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Originally Posted by John Wilkes Booth
the jews are like the little engine that could... no matter what history threw at them, be it persian, roman or greek conquest... or medieval antisemitic purges... or a tyrannical dictator that explicitly seeks to exterminate them... they somehow survive
that's why they're in there
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^ That seems to bear out what H.G.Wells was saying, but on mature reflection, as they say, I'm more inclined to agree with Janszoon:-
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I think Wells is way off base with that claim. It's not like Judaism was the first religion. It wasn't even the first monotheistic religion. I think more likely the reason for its significance in the modern world is that it birthed the two largest religions on the planet
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I think H.G.Wells was making a comparison between things like pharaoh worship, which didn't survive outside Egypt and was therefore primitive, and Judaism, which could survive as an intellectual idea anywhere. But it's always risky to make sweeping generalizations about history and I think H.G.Wells was underestimating the significance of early religions. Also, if it comes to cultures surviving without a physical homeland, I suspect that the gypsies moving out of India may predate Judaism.
Thanks for updating the world religion stats:-
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Originally Posted by Janszoon
This is the breakdown from Wikipedia:
Christianity: 2.2 billion
Islam: 1.6 billion
Nonreligious/Unaffiliated : 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 1 billion
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
Ethnic religions: 300 million
African traditional religions: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 15 million
Judaism: 14 million
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What is "Juche", I wonder!?