[Buddha-l] Buddhism, the second largest religion in the world

[Vicente Gonzalez]

D. Snyder wrote:

DS>   The current number of Buddhists is therefore, nearly 1.7
DS> billion which places it nearly equal with each of the two largest
DS> religions of Christianity and Islam. It is important to know the
DS> true number to provide an accurate history and to know that we are
DS> not ?alone? in our thinking and our practice.

at least I agree in some points.  Numbers are important to show
the importance of different religions in schools and other matters.
In some places there are frequent discussions about the convenience
of some teaching about main religions of the world in the classrooms.
(because we live in a globalized society, etc..). Here numbers are not
important while a frequent argument is the number of followers in the
world.

Numbers of your web seems to be high, although also they act as a
balance in front the actual statistics which are very low despite
they feed many books.
In websites like Wikipedia, although weak in the academic side, at
least are more dynamic and updated frequently. Your dates appears
here, and I think they are useful to show this lack of exactitude
and expanding the reach of the doubt in a better way.
I think it is good thing. If our reality shows how still a 52% of
Chinese people reject to answer these questions, then the size of 
the doubt it's not little. Using that last poll of my previous post,
the 23% of actual Chinese people worshiping in Buddha are 400 million.
It leaves a total number in the world near 700 million. And it is
really bigger than actual numbers of books and press (around 300-400).

For a reasonable speculations, assuming the logical thought that there
is at least another 23% Buddhist inside that 52% who reject give
answers, there is reasonable speculation of 1.000 million in the
world. (accepting statistics of the rest of world). 


best regards,