Dear Frank,

> The only objective and rational conclusion we can make about the two
> examples is that the religions are popular.

The two examples you give are both cases of the logical fallacy of
"argumentum ad numerum". Those who wish to improve their skills in
reasoning and argumenting might like to look at the introduction to logical
reasoning and common logical fallacies given here:
www.infidels.org/news/atheisim/logic.html


Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge