中國人為何普遍不信仰上帝？外國網友這麼看..._風聞

截止2017年,基督教徒有24億561.9萬，廣義基督徒25億7561.9萬,註冊22億6582.4萬,參加禮拜者15億7123.5萬;增長率1.32%,繼續保持世界第一大宗教地位。

此外，有統計顯示：這些基督信徒的主要分佈區域，主要集中在歐洲、美洲及白人歷史殖民區域…

顯然，這些主要分佈區域並不包括世界第一大人口的中國地區。

對此，就有外國網友發出了疑問：中國人，為何普遍不信仰上帝？

1、Super Poon

In history, we can’’t find any nation that is more superstitious, more skeptical, more devout, more rational, and more secular than the Chinese. And No other country like China can’t be controlled by the church.

在歷史上，我們找不到任何一個國家比中國人更迷信、也更懷疑、更虔誠、也更理性。也沒有哪個國家像中國一樣不被教會所控制。

The religious beliefs of Chinese during the past thousands of years can be summed up in one words - “Peace” (平安in Chinese). When a Chinese is in a smooth sailing, he/she basically don’t believe in gods. I have never heard that one Chinese would say “thanks the god” when he get success. Instead, he will say ”thanks my parents” “thanks my friends” “thanks my boss” and so on.

幾千年來中國人的宗教信仰可以用一個詞來概括——“平安”。當一箇中國人一帆風順的時候，他基本上不會去相信神。我從來沒有聽説過一箇中國人在獲得成功時會説“謝謝神”。相反，他會説“謝謝我的父母”“謝謝我的朋友”“謝謝我的老闆”等等。

But when he encounters adversity that cannot be changed by himself, he will be more superstitious than anyone else. For example, one’s mother got a bad ill and may died soon if don’t have surgery, nobody can help him, even the doctor can’t have 100 percent that the surgery will succeed. Then he would probably do things like going to the temple and worship the god to beg for blessing. If his mother was cured, he would think that it was the Buddha blessed him(“上天保佑”or“菩薩保佑”in Chinese）. (Of course he would thanks the doctors who do this surgery too) Once the surgery was succeed, he would feel very happy and put the Buddha behind.

但是，當他遭遇到自己無法改變的困境時，他會比任何人都更加迷信。例如，一個人的母親得了重病，如果不做手術，可能很快就會死去，沒有人能幫助他，即使是醫生也不能百分之百確定手術會成功。然後他可能會做一些事情，比如去寺廟拜佛祈求祝福。如果他的母親能痊癒，他會説上天保佑。(當然他也會感謝做這個手術的醫生)但一旦手術成功了，他會感到非常高興，然後把神拋在身後。

2、Emilio Trampuz

Asking something like this is exactly like asking: “Why do so many people not believe in Santa Claus? "

問這樣的問題就像問: “為什麼這麼多人不相信聖誕老人? ”

The answer was given long ago: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

很久以前就給出了答案: “當我還是個孩子的時候，我像孩子一樣説話，像孩子一樣思考，像孩子一樣推理。當我長大成人後，我把童年的生活拋諸腦後。”

Most people believe in God because of their own ignorance and fear, and/or because they were brought up that way by their parents. But, once you grow up and start thinking for yourself, you see that all these holy books are just fairy tales about imaginary other-worldly “gods”, who are supposedly omnipotent and omniscient, but who never actually do anything or even show themselves.

大多數人相信上帝是因為他們自己的無知和恐懼，或者是因為他們的父母就是這樣教育他們的。但是，一旦你長大並開始為自己思考時，你會發現所有這些聖書都只是關於虛構的超自然“神”的童話故事，他們被認為是無所不能、無所不知的，但實際上這些神從未做過任何事，甚至從未現身。

The problem is that millions of people never truly grow up. They never mature enough to apply reason and common sense to their blind beliefs.But a lot of people do grow up and develop common sense. Not just the Chinese, but people everywhere, in all parts of the world.

問題在於，還有數百萬人從未真正長大。他們永遠不會成熟到將理性和常識應用到他們盲目的信仰中。但是很多人確實長大了，並形成了常識。不僅僅是中國人，還有世界各地的人們。

3、Arthur Dayne

What people are trying to say is “Chinese people are atheists because they don’t believe in our One True Lord and God”.That’s it.

一些人試圖説的是“中國人是無神論者，因為他們不相信我們唯一的真主和上帝”。就是這樣的。

They are defining Atheist and Atheism as not believing in Jesus Christ, the Lord, Allah, Yahweh or whatever. It’s misinformation, wrong and not in good faith Chinese people are spiritual and pragmatic, but unfortunately some disingenuous people with ulterior motives still peddle their way :P By framing Atheists an Atheism like this they (Edited: mostly Americans!) are implying that Chinese spiritual beliefs and culture are not valid.

