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From: za56@sdcc3.ucsd.EDU (Brian McNeill)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: The Most Memorable Character I Never Met
Message-ID: <3584@sdcc3.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Sat, 27-Sep-86 05:22:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcc3.3584
Posted: Sat Sep 27 05:22:33 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 28-Sep-86 00:42:58 EDT
References: <2754@pogo.UUCP> <15818@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: za56@sdcc3.UUCP (Brian McNeill)
Followup-To: talk.religion.misc
Distribution: na
Organization: U.C. San Diego, Academic Computer Center
Lines: 55
Summary: Still only 20% Xian

In article <15818@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> gsmith@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Gene Ward Smith) writes:
>In article <2754@pogo.UUCP> daveb@pogo.UUCP (Dave Butler) writes:
>>There are more artistic representations of Siddartha than of any other human 
>>(Hell, even the game _Trivial_Pursuits_ knows that). Also, Buddha lived over 
>>a thousand years before Jesus was born. That's an additional thousand years 
>>to be forgotten, but his fame just keeps on growing.
>
>   I don't know on what basis you claim Gautama is "more remembered" than
>Jesus. Certainly, I would advise you are anyone against believing *anything*
>you "learned" playing Trivial Pursuits. 

If you'd read his article he never said that he learned this fact
from Trivial Pursuit, he only said that Trivial Pursuit managed to
get this one right...as to the rest, he is correct...more books,
artwork, poetry, and whatnot has been written about Siddhartha than
about any other man ever living (just check your local University
library...)  You did get one thing right though...Buddha did not
live 1000 years before Christ...more like 600 years (still an
awfully big gap there...)

>before Jesus. Estimates give the number of (at least) nominal Christians as
>much greater than any other religion, Buddhism included, despite the 
>somewhat inaccurate estimates you give later in your article.
>

Not completely true...the number of nominal Xians (Protestanst and
Catholics) is roughly 1 billion, divided into 700 mil Catholic and
300 mil Protestant.  This is approximately 20% of the world
population...seems odd for a religion that claims absolute truth...
as to the rest, Buddhists have 600 mil members, Hindu 500 mil,
Muslims about 250 (I think...Im trying to recall this from memory),
and so on...Xians still constitute a minority, albeit the largest
minority in the whole...most people are still non Xian, and this
seems to me to be a fairly good reason to question the validity of
Xianity (as well as other world religions)...since if God were
Xian, he probably would have a HELL of a lot more convincing
evidence than he has now (a 20% saved rate AT BEST is pretty
miserable for an omnipotent God who sent his Son to Earth 2000 years
ago...)  Think of that...80% (thats 4+ BILLION PEOPLE) of the
world's population is condemned to hell (not forgetting the billions
who have died and are already presumably burning)...this seems to
indicate to me an at best indifferent God, and certainly not a
benevolent God...

>ucbvax!brahms!gsmith    Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
> This posting was made possible by a grant from the Mobil Corporation

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