Not true. In India, the rich are as religious. More westernised/materialistic people are less religious.
Why are morons often theists?
- Thread starter superluminal
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Not true. In India, the rich are as religious. More westernised/materialistic people are less religious.
Less education doesn't mean anything - people who drop out of formal studies are, in all likelihood, equally religious/irreligious. The rich generally tend not to care about such matters; to them, they've already reached Heaven.
The poor are the most religious. The rich claim to be religious now, but what happens when everything underneath them crumbles? Take away their wealth, and see how well they hold on to their faith in God.
Ah, yeah. That is what I meant with my second point, more or less.
Still the same. Have you ever been to India?
You might throw in Easternised as well.
Does not apply, traditionally eastern families are most religious.
And, Indians are not materialistic nor seek to be westernized... in the millions.
Still the same. Have you ever been to India?
Still the same? How many cases have you witnessed, wherein rich religious folks lose their wealth and still hold the faith of God strongly? There is a reason my Prophet said Heaven was full of poor people.
Try reading what others write.
It happens more often than you think. Cyclones, failed crops, lack of rainfall, war (Kashmir) :shrug:
I've heard of some people who lose their faith when there is a calamity, but in extreme adversity, people always return to God. Read the transcripts of people in Abu Ghraib for instance. Nothing but faith could have pulled them through with their faculties intact.
Hm? How far back do you refer to? And I was referring to East Asia.
China... no need to mention. And I've never met any one from China (with a large sample size) who was theist. I have from Hong Kong though, but that is different because it wasn't even officially China until recently.
In Japan a lot of the religon is not theistic. Even in Shinto where they have thousands of gods, iirc, most do not literally believe in them.
Singapore had very little religion at all. Only anglophiles--in contrast to India, apparently--took up monotheism (christianity). There were Muslims among the Malaysian minority, but they are part of their own culture.
Doesn't seem as if they were very rich to begin with. Anyway, I'll take your word for it, though - about rich people being as religious as the common folk in India. That is an admirable system.
I've had family and friends in Abu Ghraib, so I know quite a bit about it. Of course, nobody in the prisons there were ever highly wealthy or influential in the first place. The majority are regular citizens.
Any of them still traditonally eastern? Or more western/materialistic?
Chinese people never discuss religion. At all. But I've met Christians and Muslims from China.
There is no debate that there was theism in some eastern traditions, but just because those particular traditions aren't kept does not mean other traditions are not kept. If those apply, than yes.
Western/materialistic?
lol... Well, I guess. Money is prioritized and respected.It is too bad the "western" materialism caught on in China though. No more free university (including food and dorm). No more lives of only school and sleeping T_T.
Were the Christians anglophiles, by chance?
There is no debate that there was theism in some eastern traditions, but just because those particular traditions aren't kept does not mean other traditions are not kept. If those apply, than yes.
Western/materialistic?
It is too bad the "western" materialism caught on in China though. No more free university (including food and dorm). No more lives of only school and sleeping T_T.
Were the Christians anglophiles, by chance?
We lost Chinese culture to communism. :shrug:
Hmm they were Chinese. Chinese are peculiarly, first and foremost, Chinese, don't you think? Its hard to pin down what they really think.
Not the type I was referring to, seriously.
All the Chinese people I have met (and this includes Bombay) have always seemed circumspect and hesitant to me. I met one recently who is very young and from a rural area and she told me directly that Chinese people don't discuss any religion because it adversely affects them in all walks of life in Chinese society. So they've gotten used to not thinking about it. But they are all superstitious. So I think their present style of governance is responsible for their perceived atheism.
How much you wanna bet a more open society (with their current capitalism) will see a reversion to theism?
As usual I was right :xctd:
Religious surge in once-atheist China surprises leaders
Chinese by the tens of millions shed decades of state-imposed atheism. The phenomenon has gained momentum so fast that it appears to have taken the government by surprise.
A recent poll by East China Normal University estimated that 31.4 percent of Chinese 16 or older are religious, putting the number of believers at roughly 400 million.
Many other visitors were older Chinese who may have privately clung to their religion through decades of official hostility. Some accompanied grandchildren, tutoring them in the rituals of prayer as they worked their way around the pavilion, with its giant golden Buddha.
Others, meanwhile, burned thick clutches of incense in the temple's large, open courtyard, bowing to the cardinal points of the compass and then depositing the burning sticks in huge iron urns.
"There was no way for me to do this with my own daughter," said Zhang Li, 62, who escorted her smiling granddaughter through the complex, stopping here and there for prayer. "The temples were closed, and this sort of thing simply wasn't allowed."
Strict limitations on religion remain, however. Beijing handpicks senior clergy for each of the authorized faiths and frequently persecutes believers in unauthorized religions, from Falun Gong to underground Protestant churches that meet in homes. The government also severely restricts religious education and prohibits proselytizing.
Membership in the Communist Party, meanwhile, remains a major avenue for individual advancement, but the party does not permit members to practice religion. Many employers and even universities also look askance at believers.
A result of these mixed signals is that many people still do not feel altogether comfortable being recognized as believers.
Many, however, say they are increasingly up front about their beliefs. "I usually make it clear to people that I'm a Catholic at the beginning," said Zhu Zhaofeng, 27, a salesman at a French-owned luxury goods company who attends services at an unofficial Catholic church. "I don't want other people to feel strange if I go to worship in churches or on pilgrimage. On the other hand, it is not something I promote."
Religious surge in once-atheist China surprises leaders
Chinese by the tens of millions shed decades of state-imposed atheism. The phenomenon has gained momentum so fast that it appears to have taken the government by surprise.
A recent poll by East China Normal University estimated that 31.4 percent of Chinese 16 or older are religious, putting the number of believers at roughly 400 million.
Many other visitors were older Chinese who may have privately clung to their religion through decades of official hostility. Some accompanied grandchildren, tutoring them in the rituals of prayer as they worked their way around the pavilion, with its giant golden Buddha.
Others, meanwhile, burned thick clutches of incense in the temple's large, open courtyard, bowing to the cardinal points of the compass and then depositing the burning sticks in huge iron urns.
"There was no way for me to do this with my own daughter," said Zhang Li, 62, who escorted her smiling granddaughter through the complex, stopping here and there for prayer. "The temples were closed, and this sort of thing simply wasn't allowed."
Strict limitations on religion remain, however. Beijing handpicks senior clergy for each of the authorized faiths and frequently persecutes believers in unauthorized religions, from Falun Gong to underground Protestant churches that meet in homes. The government also severely restricts religious education and prohibits proselytizing.
Membership in the Communist Party, meanwhile, remains a major avenue for individual advancement, but the party does not permit members to practice religion. Many employers and even universities also look askance at believers.
A result of these mixed signals is that many people still do not feel altogether comfortable being recognized as believers.
Many, however, say they are increasingly up front about their beliefs. "I usually make it clear to people that I'm a Catholic at the beginning," said Zhu Zhaofeng, 27, a salesman at a French-owned luxury goods company who attends services at an unofficial Catholic church. "I don't want other people to feel strange if I go to worship in churches or on pilgrimage. On the other hand, it is not something I promote."