There are true believers in each category. Those who believe in dieties are fragmented into hundreds of religions and sects. Each “knows” theirs is the one true way.

How many religions are there in the world today?

Most of us know the top five: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Each of those, of course, is fragmented into many different sects. Depending on the definition used, some say hundreds and some say tens of thousands for Christianity alone. At any rate, there are many more religions than most of us know about and the probability of any one of them being the one true way is very, very small. The probability of more than one of them being the one true way is, of course, zero.

Those who believe in ghosts usually claim to have seen them for themselves, mostly in haunted houses.

Those who believe in aliens are divided into two groups: scientists who think it is unlikely we are the only ones in the boundless universe of trillions of stars and planets, and conspiracy theorists who think the government suppresses evidence in Area 51. There are other creatures that belong here somewhere, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Each has its own true believers. As proof, diety-believers use historical documents such as the Bible and the Koran as their sources. Ghost-believers cite mediums and seers. Alien-believers offer photographs and videos that are fuzzy, staged, or both.

Some believe in one, some in two, and some in all three.

It would be interesting to study the intersects between these groups. I’d especially like to know more about people who believe in all three.

How many do you believe in?

Want to read more? David’s new book, Take A Closer Look: Learn to See Through Manipulations, Distortions and Fabrications is available in paperback and e-book formats on Amazon. In it are 50 lessons he used when teaching Graduate Business School students. A must for any MBA’s tool kit.