I know this is meant to be a casual conversation and this topic can get deep fast, but I’d love to hear everyone’s elevator pitch for their religion or lack thereof. peace and love<3
I know this is meant to be a casual conversation and this topic can get deep fast, but I’d love to hear everyone’s elevator pitch for their religion or lack thereof. peace and love<3
I’d like to think I’m a person of free will but… no, I’m not religious mainly because I was raised atheist. China was mostly folk religion (with a good bit of Buddhism) and in modern history it became aggressively atheist so… It’s probably quite fascinating for ppl interested in history/religion studies, because I don’t know any other country that is over 90% not religious
Obviously with scientific training & stuff I probably would have become an atheist or an agnostic anyways, but it’s not because of my education that I became not religious so I can’t really pitch it or anything…
I wouldn’t call weird spiritual stuff “atheist”, per se.
Does your family burn those fake heaven money thing? Burn incense? Put a chicken on a huge plate as a “sacrifice”, then like hold the fake heaven money in their hand then like pray to spirits or whatever while muttering weird 4 character phrases like 心想事成，快高長大, 學業進步。。。 etc… then throw the fake money into a metal container with burning fire… you know what I’m talking about, right?
Idk wtf they are even doing lmao… so weird, I just never participate since I was a teen because those traditions just felt silly.
That, to me, is religion, even though its not “officially” religious.
I don’t think I’m gonna be burning fake heaven money if I have kids… like… nah… kinda weird lol… I don’t really believe in the spirits stuff and feels like its adding more pollution for no reason. Maybe I’m just too westernized and don’t feel attached to Chinese culture anymore.
My family is from Guangdong btw, maybe your family is different, idk, does your family do those weird rituals?
I feel like a “banana” lmfao… (“asian on the outside, westerner on the inside”), the only attachment I have is that I can still read basic Chinese characters… and speak on a 2nd grade level, that’s about it…
Oh btw, my mom is very anti-mental-health care and constantly think my depression is just “鬼纏住你” and tells me to wear some necklace or some dumb shit that “wards off evil” lmfao…
And wasting food will “被雷公劈” lolol.
I threw away food I didn’t like (I was a kid okay lol) and I never got struck by the lightning god or whatever so… okay boomers.
My family is from Manchuria/Beijing where the communist party has a much stronger grip so… I’m not kidding, a lot of ppl literally practice no religion whatsoever; probably got stamped out by the CCP. I think there might be a rather strong North/South divide in China: the North unfortunately has always been under stricter supervision by the party so…
Like they separate it very clearly. My grandparents’ generation have old folk religion but ppl would call them “Mi Xin” so… my dad did burn the fake money things, but only during my grandparents’ tomb cleanings or anything to do with the older generation. One of my grandparents is Buddhist, but she does make it quite clear. Otherwise most ppl I know literally have nothing remotely resembling religious in their apartments
Wow, this is so interesting. I feel like the fact that the Communist Party “stamps out” all types of religion is simply a testament to how important it is for humans to share with eachother something higher than our mortal plane. Would you be willing to share more about your experience with your grandparents, and how the culture has now switched to a vast majority practicing no religion at all?
It’s not as interesting… three of my grandparents passed away before I started memorizing things so I don’t know that much stuff first-hand. But basically… At least where my parents grew up, old folk religions (again… just referred to Mi Xin now) used to be quite common. The last generation (starting 30-40 years ago) just don’t really practice them anymore, so my generation are full of complete non-religious people; not even any folk religion. Not sure if it has anything to do with that region being the manufacturing hub of China for a while… so maybe CCP had a much stronger influence there
Beijing is kinda duh, the government is there so… I mean it is the city that destroyed nearly all of its Hu Tongs and historical housing and stuff to build highrises/business districts, how would people imagine Beijing treat its less tangible cultural norms
There was a new religion purge that started sometime 10-15 years ago… but I think it was separate. I just remember there was a Christian family friend whose church was in a bit of a trouble