Religion Facts

Within a century of Muhammad's death, Islam had spread across half the known world, from Spain to the borders of China.

The abbreviation Xmas isn't irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.

'Jedi' is an official religion, with over 70,000 followers, in Australia.

In 1967, Barack Obama's mother Ann Dunham married her second husband, Lolo Soetoro from Indonesia. Like many Javanese Muslims, Lolo practiced a syncretic form of Islam that blended traditional Islamic beliefs with indigenous Javanese spirituality and Hindu-Buddhist influences.

The most common first name in the world for males is Muhammad (and its various spellings)!

There is no mention of Adam and Eve eating an apple in the Bible.

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an 'Honorary Harlem Globetrotter.'"

Despite being the birthplace of Buddhism, India today has less than 1% Buddhist population, a dramatic decline that occurred over the past thousand years.

Many theologians estimate that Jesus wasn't born on December 25 but sometime in September between 6BC and 30AD.

Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister.

The name Joshua is Hebrew for 'Jesus'.

In 1659, it was illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts.

The glue on Israeli stamps is certified kosher.

It is estimated that over 5 billion Bibles have been sold or distributed worldwide, making it consistently the best-selling book of all time.

Pretzels were originally invented for Christian Lent.

John F. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic President of the USA!

There's a real religion called "Dudeism" that spawned from the movie "The Big Lebowski." Dudeism advocates and encourages the practice of "going with the flow," "being cool headed," and "taking it easy."

Nearly half of the entire world's adult population has never drunk alcohol.

In Poland, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has just been granted permission to register as a religion.

The National Church of Bey formed a religion called Beyism in 2013. They believed Beyoncé is a god who walks among us and will transcend back to the spirit-world once her work on Earth is complete.

In April 2000, the Vatican's satellite TV station Sat2000, run by the Italian Bishops' Conference, declared that Pokémon had no "harmful moral side effects" and was based on "ties of intense friendship" - a surprising endorsement amid widespread fears that the games were satanic.

A 2012 study in eastern Germany was unable to find a single person under the age of 28 who believed in God.

There is a Swedish religion called Kopimism whose sole tenet is that all knowledge should be available to everyone - and thus, using CTRL+C and CTRL+V are sacred acts.

A man named Ziona Chana lives in a 100 room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram and has the world's biggest family with 39 wives, 94 children, 14 daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.