他們把無神論者定義為不相信耶穌基督、主、安拉、耶和華或其他什麼。這是錯誤的説法，不是善意的。中國人崇尚精神和實用主義，但不幸的是，一些別有用心的虛偽的人仍然在兜售他們的信仰。通過這樣定義無神論者，他們(編輯: 大部分是美國人!) 暗示着中國的精神信仰和文化是無用的。

4、AI Bu Lin

in a historical context the Chinese people suffered greatly under the brutality of the European nations, who raped China to feed their own greed, see the Boxer rebellion for example. Who will volunteer to want to suffer such a brutal God?

在歷史背景下，中國人民在歐洲國家的殘暴統治下遭受了巨大的苦難，這些歐洲國家為了滿足自己的貪婪而侵犯了中國，例如義和團運動。誰會自願忍受這樣殘忍的上帝呢？

Although the Chinese are not considered as believers, they are strangely also not non- believers. They are not active Buddhist, but they will not miss an opportunity to pray in any temple and stick to Buddhist rituals in some way. When it come to China, you must be careful not to generalize because you will be wrong.

雖然中國人不被認為是信徒，但奇怪的是，他們也不是非信徒。他們不是活躍的佛教徒，但他們不會錯過任何寺廟拜佛的機會，並以某種方式堅持佛教儀式。談到中國，你一定要謹慎點，不要以偏概全，因為這樣你就會犯錯。

5、Jan Krikke

The best answer ever give to this question came from art historian George Rowley, author of the magnificent book Principles of Chinese Painting. Rowley opened his book with the following:

對這個問題最好的回答來自藝術史學家喬治 · 羅利，他是《中國畫原理》一書的作者。羅利在書的開頭寫道：

“We will begin with the basic contrast of spirit and matter. In the west the gulf between them has been impassable. For us spirit belongs to the life of prayer and worship, matter is the concern of science.

“我們將從精神和物質的基本對比開始。在西方，他們之間的鴻溝已經無法逾越。對我們來説，精神屬於生活中的祈禱和崇拜，物質屬於科學的關注。

This has directed our art to the extremes of religious meaning and naturalistic representation. The Chinese, by not carrying the empirical method far enough, failed to develop the natural sciences; and, by not pursuing the nature of spirit to the ultimate personal God, they never evolved a real religion in our sense of that word. Instead, the Chinese created a unique conception of the realm of the spirit which was one with the spirit of matter.

這使得我們的藝術走向了宗教意義和自然主義表現的極端。中國人，由於沒有足夠的實證方法，未能發展自然科學；由於沒有追求精神的本質到最後的唯一神，所以他們從來沒有發展成為我們意義上的真正的宗教。相反，中國人創造了一種獨特的精神境界的概念，這是一種與物質聯繫的精神。

This meant that their painting would never become as religious, imitative, or personally expressive as our painting; and it also meant that art would become the prime vehicle for man’’s most profound thoughts and feelings about the mystery of the universe. This unique conception of spirit and matter was embodied in the notion of Tao.”

這意味着他們的繪畫永遠不會像我們的繪畫那樣宗教化、模仿化或個人化；這也意味着藝術將成為人類對宇宙奧秘最深刻的思考和感受的主要載體。這種獨特的精神與物質觀念體現在“道”的觀念中。

6、Cedric

China “appears” to be Atheist, that is because Chinese don’’t have a strong and domination religion, so there are far less religious fanatics in China.

中國“顯得”像無神論者，那是因為中國人沒有一個強大的、統治性的宗教，所以中國的宗教狂熱者要少得多。

Historically Chinese are too rational to move into a monotheism society (one-true-god). It is very similar to Roman’’s early resistance to Christianity. Roman are very practical and rational by nature, and they find no extra utilitarian from just one god to pray to, instead of many gods to pray to.

從歷史上看，中國人太過理性，無法進入一神論社會（一個真正的上帝）。這與羅馬人早期對基督教的抵抗非常相似。羅馬人的本性是非常實際和理性的，他們發現沒有額外的功利主義，只向一個神祈禱，而不是向許多神祈禱。

7、James

the emperor never bent its will to any religion, not vastly at least, in other word the power of dynasty, which is the power of human, never being ruled by the power of god, which is religious organizaitons. so they didnt have a chance to push the religious belief into a cultural commonality, the best they can do is influence in some way.

