New Internationalist

Factfile On… Religion

Issue 331

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factfile on...
Religion
A person's relation to God, gods or spirits is called religion. The vast majority
of people - two-thirds of the world's population - follow a religion.

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For many, dollars and deities seem
interchangeable.

  • Six out of ten people in the US pray for cash.

  • In India, shop staff ask Lakshimi – the Hindu goddess of wealth – to bless the cash registers before they open for business.

  • When a rumour started that the 999 emergency telephone number in Malaysia was a direct line with God, operators were swamped with calls asking for the winning numbers of the upcoming lottery.

  • Fellow-national Pope John Paul II recently urged Poles to attend mass rather than shop on Sunday – their only official day off work.
1 Encyclopaedia Brittanica: www.brittanica.com
2 Colours magazine, No 37.

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