xuechengfeng Posted October 29, 2004 at 05:57 AM Report Posted October 29, 2004 at 05:57 AM I don't know much about religions in China except that there aren't many statistics to look at. What are your perspectives on post-death?
Quest Posted October 29, 2004 at 03:31 PM Report Posted October 29, 2004 at 03:31 PM What are your perspectives on post-death? only 3 choices right? -- cremated/rot/eaten
xuechengfeng Posted October 29, 2004 at 06:25 PM Author Report Posted October 29, 2004 at 06:25 PM LOL.. so then Chinese typically do not believe in a higher power?
Quest Posted October 29, 2004 at 07:47 PM Report Posted October 29, 2004 at 07:47 PM LOL.. so then Chinese typically do not believe in a higher power? chairman mao?
studentyoung Posted October 30, 2004 at 02:17 AM Report Posted October 30, 2004 at 02:17 AM Dear Xuechengfeng You are right! As I know that some many people in China belive in perspective on afterlife, from the illiterate to intellectuals. (I think just Mr. Quest misunderstand your meaning.) Usually they deeply believe that they will enjoy a happier and sweeter life. You see, my grandmother (she is dead) was a college student in about 1930s. Because of her bitter experience in her life time, she chose to believe in Buddhism to release her soul and expect her afterlife. One of my roommates during my college days, she is one year older than me, she believes in Buddhism and afterlife too. One of my acquaintances, he is a businessman. Once up on a time, he believed in Buddhism, but now he believes in Christianism. He told me that he believes that he will be in heavens finally. In a word, as all the Chinese people I know( I am a Chinese too), about 80% of them believe in religion and afterlife. Thanks for your attention!
geek_frappa Posted November 5, 2004 at 03:27 PM Report Posted November 5, 2004 at 03:27 PM LOL.. so then Chinese typically do not believe in a higher power? ya, it's called... 功名富贵
Quest Posted November 5, 2004 at 05:04 PM Report Posted November 5, 2004 at 05:04 PM (I think just Mr. Quest misunderstand your meaning.) I think you misunderstood me
studentyoung Posted November 11, 2004 at 03:02 AM Report Posted November 11, 2004 at 03:02 AM Quote: I think you misunderstood me _________________ Quest 对唔住罗。不过我觉得人地好似系问究竟系唔系大多数中国人都信有来世。你答企好似系人死左会点？ 唔知我今次有无误解左你企意思？ Thanks for your attention!
xuechengfeng Posted January 15, 2005 at 07:48 AM Author Report Posted January 15, 2005 at 07:48 AM I'm going to up this, since I'm still interested.
39degN Posted January 15, 2005 at 09:15 AM Report Posted January 15, 2005 at 09:15 AM In a word, as all the Chinese people I know( I am a Chinese too), about 80% of them believe in religion and afterlife. i start to doubt in which part of china are you living ... meanwhile i m too sorry for Siddhartha Gautama, he died an atheist himself. Taoism and Confucinism seems dont support gods either.
39degN Posted January 15, 2005 at 09:45 AM Report Posted January 15, 2005 at 09:45 AM I would say just a few Chinese believe religions seriously. the rest of them even if believe them, just for some practical purposes. so there are so many gods here, Wealth God, Doors God, Guangong God... they even invited the nine sons of the dragon to safeguard their houses and let them sit on the eaves 风吹雨淋 for thousand years. for Chinese, Gods are just labour force, do you think they will believe what is called afterlife? oops, i mean no offence to any parties though. as a chinese, i dont see many people believe afterlife here in beijing. instead most people's impression of Chinese Christians/buddhists/muslims is 太愚(in a slang way, dont have their own view or something). i m too sorry for that, but its ture. i dont wanna lie to you here.
Cyberian Posted January 16, 2005 at 06:47 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 06:47 AM I do not believe in afterlife either. But I do want my (grand)children to cherish and visit my 'jar' (is there a proper term for it?). Also, to burn me some incense on special events. As a practice of remembrance and respect, not the whole heaven thing.