皇帝從來沒有屈服過任何宗教，至少沒有很大的屈服過，換句話説，王朝的力量，也是人類的力量，從來沒有被神的力量所統治，神的力量是宗教組織。所以他們沒有機會把宗教信仰融進文化裏，他們能做的就是通過某種方式施加影響。

So the Chinese culture is built, performed and passed on by human.

所以中國文化是由人類創造、執行和傳承的。

8、Zachary Adam Erskine

About 2% of China does believe in the Christian God. About 15 percent of the population is Buddhist, which rejects the notion of a creator deity.The majority of China, about 80%, is Taoist, which also does not believe in a supreme creator but rather that our universe and its laws sprang forth from the Tao, literally “The Way”, a sort of natural order to things, that is not worshipped or considered a god.

大約2% 的中國人相信基督教的上帝。大約15% 的人口是佛教徒，他們反對創造神的觀念。中國的大多數人，大約80% ，是道教徒，他們也不相信至高無上的造物主，而是相信宇宙及其法則來自於道，字面意思是“道路”，一種對事物描述的自然秩序，並不崇拜或認為是神所做。

Within certain sects of Taoism there are 3 figures, not unlike the Holy Trinity or the Hindu Trimurti, who are considered primordial emanations of the Tao, and the origins of all sentient beings. However, belief in these supreme deities is not a requirement of all branches of Taoism, and they often do not regard deities in the same way that we do in Western thinking, or even in Hinduism.

在道教的某些教派中，有三個人物，與基督教的三位一體或印度教的特里莫爾蒂人沒有什麼不同，他們被認為是道的創始人，以及所有眾生的起源。然而，對這些至高無上的神靈的信仰並不是所有道教派別的必要條件，而且他們往往不會像我們的西方思想中，甚至如印度教中那樣看待神靈。

9、Xander Tisdale

This falls onto the vast difference between China and the less sinicized world.In the west there is no way to distinguish the region and its people from religion. The basic foundation of every last western society is religious whether it be the prevailing Abrahamic religions or any of the now dead religions that guided the most powerful and influential nations in the west from the Egyptian pantheon to the Greco-Roman pantheon, Norse pantheon or Zoroastrian pantheon.

這是由於中國和中國化程度較低的世界之間的巨大差異，在西方，沒有辦法把這個地區及其人民與宗教區分開來。每一個西方社會的基本根基都是宗教的，無論是盛行的亞伯拉罕宗教，還是任何現在已經死去的宗教，它引導着西方最強大和最有影響力的國家從埃及的萬神殿到格列柯羅馬的萬神殿、挪威的萬神殿或瑣羅亞斯德的萬神殿。

China on the other hand and the side of the world it had influenced has never really had a solid foundation of religion. Yes as other answers have pointed out China has minor religious rituals and superstitions. But unlike the west that’s as far as they had ever gotten. The little altars you see at Chinese restaurants the Qingming ritual of veneration of the dead and speaking about spirits in nature causing unexplained disruptions to their daily routine have never really influenced eastern development.

另一方面，中國和它所受影響的世界從來沒有真正的宗教基礎。是的，正如其他答案指出中國有一些小的宗教儀式和迷信。但與西方不同的是，這是他們所能做到的。你在中餐館看到的小祭壇，清明祭奠死者的儀式，以及談論大自然中的鬼魂，對他們的日常生活造成無法解釋的干擾，從來沒有真正影響到東方的發展。

Instead that void was filled by philosophy, discipline and respect. Instead of wondering where they came from and who put them on Earth to serve what purpose Chinese society was more concerned about how to maintain their livelihoods and improve themselves as individuals.

相反，這種空虛被哲學、紀律和尊重所填補。中國社會更關心的不是他們來自何方，是誰把他們放在地球上為什麼目的服務，而是如何維持他們的生計，改善他們個人的生活。

Things like this also explain the misconception of the west and of the east when they describe each other as the west is individualistic and the east is communal. When speaking about a superior being creating you western ideology seems to focus on the individual and that superior being.

類似這樣的事情也解釋了為什麼當他們相互描述西方是個人主義而東方是集體主義的時候，所產生的誤解。當談到上帝創造你的時候，西方意識形態似乎把重點集中在個人和那個上帝。

On the other hand eastern ideology delves heavily into rank and the etiquette expected at each level making it seem like they focus on the group. But the reality is actually the opposite.You notice the organization of the church and the theocracy. Specifically think about what it meant to be excommunicated from the church in the western world. That’s communal in a nutshell. You must conform to the beliefs of the majority or face disownment.

