Contacting God

Yak Wax (yakwax@yahoo.com)
Tue, 21 Apr 1998 10:14:19 -0700 (PDT)

I recently watched "Contact" (I'm probably the last to do so on this
list) and something's been annoying me ever since. In the movie it is
claimed that 95% of the worlds population believe in a "Supreme Being"
and therefore anyone who doesn't believe in God shouldn't represent
Earth. Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't Hinduism the most
'popular' religion? Even if it's not, my point is that many religions
have more than one god, so I would presume that 95% of the worlds
population don't believe in a "Supreme Being" or "God" (which I take
to mean one Supreme Being, after all how many Supreme Beings can you
have?) Added to this, it's a well know fact that religious groups
don't exactly appreciate each other's views. Anyone advocating the
Christian God isn't likely to go down well with other religions that
make up the majority of that 95% (I'm certain 95% of the world aren't
Christians, despite what some of them would like to think). So
clearly a religiously neutral candidate would have been the best choice.

Is it any different in the book? And does anyone have figures on the
numbers that make up different religious beliefs, just in case I'm
ever a candidate for first contact and find myself in need of a good
defence?

--Wax
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