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Comment by ZoFreX | Hacker News Reader

"In all, IKEA plans to publish 208 million catalogs this year, more than double the amount of Bibles expected to be produced."

What a silly comparison. I'm not sure if that's supposed to sound impressive or not, but I would assume the number of bibles being produced isn't that high - everyone that wants one already has one, and it's not like they update it each year!

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"everyone that wants one already has one" - that may be true in first-world countries, but not worldwide. Religious oppression and persecution is still a large phenomenon in the world.

But yes, it is silly to compare production numbers a book you may own for decades with a catalog that is tossed when the next issue arrives. The catalog would win by a large factor even if the readership was exactly the same.

It is a fun comparison, that is all. You can compare anything to anything, it doesn't have to be meaningful in a big way.

I now choose to compare the Curiosity rover doing a donut on Mars, with IKEA's choice of Verdana and 3D imagery in their catalogue.

Bible printing isn't just driven by intrinsic demand -- various groups push lots and lots of bibles out into the world to evangelize their religion.

I think one group claims to have sent 250,000 bibles to American servicemen.

The bible is something of interest to a lot of people, and they all must have acquired it at some point.

what a weird thing to be bothered by.

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