I was talking to my dad regarding the religious history of China and he told me that religion was never an integral part of Chinese culture. I was slightly perplexed by his statement, as my mom, a former history teacher often mentioned the importance of Taoism/Confucianism/Buddhism in Chinese history. So I asked him again if he meant post-1949 Chinese society, and he said no and said that for essentially all of China's existence, religion has never played a significant role in culture. Any thoughts?

Your father has a very odd view of religion and the Chinese culture. The Chinese culture has been formulated by her philosophers, LaoTsu, Confucius, Mencius and Buddhism. Whether he considers Taoism or Buddhism religions or not could be a personal matter, but they certainly determined Chinese Culture. It certainly was not Islam or Christianity that formed the Chinese psyche.

Just go any Museum which house a reasonable collection of Chinese art and you will see religion played an intergral part of Chinese history and her culture even as early the neolithic period. The same can be said about all cultures. Since the dawn of time man has been perpertually seeking answers about himself and God, this quest is never ending for some.

While he does admit Confucianism and Taoism or Buddhism have influenced certain aspects of Chinese history and society, he insists that no one ever really followed those religions. (Atheist was the word he used.)

Your father is right. The only thing that plays a dominant role in Chinese culture from past to present has been the worship of money. The Chinese is a practical people and this is why they are also very sane.

Yes, your dad is very right.

Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are philosophies and not religions. People who don't see the difference, need to be educated. :P

China is very isolated. The sea, mountains and desert surrounds China. It kept it's people in and kept outsiders out, so there was not much influence from the outside. Until the golden ages, there weren't much foreigners. The English weren't active either in spreading their religion.

What is the distinction you make that determines whether one is a philosophy or a religion??

Wait what was the crusades about??
Hmm, man it sucks to not be edu-ma-cated ...
Please enlighten me with your wisdom.

Philosophy equals rational inquiry into fundamental questions: Philosophy is the process of rational inquiry into the nature of the world in which we find ourselves. This has to be understood in a broad sense, because its subjects of inquiry include such questions as the following: How can we discover the truth, in any event, and how can we argue about it in ways that ought to be convincing? How, from the viewpoint of reason, ought we to live our lives? How can we best understand such puzzling, yet important, phenomena as morality, law, culture, and religious belief?

Philosophy is not sharply divided from science: Philosophers attempt to reach rationally-defensible answers to a range of fundamental questions that defy precise, empirical investigation. There is no sharp dividing line between philosophy and science. The more a question is amenable to empirical investigation, using such means as experiments, mathematical models, and observations with telescopes, microscopes, and all the other modern instruments that have been invented, the more it is a scientific one. However, it’s a matter of degree. In the past, many questions that are now considered scientific ones belonged to philosophy. Indeed, modern science arose out of philosophy about 400 years ago.

Because philosophy deals with issues that defy precise investigation, it often seems not to make progress, and to do no more than (at best) clarify issues and solve logical puzzles. There is some truth in that criticism, but it is also true that philosophy has helped us make intellectual progress by refining some questions until they can be investigated more precisely, identifying ways in which we can be misled by our language, concepts, and assumptions, and striving for a rigorously-supported, yet synoptic, view of the world, drawing on the findings of other humanities disciplines and sciences. It seeks to make connections and draw conclusions that lie outside the scope of any other, more specialised, discipline. In one sense, philosophy is very general in its outlook, but in actual practice, philosophical work can be quite narrowly-focused and technical.

“A philosophy” versus “a religion”: Just as there is no sharp boundary line between philosophy and science, there is also no sharp line between philosophy and religious doctrine. They can blur into each other in some cases.

However, the crucial difference is that philosophers seek rationally-defensible knowledge, hard though this is to obtain. This means that they will not blindly accept claims that are made in so-called holy books, or transmitted within the traditions of a religious institution such as the Catholic Church, or granted by an alleged divine revelation. Even philosophers who accept some, or all, of these as reliable sources for certain (alleged) truths will want to find some sort of rational argument as to why they should be accepted.

When we talk about “a” philosophy, as opposed to just “philosophy”, we usually mean some kind of comprehensive worldview that claims to be supported by reason.

By contrast, a religion will include a worldview that is typically supported by faith and authority, more than by reason, and will usually explain the world, and how it works, by invoking some kind of supernatural entity or principle. In addition, a religion is not just a set of doctrines: it will usually include such things as rituals, commandments, hierarchies of leadership, practices of worship, and prescribed methods for transcending our physical state, here on Earth.


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does that help with understanding the origins of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism as more of philosophies than authoritarian religions?

Learn it well:

No, that doesn't help at all. There are no origins of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. What we have are scriptural texts with their mystic awe, and temples that are essentially the same as those of Christendom.

Philosophy is not what it is cracked up to be: the search for truth. Inquiry can only be as rational and fundamental as the inquirer. Humans are irrational and, at best, not hopelessly cracked. What fundamental and rational truths about life have been uncovered by philosophy so far? None. So, philosophy sports an idealism not different from that of religion.

