Wealthiest Religion

[KIAman]

After reading and responding to threads regarding athiesm and religion in general, I have a question I ask of ATOT. Can classify a major sect as a seperate religion, aka Catholics vs Baptists or Sunni vs Shia. Can also include major groups such as Athiests.

1. Which religion is the wealthiest in terms of money *per* member?
2. Which religion is the wealthiest in terms of total combined world assets?
3. Which religion can command the most political world power?

Edit: Clarified question #1

 

[Train]

This should be a no-brainer. Though I could be wrong

1. Scientology - they pretty much prey on rich people.
2 & 3. Only organized religion big enough is Islam, but they are so fragmented I would have to say Roman Catholic

 

[blackdogdeek]

i would go with roman catholicism for all 3.

 

[zinfamous]

any idea how much gold and shit is sitting under the Vatican?

 

[Train]

i would go with roman catholicism for all 3.

I'm assuming money/member in #1 he meant money PER member. In that case there's no way it's catholic, theres a billion catholics in places like Africa and South/Central America that have zilch as far as wealth.

 

[Train]

any idea how much gold and shit is sitting under the Vatican?

Probably not much. The vatican was much more into real estate. IIRC, The catholic church was the worlds largest land owner back in the 1950's, but has been scaling back ever since.

 

[Cogman]

1. Actually, I believe the mormon's have just about every religion beat in this category. Lots of rich mormon's who give lots of their money.
2. Roman Catholics win this one. They have so many priceless artifacts its not even funny.
3. I'm split on this one. Islam has a lot of members, but the command structure is somewhat lacking. Catholicism has a pretty good command setup, but I don't think it has the influence on its members that other religions have. It would probably be between those two.

 

[JTsyo]

I'm assuming money/member in #1 he meant money PER member. In that case there's no way it's catholic, theres a billion catholics in places like Africa and South/Central America that have zilch as far as wealth.

Why would you assume that? I would think it would be assets held by the church.
In a Theocracy, would you include all government assets as belonging to the church?

 

[Train]

1. Actually, I believe the mormon's have just about every religion beat in this category. Lots of rich mormon's who give lots of their money.

Mormons came to mind, but they at least accept the general public. Scientology pretty much requires you to be rich to join.

 

[Train]

Why would you assume that? I would think it would be assets held by the church.
In a Theocracy, would you include all government assets as belonging to the church?

Because else it would be redundant with question #2

.. and the op just clarified what I assumed was correct.

 

[darkxshade]

Hard to decide for #2... Separation of church & state may have cost the roman catholics since there is no such thing for Islam? Thus a great portion of the middle east[the land] would and should fall into the category of assets for Islam and there is nothing more valuable than land no matter how shitty it is. /shrug

 

[preslove]

I'm assuming money/member in #1 he meant money PER member. In that case there's no way it's catholic, theres a billion catholics in places like Africa and South/Central America that have zilch as far as wealth.

Considering that there is only a little over a billion catholics (1,068,368,942 according to wiki) in the world, you stats are bullshit.

And there are tons of poor muslims, and arabs only became really rich in the 20th century because of oil. The Vatican has been sucking up money from rich Europe for a long, long time. A ton of the silver from the Spanish Empire went to the Catholic church, which invested that everywhere.

The Catholic church is, by far, the wealthiest religious organization in the world by total.

 

[zinfamous]

Probably not much. The vatican was much more into real estate. IIRC, The catholic church was the worlds largest land owner back in the 1950's, but has been scaling back ever since.

yeah, but the pope had his own army for several centuries. fucker would go up and down the fracturing Roman empire conquering and looting the shit out of people.

Those spoils are still down there, somewhere.

 

[imported_noonedoes]

There was an article about this awhile back:

http://www.good.is/post/transparency-america-s-wealthiest-religions

Not sure how accurate it is.

 

[magomago]

Lol I don't see how Islam is even a serious contender. Most Muslims are stuck in 3rd world countries mired in their own political problems, and the fact that the religion basically has no hierarchy or structure eliminates any mobilization of political power. In places where a structure is put in place, it works only regionally, and if you choose to accept the structure and the rulings of those analyzing and issuing edicts, commentary, and opinions.

IMO the first poster was close
1. Scientology
2. Catholic Church
3. ?????

I'm not sure on (3). The Catholic Church couldn't muster enough political power to get reference to Christianity in the EU Constitution. They probably have a lot more influence elsewhere. Right now, Evangelicals are influential in the Republican party. I'm sure other areas have leaders who mobilize people of faith very effectively...but does that translate to worldwide action? The only place I can think where world wide effects of attempts to use religion to mobilize people politically is in Israel where Zionists high-jack Judaism to achieve their political goals, and where most Evangelicals who support ISrael blindly just aren't aware of what is actually going on.

 

[Train]

Considering that there is only a little over a billion catholics (1,068,368,942 according to wiki) in the world, you stats are bullshit.

lol, ok. Usually when someone throws the word "billion" out there by itself its not meant to be accurate. I wouldn't have gone as far as to call it a "stat"

 

[gar3555]

Through a bit of googling, the number that keeps showing up is $422.098 billion, for the Catholic Church.

 

[eldorado99]

I would have voted Roman Catholic for all 3.

 

[CZroe]

There isn't a "duh" big enough for the answer: Scientology

 

[ChaoZ]

Catholic church for #2 and 3.

 

[BurnItDwn]

The Amish for all 3. Have you seen their houses and barns. They use freikin logs like 10 times as thick as most houses. Must be a lot more expensive for the lumber. Thus, they are wealthy!

 

[DrPizza]

The Amish for all 3. Have you seen their houses and barns. They use freikin logs like 10 times as thick as most houses. Must be a lot more expensive for the lumber. Thus, they are wealthy!

I'll bet they're up there quite a ways, but for a couple of reasons, I don't think they're at the top on a per person basis. Their primary assets are their land, barn, livestock, and house, they typically don't have a lot of material possessions like Xboxes, computers, tons of clothes, televisions, other electronics, etc. They often have nice furniture - i.e. solid wood tables, china cabinets, etc.
However, they also have a lot of children. So, when you divide each family's wealth by about 10, it's probably not as much as a couple other religions.

 

[zerocool84]

Mormons came to mind, but they at least accept the general public. Scientology pretty much requires you to be rich to join.

Mormon has millions more members and to be Mormon you HAVE to give a certain percentage of your income to the religion. I say Mormon is the richest.

DOH my mistake. He said per member. Yes then it's Scientology.

 

[Analog]

I'll bet they're up there quite a ways, but for a couple of reasons, I don't think they're at the top on a per person basis. Their primary assets are their land, barn, livestock, and house, they typically don't have a lot of material possessions like Xboxes, computers, tons of clothes, televisions, other electronics, etc. They often have nice furniture - i.e. solid wood tables, china cabinets, etc.
However, they also have a lot of children. So, when you divide each family's wealth by about 10, it's probably not as much as a couple other religions.

no cars, boats, rvs, too.

 

[DrPizza]

no cars, boats, rvs, too.

They have boats. No cars or rvs (afaik) though. Boats don't have motors. One of these years I'll happen to have the camera with me when I pass one of them towing a boat.

It's a sight to see. Horse pulling a buggy, with a trailer & boat being hauled behind it.