{"id":51753,"date":"2015-07-15T15:34:56","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T21:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/15\/the-spread-of-major-religions-kinda-sorta-animated-map-style.html"},"modified":"2015-07-15T15:34:56","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T21:34:56","slug":"the-spread-of-major-religions-kinda-sorta-animated-map-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/15\/the-spread-of-major-religions-kinda-sorta-animated-map-style.html","title":{"rendered":"The Spread of Major Religions, Kinda-Sorta (animated map style)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an interesting look at 5,000 years of "major religion" spread around the world … but don't read too much into it:<\/p>\n

1. The term "major religion" is both understanding and overstating. The mapincludes Judaism which, honestly, is overstating its importance except as the precursor to Christianity and Islam. A look at the numbers (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Major_religious_groups<\/a>) shows Judaism is waaaaay down the list, even as faiths like Taoism, Traditional Chinese Religion, and Shinto are ignored here.<\/p>\n

It's also overstating it in terms of treating broad religious categories seamlessly. Is there a huge swath of the world "controlled" by Islam? Yes. Is it a monolithic faith? No more than Christianity, or Hinduism, or Buddhism are. For that matter, the Christianity of some Christian nations is, at best, formalized.<\/p>\n

And, of course, quite a number of nations have substantial minority religious populations that aren't reflected here.<\/p>\n

2. As with colonization maps, there's an implication that there's "nothing there" before one of the major faiths sweeps in. <\/p>\n

3. The video focuses on big movements, sweeping around the globe, ignoring some interesting things that are happening else-times on the other side.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I had no idea that there was a substantial Hindu presence in Suriname and Guyana (due to indentured East Indian workers who were brought there by the Dutch and English), though, again, the map exaggerates; Guyana's population is 57% Christian, 28% are Hindu; Suriname is similar.<\/p>\n

In short, it's interesting as far as it goes, but as much as a jumping off point as anything else.<\/p>\n

(It's also annoying that I can't pause the video without article ads popping up. Rrg.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nMap shows how religion spread around the world – Business Insider<\/a><\/span>
\nVIDEO: 5,000 years of religious history in two minutes.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an interesting look at 5,000 years of "major religion" spread around the world … but don't read too much into it: 1. The term "major religion" is both understanding and overstating. The mapincludes Judaism which, honestly, is overstating its importance except as the precursor to Christianity and Islam. A look at the numbers … Continue reading “The Spread of Major Religions, Kinda-Sorta (animated map style)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33014,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/02\/religious-roots.html","url_meta":{"origin":51753,"position":0},"title":"Religious Roots","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Apr-13 6:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As a companion piece to the +Yonatan Zunger\u00a0article I just shared (which is linked to at the bottom), a look at the history and fracturing of Judaism in ancient times, and how early Christianity ended up in pulling together many of the \"weird\" threads from those diverse foundations.It's fascinating because,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10098,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/06\/also_sprach_zar.html","url_meta":{"origin":51753,"position":1},"title":"Also Sprach Zarathustra","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Sep-06 6:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting NYT article about Zoroastrianism, a 3000-year-old Persian religion that is slowly dying out due to demographics, intermarriage, and internal divisions. Zoroastrianism predates Christianity and Islam, and many historians say...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33210,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/16\/the-middle-eastern-stew-pot.html","url_meta":{"origin":51753,"position":2},"title":"The Middle Eastern Stew Pot","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Apr-13 3:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not a melting pot, because, historically, huge chunks have remain unmelted, unmixed -- certainly flavored by the ingredients next to them, but still distinguishable as quite a different taste\u00a0when bitten into.The religious history of the Middle and Near East is fascinating to me, if for no other reason than what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2244,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/19\/balance_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":51753,"position":3},"title":"Balance","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 19-Jul-02 9:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I try to avoid simplistic analyses of these sorts of things, but this made me wonder ... If it is true that most (many) large businesses usually find some way...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130649,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/13\/kill-your-headache-and-your-empathy.html","url_meta":{"origin":51753,"position":4},"title":"Kill your headache … and your empathy","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-May-16 12:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"That's overstating things (on both counts), but this the study in this story is a bit ... disturbing. It appears that taking acetominophen (Tylenol) actually reduces empathy for pain others may be feeling. That's not a good thing. 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A cry for peace...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}