How we testedSince most people have some sort of religious predisposition, in order for our investigation to be unbiased we had to use impartial participants. For our independent test, we brought in 37 aborigines from the Brazilian rain forest tribe of Raoni. With a crude understanding of god and the universe, we explained each religion to them and asked them to try it out for a 4 week period. All the participants had a chance to try out all eight religions for a 4 week time frame and rank them based on their findings.
What we found
In our tests we have found that most of the aborigines preferred Christian religion based on its ease of understanding. With Catholicism being a close second, followed by other religions. Here are the findings.
Christianity- This is by far was the most popular belief among the aborigines people, with more than 2 out 4 preferring it. The concept of a loving god, was easy to understand, since it bore some semblance to their god “Khatimi” , the god of 'big shiny things'. This belief was so favorable among the tribesmen that a few even made a small donation to the Robert Schuller Ministries at the end of their two weeks trial.
Catholicism- A close second, it nearly did as good as Christianity, if it not for a few confusing ritualistic beliefs. The tribesmen enjoyed the Pope, after we were able to show them rare footage of His Holiness giving Easter Mass in the Aboriginal language of drum thumping.
Hinduism- This was a distant third. Most tribesmen had a difficult time comprehending the perpetual birth and rebirth concept. Majority of the tribesmen also found the movie Gandhi to be way too long, with Candice Bergen’s performance substandard and trite.
Buddhism- Buddhism did not fare well among the tribesmen. Most found the notion of Buddha as god, not to be credible. With many questioning how can a god control the world, when he can’t even control his weight? Most of the tribesmen preferred Jesus who had a slender and slightly muscular body.
Muslim- Although not very popular it did appeal to a few of the aborigines.Ironically the few tribesmen who chose the Muslim religion soon got into an altercation with those who preferred Judaism. The dispute was over the territorial right of the grass hut in which they were living. The tribesmen who choose the Muslim religion claimed they were in it first..
Judaism- This religion was very confusing to most. From proper attire, ritualistic conduct, and Kosher food, left most of the aborigines baffled and perplexed. With one of the tribesmen eating a Dreidel out of confusion.
Satanism- Chosen only by few. Although many of the tribesmen could relate to sacrificing of animals to a higher power. This is due to a common practice of sacrificing small rodents to their evil god “Khulli” the god of the 'itchy rash.’
Atheism- Although ranking high on our scholarly section, this belief was not preferred by any of our testers. The concept of life being meaningless and with no hope of an after life, left most of the tribesmen desponded and depressed, with a few actually needing short term therapy, after the four week trial.
Recommendations- If you are looking for a good over all religion you can’t go wrong with Christianity. It ranked the highest among the tribesmen and very high in our scholarly test. If you prefer no ritualistic practices bestowed upon you, atheism is the right belief for you, even though it ranked very low in our independent tests. If you prefer a lot of rules and customs take a look into Judaism, or the Muslim religions. The chart should provide more information for you.
