Participants included top scientists and major religious leaders including: Ecuмenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople; Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, England; Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, representing Patriarch Kirill of Moscow; Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar; Rabbi Noam Marans of the International Jєωιѕн Committee for Interreligious Consultations; and top representatives of other Christian denominations, Sunni and Shi'a Muslim communities, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.

I was reading the above thread about the Pope's Climate Change meeting of religious leaders.


It got me thinking: a lot of those "religions" are more like philosophical systems. Speaking specifically of the last 7. Are they really so popular and/or influential, to the point that hundreds of "faithful" actually donate enough to earn them a living?

Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.

I mean, in America lots of people believe in transhumanism, aliens, panspermia, possibility of true sentient AI, the Singularity, multiple universes, the theory we're living in a simulation, etc. -- but I don't know anyone who earns a living adhering to these errors. They aren't enough to be a religion. Maybe they aren't dressed up enough -- but the same goes for many of the above philosophical systems. These people don't go to any "church" on Sunday or any other day, they don't sing hymns, play bingo, or hold fundraisers.

I imagine some of these are quite marginal, but they keep getting invited to these interfaith gatherings to "add spice" or bolster the variety. The more the merrier, at these kind of things. Even if 1/2 the people invited are complete nobodies with no real followers or influence over the day-to-day lives of ANYONE.

In short, I bet there are a few losers who dress up as these philosophical systems, and get rich being invited to all these interfaith meetings. That, and appearing at events, maybe running a blog, etc. I don't think they have any ADHERENTS or PARISHIONERS in the Christian or Catholic sense.

If they earn a living as a Taoist blogger, they're earning money from blogging, from Adsense, not directly from Taoist adherents. If Buddhist monks earn money by doing work or producing things and selling them in town, they're running a business. Their existence doesn't prove the existence of scores of Buddhist "adherents" who make financial sacrifices to support them.