ultralaser:

eshusplayground:

Special clause for the Big Three that tend to get lumped together:

1. Judaism is not Christianity minus Jesus
2. Islam is not Christianity plus Muhammad

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have radically different theologies, radically different approaches to text, radically different understandings of practice, and radically different understandings of who is part of the community. You cannot assume a Christian concept of what religion is (and a very Western form of Christianity to boot) then act like everything else is just a variation of that.

In addition:

• Buddhism exists
• Daoism exists
• Indigenous spiritual traditions exist outside the East/West dichotomy

hinduism exists (and is kind of popular).

shintoism exists (and is an actual belief system).

the maori (still) exist (and they had to sue lego for wholesale lifting maori ‘mythology’ as flavor text for bionicle).

native americans and their religions (still) exist (and the extant mayans will tell you that the world is not ending in december).

pre-christian european religions (still) exist.

non-white non-european peoples exist fucking everywhere, and believe all kinds of things, but haven’t used the sword or rifle to convert everyone else to their faith, and so are not accorded status as ‘major’ religions, but still totally count as more than lumping five continents into ‘other’ aka your list is wildly incomplete.

speaking to your core point, ‘christianity is not even the only //major// religion’ is perhaps a better thesis. 1.5 billion muslims last figure i saw quoted, that’s kind of a big deal.

[atheism exists. i’ll just leave this one here.]

First of all, I am not writing a thesis paper. My post was never meant to be a comprehensive rebuttal of the most common assumptions people bring to the table when talking about religion.

Second, basing your criticism of my post on the assumption that I’m somehow NOT a non-White, non-European person (especially since my username has ESHU in it - a name I did not pluck out of Wikipedia) is … interesting.

But, since it’s apparently more important that you show the world how stupid I am and how ridiculous my thesis is, here you go.

I am so dumb and my main point is made entirely invalid because I didn’t list:

• The Baha’i Faith
• Shinto
• Vodoun
• Santeria
• Columbe
• Yoruba
• Hinduism
• Wicca
• Satanism
• Astaru
• Jainism
• Sikhism
• Zorastrianism
• Secular humanism
• Anything else at that could conceivably be considered a religion, spiritual tradition, or belief system by anyone anywhere, on the entire planet on this day, February 5, 2012 at approximately 8AM Eastern Standard Time.