Muslims Pull Ahead In The God Race

[DeSwiss]

Muslims more numerous than Catholics

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer
Sun Mar 30, 2:48 PM ET

VATICAN CITY - Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion, the Vatican newspaper said Sunday.

"For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population — a stable percentage — while Muslims were at 19.2 percent. "It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said. Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_muslims">MORE

- Well, well, well. Somebody's not listening to the good Fathers about those birth control pills, now are they? You realize of course that now would be a great opportunity for the Catholics to consider "re-drafting their message."

See, if they were to claim that they "found" new writings by Jesus that said "teh gays" were okay and all that, well that'd be another 10% or so they could lay claim to (probably a lot more). Cause Muslims would never let homosexuals become followers of Allah. At least that's what that Ahmadinejad guy said.....
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DeSwiss


http://atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox

[theredpen]

1. What new writings by Jesus?

And don't worry, Bush is killing Muslims as fast as he can.

[Teaser]

2. "new writings by Jesus"

were there some old ones?

AFAIK, he only ever wrote in the dirt.

[DeSwiss]

6. Postcards???

From the "missing years...."

[DCKit]

3. Or they could simply allow their priests to marry again...

and boost/rebuild their numbers that way. As a two-fer, they'd have a lot more men willing to join the church and the priest shortage would no longer be an issue for them.

Somehow, I just don't see Ratzo leading the Catholic church out of the dark ages anytime soon - he's too much of a traditionalist, regardless of how ill-suited those traditions are to current reality.

[DeSwiss]

7. So I wonder if they did that....

...would the preist's wife take birth control pills? Hmmm...

Anyway, not to worry. You got it right.

- Not with Ratzo at the helm....

[Meshuga]

4. Could this have anything to do with the Catholic Church losing ground to evangelicals?

I wonder if that is a factor.

[DeSwiss]

8. Could be a variable...

...but I doubt it'd get much emphasis or mention from the Vatican if it were true.

The present regime would prefer to blame it upon a need for more exorcisms, less birth control and NO gays.

[damntexdem]

5. So will God have to change identity to Allah?

Or will it only be Jesus? But Jesus is also revered by Muslims, just not as a god.

[DeSwiss]

9. And more importantly....

...will Allah's portraits eventually be "Europeanized?"

- Oh, that's right.... they don't do those.