Saturday, July 19, 2014

Religious mythology

Now here's something silly, but there's interesting edges to the silliness. The map is from Business Insider, and takes its information from the CIA's World FactBook! It shows all the countries where "more than half the population considers themselves religiously affiliated" (however
that's determined), tinting them the color of their dominant religion. These more localized maps show what misleading nonsense this is.
Beyond the obvious questions about the problems of self-reporting, the definition of affiliation, etc., I'm curious why Business Insider thinks this worth reporting. Even if such information could be had, what would one do with it - whether as a reader of CIA reports or a businessperson?