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What Majorities Prove

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1873

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 42, No. 23.

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What Majorities Prove.

The Golden Age for June 7 has the following pointed article on this subject. We commend it to the perusal of those who reject the present truth because so few believe it.
“What says the majority of mankind as to the various religions in vogue among them? Which of the creeds, and sects, and churches, is sanctioned by the vox populi, vox Dei? If the judgment of the majority—aye, and of the overwhelming majority of the present race of men on the earth—is worth anything as to right or wrong of any particular religion, what is that judgment? Let us take an accurate measurement of the whole world's opinion, on all the great religions. Borrowing a suggestion from Mr. Armour's table, we rearrange it so as to appeal to the eye in a gradual progression as follows:—

POPULATIONS AND RELIGIONS OF THE GLOBE.

Jew, 6,000,000 Protestants, 59,000,000 Greek Church and branches, 62,000,000 Mahometans, 96,000,000 Brahmanists, 120,000,000 Romanists, 139,000,000 Buddhists, 320,000,000 All others: Confucius, Sintism, Mythological Naturalism, Manikism, Fetichism, 468,000,000 Total, 1,270,000,000
“The Protestants are about one in twenty-one and a half of the population; Romanists one in nine; Protestants, Romanists, and Greeks together, one in five.
“As for ourselves, the above table confirms an old conviction of ours, that the judgment of the majority on any great subject of human concern is generally wrong. Whatever great movements are undertaken for the benefit of humanity (as all history will testify), are uniformly begun by a brave and finally martyred few, and opposed by the ignorant and stubborn many. And, furthermore, when any great idea, thus originated, finally gets possession of great masses and millions of men, the race has generally, in the meantime, so far advanced, that even this idea also has been steadily outgrown, and needs to give place to some new and struggling reform, needing crusaders, and prophets, and victims, and martyrs. The above table is spread before our readers as containing rich food for thought, which the thoughtful will digest for themselves.”