One of the most interesting questions I have in life, is “How can God allow so much of the world to be wrong?”
Here’s a breakdown based on the approximate global population of ~8.2 billion people and the religious texts that they most revere:
Religious Text
Faith
Est. Believers
% of World
Bible
Christianity
~2.4 billion
~29%
Quran
Islam
~1.9 billion
~23%
Bhagavad Gita / Vedas
Hinduism
~1.2 billion
~15%
Tripitaka / Buddhist texts
Buddhism
~500 million
~6%
Torah / Talmud
Judaism
~15 million
~0.2%
Guru Granth Sahib
Sikhism
~30 million
~0.4%
Tao Te Ching
Taoism
~20–50 million
~0.3–0.6%
A few important nuances:
Overlap is real. Many Hindus also revere Buddhist texts. Many Christians also read the Torah (it forms their Old Testament). Chinese people often blend Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism simultaneously.
Cultural vs. devout believers. Someone may identify as Christian or Muslim without regularly reading their scripture. Conversely, many secular people have read the Tao Te Ching or Bhagavad Gita purely philosophically.
The unaffiliated. Roughly 1.2 billion people (~16%) identify as religiously unaffiliated, atheist, or agnostic — though some still engage with religious texts culturally.
China complicates things. China has ~1.4 billion people, many of whom practice folk religion blending Taoism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship, making clean categorization difficult.
The big picture: roughly 74% of the world’s population identifies with a faith tradition tied to one of these texts, with Christianity and Islam alone accounting for over half of all humans on Earth.
John 16:33
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
There is a mystique surrounding the cowboy way of life. Whether you are a working ranch cowboy or riding for the Lord, these seven indispensable habits will help you become the most you can possibly be.
Working Alone – Some people get energized when working with others and some get energized by being alone. Much of the cowboy way of life is working alone. You have to be a self-starter and hold yourself accountable. If you need someone looking over your shoulder and telling you what to do, there is a lack of maturity and you might be one that needs to be constantly praised and not trusted. A real cowboy can perform well on their own.
Working With Others – But there will also be many times that you must work together as a team. No where in the New Testament is it insinuated that you have to do everything alone. This might even be harder than working alone because many different personalities and situations arise that need understanding, grace, and even someone to step up and become a leader.
Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable – There is nothing easy with the cowboy way of life. There really is no comfort zone. Being a cowboy is being able to constantly grow, mature, and learn. None of that is comfortable, whether it is due to weather, timing, convenience, or being an introvert or extrovert. If you want to be a cowboy, you’ve got to learn to adapt. That is uncomfortable and never done inside your comfort zone.
Don’t Be Emotionless, But in Emotional Control – There are many things about being a cowboy when events and circumstances are out of your control. We have a desperate need to feel in control at all times. Once again, nothing in scripture indicates that we are in control of anything except ourselves. Only psychopaths are emotionless, but the wise have learned through much practice to be in control of their emotions instead of letting their emotions control them.
Be Ready to be Flexible – There are so many things that can go wrong every single day. Cowboys must learn to balance the idea of going with the flow without taking the easy way out. We must do what we know we should do, but be flexible enough to change at a moments notice. Once again, nothing is in our control except our reaction to life.
Do It Anyway – I cannot tell you how many times I’ve wanted to do something and then later it seems boring. Many people think saddling up a horse every day is glamorous until you have to do it every day. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dreaded saddling a horse up and going out to rope or gather. When I say I didn’t want to do it, I mean that the thought of saddling up again nearly made me mad. But you want to know a secret? Every time I went ahead and did what I knew I was supposed to do, I felt great after doing it.
Don’t Complain – Nearly every single one of us live extraordinary lives. If your heart is beating, you have food for the day, shelter for the day, and God still loves you (which He does), what do we really have to complain about? Nearly one hundred percent of the time, our complaints don’t reveal a fallacy in others, but within ourselves.
Come, and you will see. John 1:39 Kevin Weatherby Founder, Save the Cowboy Long X Ranch Cowboys