When it comes to science, it doesn't look any better than slack-jawed Stephen Hawkins all slumped in a wheel chair. Only devotees of science would believe that life came about through a big bang. This theory is no less awesome than transubstantiation and the Holy Trinity. At the basic level, science at least has some practical value while philosophy and religion have none.

Business is best. It is meaningful and it proves to us that you don't have to understand life to live it well. It uses everything - including philosophy, religion and science - to make big money. This is why religion was never an integral part of Chinese culture.

For a whole country of people to have no religious influence on it culture or history is beyond any dream.
Unfortunately, it isn't true. China has been influenced by religion. Or, you could say philosophy if that
suits your terminology better. People have always looked beyond themselves for .. something.
You may call it God. And He may call it just a way to live your life. So whether it be tenets of religion or
tenets of a philosophy, they do have their influences on society. To say China didn't is to say a whole community of
people lost a complete side to their personality.

Sorry, I just rant because I can ...

I caught the wrong fish with what i said. :P

Well, you are right avisitor. But in that way, so am i, Elle, Tanga and green's father.
People(esp the followers of a philosophy) want to make a clear difference between the two. There are differences, but both have the same ... function. Anyways, there are differences and there are similarities.

Some difference to point out

religion
Religion (scripture in particular) is based on the wisdom of God. (or so they say)
religion is about answering the unknowable.


philosophy
Philosophy is wisdom based upon the human mind. (or so they say :p)
philosophy is about questioning the unknowable

Religion really isn't an integral part of anybody's culture. Ultimately religion is all about an ostentatious show of piety and merit making. We have seen all kinds of religious folks indulge in all sorts of debauchery.

You are in the business rat-race chasing after status, right? The same $hit goes on in the spiritual world too where one's guru or one's god smites the other just to get ahead.

Truth is, everyone on this planet faces the problem of suffering. It is a universal malady which requires a universal remedy, not a sectarian one. When one suffers from anger, it's not Muslim anger, Buddhist anger, Hindu anger, or Christian anger. Anger is anger. When one becomes agitated as a result of this anger, this agitation is not Christian, or Jewish, or Muslim. The malady is universal.

The remedy must also be universal, and that remedy sure isn't in religion, but rather the contemplative tradition in each religion that has gone moribund for centuries.

Yes, beneath the surface we are all evil with no empathy for anything: not for each other, not for the earth, not for other animals.



No, no, no status. I don't socialize at all and proud to say that I have no family and no friends. What I mean to say is that I don't do birthdays, weddings, Chinese New Year, funerals, night out with the guys, brunches with family, nothing. This way, I don't exist. When I feel like company, I talk to ghosts: people like you on the world wide web. There is an angry ghost haunting me in this place and you know who.



I get you. There is only anger but no angry person. Right? Are you just saying this or do you really see the truth in this?
I see the truth and that is why I cannot relate with "people" on a daily basis.



I contemplate all the time or should I say that my life is a constant state of contemplation. Even when I get up in the morning to wash my face and brush my teeth, contemplation is there unabating. I look in the mirror to shave and I see there is no one in that body looking back at me. It's scary. I remember one morning at the zoo where I went to reflect.
It was a weekday morning and the zoo was deserted of visitors. A mandarin duck swan by where I sat at the water's edge. It must be expecting some food that zoo visitors throw to it. It looked at me and I looked back. Its eye at the side of its head moved in its socket up and down, focussing on me trying to size up what the heck I would be doing. I looked at its eye into its dark pupil and realized "there is no duck there!"

Buddhism is scary. You'd better get off that mat.

Thanks for pointing out the differences. Without it, I would just be utterly lost.
I've only looked at philosophy as a way to live one's life ... just as much as religion told me how I should live my life.
Still my life became messed up cause it was ultimately me who made the choices that I did.
Whoa is me???

Serious mistake to try to separate one from his religion. Muslim is a perfect example of how much religion (Islam)
influences life and cultural aspects of life.

The ostentatious show you speak of is just another aspect of human nature displaying itself.
My thing is bigger than your thing???


Suffering is part of the nature of life.
It can be eased and reduced to minimal levels by outside forces.

Anger is part of being human.
It can be controlled by self and by choice.

The remedy is to escape the cycle of rebirth and death???

Yes, beneath the surface of the conscious mind, the untamed mind is selfish with varying degrees of empathy.




You are an introvert? Good material to be a monk.




I experienced that sensation of anger in several silent retreats. Then u begin to experience the anger in others and it feels the same whether or not they are christian, muslims, buddhist or martians.




Ah yeah, buddhism is scary when it's all about relics, rites and an attachment to spiritual status, but their blue print for changing the way our brain works is not scary. Experiments have been done on experienced meditators and you can change the way your reptilian brain works if you meditate.

In some prisons, they've introduced meditation to the lifers and they have found a way to liberate their minds despite their knowing they are on death row. See the documentary of Dhamma Brothers!

Mandarin duck? U didn't want to roast it????