China's violent Christian cult: Church of Almighty God - BBC News

[jhungary]

hahahha u must be a christian yourself.



=

Karl Marx explicitly described in detail on the topic of his antagonism with religion, which in his POV, is seen as a primitive concept invented by mankind in the distant past- restricting progressive human development by giving the people a false sense of faith and belief in an 'all-almighty' being.

China was 1 of the 1st few nation states in the Modern era to implement State Atheism, complemented by the fact that Confucianism itself is already atheistic.

Hence the reason why the Chinese are the world's most Atheistic people.

BTW, if the Chinese indeed have the potential to become overwhelmingly christian, such a phenomenon would had happened a f**king long time ago since the Tang dynasty.





PS* Im an ex-Buddhist( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nichiren_Buddhism , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theravada) and ex-Protestant ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglicanism ) myself.

Im glad i went the way of being religious => irreligious. I prefer to believe that we humans evolved from primates than from dust and that men were created from women instead of the other way round(with the aid of a rib).

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens
http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-we-were-once-all-female
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religiosity_and_intelligence
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...eople-faith-instinct-cleverness-a7742766.html
http://www.newsweek.com/atheism-intelligence-religion-evolution-instinct-natural-selection-610982
http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism_and_intelligence

Haha so does 'God' exists? make your own judgement.

Actually, whether or not Confucianism (儒家) is a meant for atheist is debatable.

It largely depends on how you define "Religion"

People believe religion can be divided into 2 discipline, one of which is divine-ism (or theological) and the other discipline is "moralism" Atheism believe of the rejection of idea of deity, which can either be Scared or Divine (most Chinese believe resting place of their ancestor is scared)

Without posting too much (in case you are not serious on the topic, don't want to waste my time) the very core of Confucianism is the 5 constants, which is a moral standard for humanism, in a way, it is a religion without superstition and divine influence, only the different is that people worship people (or ancestor) but not god. So, one can argue, the belief system is the same (because the same "Faith" applies as to whether or not your ancestor exist as much as god) so, people who are Confucius can still be seen as religious.

 

[shadows888]

Christianity.. what a lame cult

 

[kuge]

Were crusaders true followers of God?

no...it was borne out of holy roman empire whose belief is anti christ....

 

[lcloo]

The almighty creator god concept is just a tool convineintly used by kings, queens and noble class to subjugate the ignorant people who are afraid of things they cannot understand, more so with the primitive science knowledge 2000 years ago.

Kings/ queens and noble class people always proclaimed that they are chosen by the almighty god so that the common peole should obey them.

You just need to proclaimed that you are the ruler chosen by the god, and mass of ignorant people will follow you to death, fighting the so called holy wars.

This happened during the Taiping rebellion (lead by a self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Chris) in 1850 to 1864 that killed 20 to 30 millions of people, during Qing Dynasty in China.

 

[prashantazazel]

Chinese aren't stupid. They are unlikely to tolerate this crap.

 

[GeraltofRivia]

Actually, whether or not Confucianism (儒家) is a meant for atheist is debatable.

It largely depends on how you define "Religion"

People believe religion can be divided into 2 discipline, one of which is divine-ism (or theological) and the other discipline is "moralism" Atheism believe of the rejection of idea of deity, which can either be Scared or Divine (most Chinese believe resting place of their ancestor is scared)

Without posting too much (in case you are not serious on the topic, don't want to waste my time) the very core of Confucianism is the 5 constants, which is a moral standard for humanism, in a way, it is a religion without superstition and divine influence, only the different is that people worship people (or ancestor) but not god. So, one can argue, the belief system is the same (because the same "Faith" applies as to whether or not your ancestor exist as much as god) so, people who are Confucius can still be seen as religious.

I am not sure Confucianism can be defined as a religion. I think it is widely recognized by the academia that Confucianism is a school of philosophy, which promotes personal and government morality, social order, justice and sincerity. It is one of the schools of thought during classical Chinese era. It became so preeminent in China's social and political affairs due to its emphasis on order and governance, which has good alignment to the various imperial governments.

My personal observation is that confucianism merely states that morality, social order and justice are virtue, is consistent with classical classical Chinese (because they always quoted "classical thought" as the basis) and should be promoted in the society. I suppose the reason it is philosophy as opposed to religion because it makes its intellectual standing through reasoning as opposed to baseing on faith.

Another main school of thought in China is daosim which is even more philosophical than Confucianism but sometimes is defined as a weak form of religion because its linkage with Chinese mythology.

 

[kuge]

The almighty creator god concept is just a tool convineintly used by kings, queens and noble class to subjugate the ignorant people who are afraid of things they cannot understand, more so with the primitive science knowledge 2000 years ago.

