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Which Religion, Founded In The 20'Th Century, Is More Popular: Wicca Or Scientology?

Update:

Yes it was. It was founded by Gerald B. Gardner.

9 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Depends on what you mean by popular. I think there are more Scientologists than there are Wiccans...especially when you consider how many countries have Scientology stuff in other languages... Wiccan materials not in English are pretty rare.

    It makes sense, actually, because Scientology markets itself as "for everyone" and while anyone can be Wiccan it's not "for anyone..." it's for anyone who hears the call of the gods...not the same thing at all.

    Edit: The problem is that adherents.com and the rest consider Wiccans, druids like ADF-members and random Neo-Pagans as ONE group. I think that just judging the people asking questions HERE, you see far more "generic non-Wiccan Neopagans" and "Non-Wiccan Witches" than Wiccans, and that the "big numbers" some groups claim for Wicca come from places like Witchschool.net who've been shown to just pull numbers out of the air.

  • Apples
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    Wicca was not founded by Gerald Gardner. Forms of it, recognisable as Wicca, were being practised as early as the 1930's with evidence to support it. Dr Margaret Murray was actually the first to support the idea of a surviving Witch Cult. Gerald Gardner was just the person who then came out and popularised it but also claimed to have been initiated into it.

    With regards to popularity between the two, Wicca was the fastest growing religion in the US in the 1990's so was arguably the more popular but if you go based on number of adherents then it would be Scientology.

    Also, just to comment on what was said about Wicca in other languages - there are plenty of books in other languages, especially in Europe. Considering that many pagan traditions have never died out in European countries it's not surprising that Wicca became adopted by those already closely aligned with paganism. As most of the people hear are English speaking this could be the reason for the bias in believing it's not as popular in other countries. There's even a book from South Africa that was published in the early 90's - http://spin-n-rak.co.za/

  • 1 decade ago

    Depends how you count either of them. Personally, I would say Wicca. I think there are many more day-to-day Wiccan practitioners than Scientology practitioners. Adherents.com lists Wicca as having way more believers.

    Labgrrl is right that Scientology has materials printed in many different languages, but there are many people who read a little about Scientology but not regularly practice. After all, Scientology blatantly proselytizes. They print out lots of materials to get into people's hands, but only a small percentage actually join up. The Church of Scientology claims there are 8 million practitioners, but that includes everyone who has ever bought a book or attended a seminar. Adherents.com only lists active membership at about 55,000.

  • azar
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    *sigh* positioned down the Silver Ravenwolf teenager witch nonsense and step remote from the e book. Witchcraft and conjuring have been around for hundreds of years earlier Gerald Gardner invented Wicca. Wicca is a twentieth Century faith, it relatively is not historical, it relatively is not even a reconstructionist faith, because it takes from Anglo-Saxon and Greek religions. A prayer is a sort of a spell, like it or not. Ask God or Jesus or whomever for something and get it and you have comprehensive a sort of a spell, like it or not. So overlook all that demonic rubbish from the Born back and Pentecostal crowd. human beings from each and every style of religions do spell paintings. in case you do not understand what you're doing, in case you purely experience you are able to say the words without transforming into one with the spell, in case you're gripped by capability of outrage at doing something "spooky" and forbidden, it won't paintings. you do not might desire to be Wicca to be a witch. yet you do choose expertise.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    That's an interesting question. I would probably have to say Wicca simply because it seems to be more socially acceptable than Scientology. I imagine the reaction you'd get to the question "What's your religion?" would differ wildly between the two.

    That and most websites and polling surveys list Wicca has the fasting growing religion in the USA.

  • 1 decade ago

    Well I wouldn't say Gardner founded the Wiccan beliefs. He simply took these beliefs that were already in existence and publicly published them for anyone and everyone to see. He wasn't the founder, but rather a reviver.

    And as to which is more popular I'd have to say Wicca. Mainly because I've yet to meet anyone in all my years who claims to be a Scientologist.

  • 1 decade ago

    I would say Wicca, simply due to all the little teenyboppers who claim to be adherents. I don't think it's quite as cool jumping on Oprah's couch as it is casting spells on someone.

    Source(s): Pagan, former Wiccan
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Wicca wasn't founded in the 20th century

  • 1 decade ago

    Evangelicalism? That was founded not that long ago.

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