Respectful Of All Who Worship God Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

For those interested? The entire world population is presently estimated as 7.036 billion by the United States Census Bureau (USCB) which estimated that the world population exceeded 7 billion on March 12,2012. There are not 7 billion people of any religion in the world? I have already stated that religion is not a popularity contest. The latest extensive data I could find, lists all the main religions by numbers. I do not know why African Anglicanism/diasporic religions are listed together as 110 million? Anglicanism is a denomination of Christianity and the diasporic is the dispersion of Jews into Africa. But the figures for the other most populious by membership is rather interesting. Animist religions 306 million, Buddhism 376 million, Chinese traditional religion 400 million, Hinduism 900 million, Nonreligious/agnostic/atheism 1.12 billion, Islam 1.62 billion and Christanity 2.4 billion. 2007 source • Christianity: 2.1 billion • Islam: 1.5 billion • Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion • Hinduism: 900 million • Chinese traditional religion: 394 million • Buddhism: 376 million • primal-indigenous: 300 million • African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million Religious figures vary according to sources. Wikipedia World population 6.8 billion Figure used by individual articles Christianity 2.4 billion 34% Christianity by country Islam 1.62 billion 19% Islam by country Hinduism 1 billion 14% Hinduism by country Non-religious 1.12 billion 16% Irreligion by country Buddhism Circa 376 million In 2010, there were 2.30 billion Christians in the world, an increase of 300 million from two billion in 2005. The increase in the Christian population is growing at a slightly higher rate than the world population – 1.3 percent per year, when the total world population increased with 1.2 percent. The Christian population in Asia and Africa had the highest growth with 2.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively, but the Christian population is declining in Europe. Although the number of Muslims and Hindus – 1.6 billion Muslims and 870 million Hindus – are less than Christians, the Muslim population has grown at a rate of 1.9 percent per year and the Hindu population has grown at a rate of 1.5 percent per year, however charismatic Christianity and independent churches are growing at the fastest, at 2.4 percent per year.

To answer the question, why didn’t I include Hinduism in my poem, has several answers. First the poem is about respect for God and other people, and not about specific religions or denominations. Religion is not a popularity contest, it is supposed to be an interaction between God and an individual. This is our individual responsibility to God. Of the four religions I mentioned, three all worship the same God as creator of heaven and earth, though in different forms, and Buddhist focuses on individual responsibility which is a theme of the poem. Note I said Jewish, not the religion Judaism, this point I will explain later. The point is made in the first line of the poem, ‘I am Christian Buddhist Muslim Jewish’, but due to the brevity of the poem, this is not explained. The next point made in the second line is ‘I am respectful of all who worship God’ but with the conditional ‘respectful of all who worship in sincerity’. Anyone who missed these very simple points missed the entire purpose of the poem. I am not however Hindu, and I do not write upon subjects I am ignorant of, and not qualified to comment upon. When writing about or mentioning religion, I do check sources for accuracy. I am also after decades of research, and having read the entire Bible from cover to cover; including large portions of several versions of the Bible by different denominations; including almost all of the Old and New Testaments from the Complete Jewish Bible translated by David H. Stern, quite learned with respect to Christianity and knowledgeable with regard to Judaism. I have read more than three quarters of the Al-Qur'an and lived more than fourteen years in Muslim countries and read in depth books on Buddhism. Therefore I have deep knowledge of these religions but far less knowledge of other religions. Although most Christians may not realize it, it is impossible to be a Christian without being to a certain extent Jewish. Why? Because most the Old Testament, the Hebrew-Aramaic Scriptures deals with the old prophets and the Jewish religion. Muslims may not realize it either but many of their major prophets were Jewish and they also learn stories from the Old Testament. The Christian Greek Scriptures of the New Testament were written by Jews, yes Paul was a Jew, as were the disciples of Christ; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The parents of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were Jews; therefore it can be easily argued, any Christians who hate Jews cannot be real Christians. All key figures in Christianity were Jewish. Abraham, born Abram, was the father of both Isaac and Ishmael, thus Christianity, Islam and Judaism share a common patriarch. The descendants of Abraham are Jewish Christian and Islamic and according to both Muslim and Jewish tradition, Abraham is the ancestor of the Arabs. If this kinship was recognized, instead of differences fought over, there would be more peace in the world. Lastly I did not mention nonreligious, agnostic or atheism either in my poem. This is 1.2 billion people according to the last available 2008 data on religions I could found. The belief of atheists and non religious people that there is no God or gods is a religious belief. Their religious belief is that there is no God. Only agnostics do not have a religion, they remain unsure about the existence of God or gods. To the dozens of other religions I did not mention, yes I mentioned you among the ‘I am respectful of all who worship God/ respectful of all who worship in sincerity’ lines.

Why didn't you include Hindus in your poem? we are more than seven billion Hindus, who call themselves as Hindus (more than one billion) Jews, Christians, Muslim and others.