39degN Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:03 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:03 AM yeah, agree with that, its nothing to do with afterlife, its as you said, a practice of remembrance and respect, and a tradition! :-)
xuechengfeng Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:06 AM Author Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:06 AM What is it that makes you not believe in a Creator? I'm not here to convert anyone, or say which religion is right or not, but personally, I've found a lot of things to point to a Creator.
39degN Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:14 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:14 AM hehe, 愿闻其详! that would be my pleasure if you tell a bit further.
xuechengfeng Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:48 AM Author Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 07:48 AM Well, the whole concept of nothing becoming something, and eventually developing into the absolute complexity that is man and his mind, is quite ridiculous, without a Creator to me. Many of the conditions of the universe, if highered slightly, or lowered slightly, would mean that we would not be here. These are just a couple notions amongst many.
Cyberian Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:21 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:21 AM What is it that makes you not believe in a Creator? I'm not here to convert anyone, or say which religion is right or not, but personally, I've found a lot of things to point to a Creator. Creator = parents/birth-givers Unless you going to tell me 'God' was banging my mother. 1. No proof of 'Creator'. 2. You going to tell me there is a 'Creator', then you ought to tell me who created the 'Creator'. I asked because: the whole concept of nothing becoming something, and eventually developing into the absolute complexity... is quite ridiculous, without a Creator to me. Okay, I have used your reasoning. So who is the creator of the 'Creator'? While at it, why not take it up one more level? Who created the creator of the 'Creator'? Hey! Why not take it up the next level! Who created the Creator's Creator's Creator!? HEY! Why not t- ...and eventually developing into the absolute complexity that is man and his mind... Sorry Ladies... Creater does not like you! You are all an accident!!! Sounds sexist. Might want to rephrase it in future posts. These are just a couple notions amongst many. I believe the modern word for it is 'among', Lad. ;)
Claw Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:28 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:28 AM But I do want my (grand)children to cherish and visit my 'jar' (is there a proper term for it?). It's called an urn.
39degN Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:30 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:30 AM lol, for me, the absolute complexity is created by a single individual is even more ridiculous, what do you think about science then? what do you think about the C++ ? do you think it's created by Creater but not programmer? what do you think all kind of invention? they are invented by God? if there was God, he'll be certainly getting tired right now, becuase he has to manage such a huge group of population now days, or he uses E-management maybe? nothing is that hard to accept, the ancient europe cant accept sun is the center of universe and earth is round, what's the result? just MHO, i mean no offence.
Claw Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:53 AM Report Posted January 16, 2005 at 08:53 AM Well, the whole concept of nothing becoming something, and eventually developing into the absolute complexity that is man and his mind, is quite ridiculous, without a Creator to me. Many of the conditions of the universe, if highered slightly, or lowered slightly, would mean that we would not be here. While true that we would very likely not be here if even a tiny cosmic variable was different, that does not logically imply that there is indeed a creator. Let's take this argument on the scale of planets. We definitely know that our planet is very special because it has all the elements necessary for life. However, many, many, other planets are not able to support life as we know it. Does this imply that a creator specifically made Earth this way? No, because there are an almost innumerable number of planets out there, and although the probability that a planet will support life is near zero, there is a very high probability that at least one of these planets will support life (if you've taken a probability and statistics course, this will be very evident). We can extend this argument to the scale of the entire universe. There are many cosmological constants that if changed, would make even atoms impossible to form. The fact that these constants are exactly the right values for our universe to exist does not point to the fact that a creator set them this way, but rather that our universe is only one out of many other possible universes, many of which, cannot support life. Although we don't have anything currently to prove that other universes exist, there is nothing mathematically showing they can't exist. Remember, it was only 30 years ago that many people thought that our solar system was unique and that planets did not exist in other star systems. But eventually, we discovered ways of finding those other planets and proving these people wrong.
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