另一方面，東方的意識形態深入研究了等級和每個階層的禮儀，使得他們看起來更關注羣體。但事實恰恰相反，你會注意到教會和神權政治的組織，特別要想想被西方世界的教會逐出教會意味着什麼。簡而言之，這是集體的，你必須遵守大多數人的信仰，否則就要面對政府的否定。

On the other hand while eastern cultures teach the importance of knowing one’s place it’s the fact that it speaks to the one and their individual responsibilities. These responsibilities expand to the group but not because of its importance to the person but the importance of maintaining peace and harmony in the society which directly affects the individual. You can see this from things like the Chinese imperial exams. This is a way for any commoner to rise to a rank of power based on their merits and study.

另一方面，雖然東方文化教導人們瞭解自己位置的重要性，但事實上，這些位置則反映了個人的責任。這些責任擴大到集體，但不是因為責任對個人的重要性，而是為了維護社會和平與穩定，這又直接影響到個人。你可以從中國的科舉考試中看到這一點。這是任何一個平民都可以根據自己的功績和學習上升到權力高位的一種方式。

Another example of this is how the order of precedence works. In the west a monarch was the oldest surviving child of the previous monarch and would pass the crown to the oldest surviving of his children. This is why in most governments there is a clear list showing the next in line in case the previous rank dies. But in China this isn’t the case.

另一個例子優先順序的運作方式。在西方，現任君主是前任君主的大兒子，然後他會把王位傳給在世的大兒子。這就是為什麼大多數國家的政府都有一個清晰的列表，列出下一個人選，以防前一個人選死亡。但在中國，情況並非如此。

Yes it is very likely the oldest child will be the next emperor but that all depends on his merits. In China most successive rulers won favor from the old guard based on his actions before assuming the crown. The previous emperor must decide which of his children shows the most promise and then names him the heir apparent.

是的，大兒子是很有可能成為下一任皇帝，但這一切都取決於他的功績。在中國，大多數歷代統治者在登基之前，都會憑藉自己的行為贏得守舊派的好感。前任皇帝必須決定他的哪個孩子最有前途，然後任命他為合法繼承人。

This is also why in the rare event this doesn’t happen there is immediately a power struggle as different possible successors rally supporters to claim the throne. So while the west has a clear and familial hierarchy system in place and nobody can jump the line China’s is a system of individuals proving their mettle and becoming favored by the reigning emperor and his regime.

這也是為什麼在這種罕見的情況下，發生權力鬥爭的原因，因為不同的獲選繼任人會集結支持者們來爭奪皇位。因此，儘管西方有一個清晰的家族等級制度，沒有人能夠越界，但中國是個人證明自己的勇氣，並得到現任皇帝及其政權青睞的制度。

All of this explains what each side believes in. You can simplify it as the west believes in a god while the east doesn’t but really what the west believes in is a power above themselves which can keep the system in order. It keeps a world of ever increasing entropy behind a wall of organization that everybody can follow and so going against that makes you an agent of chaos which needs to be cast out. What the east believes in is themselves in a system of rights and responsibilities they’ve set up where any one of them can prove their worth to rise in power and then provide the group a better way to adapt to an ever changing world.

所有這些都解釋了雙方的信仰。你可以簡化這種説法，因為西方相信上帝，而東方不相信，但實際上西方相信的是一種凌駕於自身之上的力量，這種力量可以維持系統的秩序。它在每個人都可以遵循的組織之牆後面，保持着一個不斷增加的熵世界，因此違背它，你就混亂的代理人，需要被驅逐出去。而東方人所相信的是他們自己建立起來的權利和責任體系，在這個體系中，他們中的任何一個人都可以證明自己的價值，提升自己的權力，然後這個人為這個羣體提供一個更好的方式來適應不斷變化的世界。

毫不諱言，對於外國網友“Xander Tisdale”的此番論述，老鐵表示贊同：

西方相信的是一種凌駕於自身之上的力量，這種力量可以維持系統的秩序。它在每個人都可以遵循的組織之牆後面，保持着一個不斷增加的熵世界，因此違背它，你就混亂的代理人，需要被驅逐出去。而東方人所相信的是他們自己建立起來的權利和責任體系，在這個體系中，他們中的任何一個人都可以證明自己的價值，提升自己的權力，然後這個人為這個羣體提供一個更好的方式來適應不斷變化的世界。

一種是“信他”、一種是“自信”，説這兩種截然不同的選擇懦弱也好、自負也罷，但是我們不能否認的是，正是這種不一樣的選擇，從根源上塑造了兩個社會的宗教信仰和社會價值。

這，大概就是文化與社會形態多樣性的根源。