p. 419 | THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 15, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 27.

THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS.

THE best general statistical work is Daniel's Lehrbuch der Geographie. Of this the sixty-fourth edition has recently appeared, which contains some interesting statements and figures. According to these the number of inhabitants on the globe is about 1,435,000,000. There are 3,064 distinct languages and dialects known. There are about 1,100 different religions. There does not exist a single people which is without a religion of some kind. Even the lowest on the social scale have some religious idea, however crude. Christianity has 432,000,000 adherents. The Roman Catholic Church numbers 208,000,000; the Greek or Oriental Orthodox Church, 83,000,000; the Protestant Church, 123,000,000. Besides these there are about 100 sects or smaller divisions claiming to be Christians, with 8,000,000 adherents. Of the non-Christians, 8,000,000 are Jews, 120,000,000 are Mohammedans. These adherents of Islam are divided into three sects, the Sunites, Shiites, and Wappabites, while there are about seventy smaller Mohammedan sects. All other human beings are non-monotheistic, or heathen, and embrace 875,000,000 souls. Among the heathen religions Brahminism is the most widely spread, and embraces about 138,000,000 adherents, and its younger offshoot, Buddhism, embraces 503,000,000. Other heathen religions have 135,000,000 adherents. There are thus yet over 1,000,000,000 of souls who are not Christians.—Christian Commonwealth.