Tennessee Gov. signs bill to celebrate white supremacist

Post Reply New Topic

I Chinese food!

Food is like a universal language. It's one of the few things in the world that successfully unites all of humanity along with sex and death.

Sports and music, too....

I'd say art and entertainment in general.

Kipling would not have said that if he knew how westernized the east has become. And vice versa to a degree.

People in “oriental” regions adhere to Buddhist/Confucian traditions—yet have been wearing Western clothing for a few generations.

There's always going to be wars between East, West, North, and South though. Humans can't help looking for any excuse to brutally slaughter each other.

Aren't they mostly atheist and secular these days?

Confucianism is more a philosophy of life than a religion. To call an adherent of Confucianism “secular” and “atheist” would be pretty simplistic, in my view.

In the broad sense, they are both secular and atheistic....but, frankly, Confucianism has the effect of a religion—much more than the effect atheism has on most atheists.

Buddhism is a religion, of course....but people just aren’t as fanatical as adherents of the Abrahamic religions.

There are many Christians in Korea. And more and more in China, too. Not really in Japan, though.

I think there are some Christians in Japan though. I know it's only a cartoon, but in the Japanese animation Sailor Moon one of the characters Rei Hino was a student at a Catholic Private School in Tokyo. Ironically her grandfather owned a Shinto Shrine and she was either a priestess or shrine maiden I think.

The great thing about dominantly atheist countries like Japan and the UK is that people actually have true religous freedom and can practice any faith they want.

Unlike the USA which 'claims' to be a country of religous freedom but in reality it's really only freedom for Christians who still have too much influence in our government.

Shintoism is the dominant religion in Japan.

I have not met too many Japanese Christians----though I've met quite a few Chinese and Korean Christians.

Christianity is certainly not a dominant feature of Japanese culture (nor is it in Chinese culture, either---though Christianity is gaining a foothold there). Christianity has influenced Korean culture much more.

Japan is pretty laxed on a lot of Western influences nowadays so I'm pretty positive there are some Christians in Japan, though probably not a lot.

Also correct me if I'm wrong but my sister once told me that Shintoism is no longer considered an actual religion in Japan. It's more like a spiritual thing that is practiced due to being an ancient tradition. I think it's kind of like how in Hawaii people still do celebrations to honor the Goddess Pele despite the fact that Hawaiians abandoned the old gods when Christianity gained a foothold in the islands?

Shintoism is not a "religion," per se. That's true.

It's rather like Confucianism, which I would consider more a "philosophy of life."

Confucianism is very much akin to a situation where, in Greece, something like "Platonism" would be "practiced" in the absence of the worship of the pantheon of Greek mythology.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 16 Jul 2019, 9:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think that's what she said, that it's really more a philosophy than a true religion.