Vatican: Islam Has "Overtaken" Catholicism

"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.

[honestabe8]

not in discussions of science, it doesn''t

[tbweb]

sorry, logic is what rules in my view, not millenia old fairy tales from desert dwellers transled by clerics.

Posted by honestabe8 at 03:23 PM : Apr 02, 2008,,,

I know exactly what you mean, I am very logical and very technical, but religion is not logical and to be purely 100% logical in every instance is not good, humans must express their entire self of which emotion has a role too.

[honestabe8]

sorry, logic is what rules in my view, not millenia old fairy tales from desert dwellers transled by clerics.

[tbweb]

so, basically, you don''''t know.

Posted by honestabe8 at 03:16 PM : Apr 02, 2008,,,

You and newsterl make the same mistake, you base your willingness to believe and accept God on imperfect humans, using imperfect humans as an excuse. Humans are not God, you must establish your own personal relationship with God, don''t base your belief or non-belief on the imperfections of humans. Establish a personal relationship with God of your own and then decide.

[tbweb]

if somethings need to be believed to be seen, the belief is what rules, not the logic.

Posted by honestabe8 at 03:06 PM : Apr 02, 2008,,,

There is nothing logical about emotions and nothing emotional about logic. Logic has its place but not every place.

[honestabe8]

so, basically, you don''t know.

[tbweb]

How does one make the connection from "something created us" to "jesus died for your sins"?

Posted by honestabe8 at 03:02 PM : Apr 02, 2008,,,

The spiritual domain should be learned in by a step by step method. Understanding Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God and God''s word is not hard, but its just hard enough that jumping in at the middle or taking in unrelated pieces can leave new people confused. A bad spiritual mentor is just as bad. If I were to recommend a way to learn the Bible from beginning to end it would be to obtain a daily work text book which allows you to read a page a day, with each page being labeled with a month and day of the year, the idea being you will have read and understood the entire Bible in a year, or if money is no option purchase an audio version of the Bible and listen to it while you sleep at the lowest volume setting. All your questions including the ones you presented above will be answered.

[honestabe8]

if somethings need to be believed to be seen, the belief is what rules, not the logic.

[honestabe8]

How does one make the connection from "something created us" to "jesus died for your sins"?

[tbweb]

oh, so YOU have special knowledge....

Posted by honestabe8 at 02:19 PM : Apr 02, 2008,,,

Yes of course, knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, God and God''s word. That''s all the special knowledge one needs, there is no need to complicate it. Some things have to be believed to be seen.