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| Andrew Stewart |
By Andrew Stewart, Class of 2015
Shanghai so far has been an adventure. As a group we are starting to become more comfortable with navigating the city. But there is still so much I want to know about China. We are learning a lot through class discussions. I learned that China is an atheist state. I guess I always wondered about which religion is the national religion of China, but I guess there isn’t one. But I find that interesting with the moral and cultural structure being shaped by Confucius and Buddhist teachings. Obviously there are some people in the Chinese culture that take these teachings of Confucius and are able to direct religious rituals to these different moral beliefs.
I spoke with a woman today here in Shanghai who was a professor at the University of Michigan. She married a Chinese man, and he was Buddhist. But she told me that in America, Buddhism is really a way for people to follow a specified moral code. I asked her if she was Buddhist and she said that she was actually Jewish. I then proceeded to ask her if she believed in God, and she said that she doesn’t believe in an Almighty God that judges and oversees the world. But yet she follows the customs and moral codes emphasized in the Jewish religion, basically mandated by God himself. I was puzzled. How can you not believe in God, yet follow the moral codes created by God? How does one account for one and not the other? People can follow a moral code that has nothing to do with associating with a faith. This woman was Jewish by birth, but I would not consider her an Orthodox Jew. She doesn’t practice Judaism because that requires a certain amount of revere for God the Father, God the Almighty. If she doesn’t follow that criterion, then she is a moral person, not a practicing Jew.
As a Christian, I believe in Jesus because I believe in His death and resurrection in order to gain salvation for myself. Through this faith I apply the teachings of Jesus in my life and perform, with integrity, moral deeds and actions. But my faith isn’t based on my works. This brings me back to Buddhism and Confucius. Are these religions, or simply agents of helping people follow a moral code? They have no acknowledgement of revering a higher being or power, but just teaching their followers to have peace and love towards others. Is that religion? I’m not sure, but I would venture to say no. Then the analysts are right. China is an atheist state, with a lot of moral teachings from a wise man named Confucius.
After contemplating over this religious gap I found in Buddhism and Confucianism, our group went and visited a Buddhist temple. I realized that Buddhism is still a religion. People still pray to their various gods and do many rituals to receive blessings from them as well. People believe that it is an important part of their culture. But they have to pay some money to buy candles needed for prayers and even have to pay an admission fee into the temple. It is cheap to get into the temple, but still feels like the religion loses its religious vibe when one has to pay in order to even go into a temple to perform their religious rituals. This makes it feel like the temple is more of a business or attraction than a place of prayer and worship. Following the moral code of Buddhism is cheaper and easier than going to a temple and praying to the different Buddhas, so that might be why people are veering away from completely participating in the religion, and instead performing good deeds in the name of Buddhism.
I began to think about this issue a little bit more and realized that maybe this perception of Buddhism applies only to the city, since I was making these observations from Shanghai. However, Dr. Hua explained to our group that people in the cities in China are more religious than those in the country. Therefore, those people in the country participate less than those in the city. I would presume that China had a rich religious history in Confucianism and Buddhism, and the tradition of these religious rituals stuck with the nation. The Chinese have the behavior of sticking to their tradition regardless of the various cultures that influence their nation. I find it interesting that China is an atheist country, but filled with tradition of religious significance. They make no attempt of claiming any religion as their national religion. I understand that the US is the same way, in which there is no national religion, but the US is a nation of hundreds of different religions, which I doubt is the same in China. Also, the US would explicitly say that it is an atheist nation, because there is rich religious history in the founding of our nation as well. China’s culture is surrounded by religious routines from Confucianism and Buddhism, yet I feel it's falling away from those roots.
Andrew Stewart, of Radcliff, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is studying political science.