Kings/ queens and noble class people always proclaimed that they are chosen by the almighty god so that the common peole should obey them.

You just need to proclaimed that you are the ruler chosen by the god, and mass of ignorant people will follow you to death, fighting the so called holy wars.

This happened during the Taiping rebellion (lead by a self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Chris) in 1850 to 1864 that killed 20 to 30 millions of people, during Qing Dynasty in China.

it's true rulers were appointed by the creator to accomplish his purposes.
followers of christ recognise that & should not dabble in the politics.
let the history accomplishes its purposes..
in view of that the rebels were wrong in resorting to violence in the name of christ.

 

[samsara]

The almighty creator god concept is just a tool convineintly used by kings, queens and noble class to subjugate the ignorant people who are afraid of things they cannot understand, more so with the primitive science knowledge 2000 years ago.

Kings/ queens and noble class people always proclaimed that they are chosen by the almighty god so that the common peole should obey them.

You just need to proclaimed that you are the ruler chosen by the god, and mass of ignorant people will follow you to death, fighting the so called holy wars.

This happened during the Taiping rebellion (lead by a self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Chris) in 1850 to 1864 that killed 20 to 30 millions of people, during Qing Dynasty in China.

Something goes on like this... over millenniums... in order to shepherd the sheep?

If organized religions in particular are regarded as the most effective ways to control the population by using the carrots and sticks in the name of the conceptual heaven and hell exploiting the human's greatest fears in dealing with the unknown unknown esp. the death issues as well as the expectations wrapped up as "hope"... hope for everything, even the silly or groundless ones... I will say that the exploits of "fear of death" and "hope" are the two most effective ingredients to get the laymen's obedience!

The clergy class and/or the preachers then act as the shepherds within some tightly organized structure of hierarchical chains of command and power permeating beyond the nations' boundaries... then is the human-being just another form of the sheep? Will one prefer to be that kind of sheep?

Every civilization has its own way in dealing with this issue and to choose the best way that fits its society, values and traditions... maintaining one's sovereignty should be of the highest priority IMO! Another most crucial thing is that one should not transfer his own cognitive and reasoning capability to the other party claiming to represent the transcendental/supreme powers, in whatsoever name it's. But as a matter of fact most of the population won't possess such inner defense capability to protect own self....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature." - Marcus Aurelius

The shepherd and his sheep

 

[jhungary]

I am not sure Confucianism can be defined as a religion. I think it is widely recognized by the academia that Confucianism is a school of philosophy, which promotes personal and government morality, social order, justice and sincerity. It is one of the schools of thought during classical Chinese era. It became so preeminent in China's social and political affairs due to its emphasis on order and governance, which has good alignment to the various imperial governments.

My personal observation is that confucianism merely states that morality, social order and justice are virtue, is consistent with classical classical Chinese (because they always quoted "classical thought" as the basis) and should be promoted in the society. I suppose the reason it is philosophy as opposed to religion because it makes its intellectual standing through reasoning as opposed to baseing on faith.

Another main school of thought in China is daosim which is even more philosophical than Confucianism but sometimes is defined as a weak form of religion because its linkage with Chinese mythology.

Again, it's quite depending on how do you define "Religion" to begin with.

Some school of thought about Religion is a very grandiose or blanketed belief of Worship of God(s) or Deity, if you use this definition, then yes, Confucianism cannot be see as a religion.

However, another school of thought about religion is that A religion is a cultural reference that define a relationship of Humanity and Supernatural or Transcendence entity(-ies) via a Transcendence or Supernatural Sense of "Faith" the belief on this Faith, is the lingering element of the line between these entity and human, and by practices these faith, you express a culture following to a particular group of people that believe the same faith, hence a religion. A religion need not to worship any gods or deities (Buddha is a prime example)

On the other hand, Confucianism believe in the term "Heaven and Earth ("天/地") and Confucianism believe the term Heaven (or Tian) is sacred, and it control all things of earth, which expressly said the heaven give life to everything on earth and hence as Confucianism philosophy preach, all things are sacred, and people should treat all things with the 5 constants and 4 words (仁, 義, 禮, 智, 信 and 忠, 孝, 節, 義)

Also, Confucian see afterlife is a sacred lingering to the human world, where offering should be made and a worship should be done in a sacred place (usually a temple) on the passing.

In theory, Confucianism is a religion without a single god, but with a superimposing entity in place of god, and that entity is Heaven (Tian - 天) and this is the pathway of Heaven (天理) that give birth to the core basic of Confucianism. By the fact that everything on earth come from heaven, and hence everything is sacred. That would put the Confucianism a worship of this Tian entity.

 

[beijingwalker]

It seems that Christianity gets very popular among very old people in China, just like Falungong.

 

[Magi Brahmin]

Am i only obe here whos leaning toward athism ?