This document is divided into the following sections:

Even for the physicists involved, the implications of Bell's Theorem are practically unthinkable. Mathematics and experimentation have taken us where our logical mind cannot go. Imagine, two particles once in contact, separated even to the ends of the universe, change instantaneously when a change in one of them occurs!

Further details and sources are available below and in the  main database.

In January 1999 Tenrikyo published country-by-country statistics showing nearly 1,000 churches or mission stations outside of Japan (in over 30 different countries), and over 37,000 in Japan.

The religion dates back over 4,000 years.

Tenrikyo offers impressive opportunities for sociological, historical and comparative religion research which are relatively unexplored by the academic community.

How is classification done for official government figures?

The number does not represent an exponential explosion the number of actual Zoroastrians (although there has been some growth in numbers), but is a result of re-evaluation of the existing population.

These studies are not theological treatises.

Years of suppression under Muslim-dominated cultures and governments has doubtless led to erosion in some aspects of their community, relative to their co-religionists in India and even among expatriate populations in places such as the United States and the United Kingdom - places with far greater levels of continuous religious freedom.

Where classification is unclear, we've used two criteria:

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and subsequent U.S.-led intervention in the Middle East, the Parsees of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been receiving less persecution than before, and have been less reticent about identifying themselves, and there seems to be an increased respect for and interest in this classical Persian religion which was once one of the largest in the world.

Useful information about cultures can also be found in John B.

To whatever degree that is true, some observers believed Zoroastrianism was in a precarious state and its position as a "major" contemporary world religion was tenuous.

If you like this site and the work being done, here is

(Four new countries, for a total of 133, have been opened since the publication of the book, according to a church spokesperson.) According to church officials, this publication states that in 1997 the number of people who participated in Scientology services for the first time was 642,596 internationally and that the circulation of internal Church magazines which are sent to their members was 6,630,000.

Different faith groups measure membership differently.

: This religion is in every major comparative religion text book, yet during the 1990s and for a few years thereafter it was actually listed in the Guiness Book of World Records as the "major religion nearest extinction." The Zoroastrians (or "Parsis") are sometimes credited with being the first monotheists and having had significant influence in the formation of current, larger world religions.