? 😉
Wish I had your keen insight…
What about the, “Church of What’s Happening Now?” Because, ‘now’ is eternal. It’s always now. Now is.
Ok, ok…..I’ll go back to drinking coffee.
Yeah, I know… how about a little nap or LLD (little lie down) too… works for me.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….
Well, with me, I Yawn…….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Yeah, works for me too…zzzzzzz
Sorry! I keep falling zzzzzzzzz.
Now, you’ve got me, zzzzzzz, doing, zzzzzzz, it too… zzzzzz…
Great minds think zzzzzzzzzzzz
Better get a CPAP machine on this blog asap – snore…zzzzz… snore…
I actually have a BiPAP machine for my sleep apnea…
Dave,
Again, your cult is off the charts. LOL
Straight up and vertical. Not.
Straight down and horizontal – more like it.
Down to the center of the Earth. Where it’s hot. Really, really HOT.
Holy roasted chestnuts Batman, that’s HOT!
Hot enough to fry an egg on a sidewalk, along with bacon. We could call it, Sidewalk Breakfast! Yeah, yeah, dat’s da ticket!
Well, that’s true threefeet. Now you’ve given him something to crow about. “Off the chart growth” Tee hee tee hee
LOL
You guys are having way too much fun!