What do the Chinese believe in? (Bai Yansong)

The title of Bai Yansong's lecture was Happiness, Faith, Youth.　　　　When talking about the part of faith in the lecture, he asked what do you believe in, and then said that more than 100 million Chinese people believe in Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, Christianity, more than 100 million believe in ****productivism, the rest of more than a billion do not believe in anything. He talked about Yang Zhenning said a sentence physics research to the end is philosophy, philosophy research to the end is religion, and then he combined with his own feelings, religious research to the end is life. He said that faith is more than religious belief, and that the key to faith is reverence, and that there should be constraints in one's heart so that there will not be an infinite decline in morality.　　　　Much of what Bai said was quite profound, reflecting the heart of a knowledgeable generation of caring social intellectuals.　　　　He went on to say that faith is not necessarily religious faith. Speaking of religious faith, he said that Chinese people seldom have religious faith, and that the faith of many Chinese people is not considered faith, but only an outward manifestation of utilitarianism. Many Chinese people worship ancestors, Bodhisattvas, worship God of Fortune are very utilitarian, seeking God to worship the Buddha only to get what material benefits, rather than the existence of reverence for the heart, he said that every year in Beijing, the temple is very hot, many seemingly pious people go to worship the Buddha, and there are even many college students. Such behavior is not considered faith, but what is faith? Even the Christian religion, which has a strong resistance to utilitarianism, has had many so-called believers for various benefits since its entry into China, and the Chinese have coined the term "eating religion", which is indeed very vivid and true.　　　　But what exactly is faith?　　　　Bai Yansong's answer seems to be a bit vague, he talked about reverence, but reverence for what? He talked about constraints, but what constraints? The constraints of the heart must have the power of the heart, and the fear must have the fear of the supreme being. Faith is indeed more than religious faith, but religious faith is the most basic, the most primitive, the most important faith, why do Chinese people always emphasize that faith is not just religious faith, which many people know the reason why to repeatedly emphasize it? Is it not a reflection of the unknown and hidden rejection and disdain of most Chinese for religion?　　　　China after generation after generation of atheistic education and the bombardment of the Cultural Revolution, seems to eliminate all the bull ghosts, snakes and gods, but in the end, but the traditional Chinese culture, all kinds of religious beliefs are destroyed, in the religion is the opium of the spirit of the slogans under the education of the general public, especially think that there are intellectuals, but also on the religion of a kind of innate rejection, the bones think that the religion is ignorant, at least is the It is not empirically verifiable.　　　　However, morality is ultimately religion; morality without religion is a tree without roots; faith without religious belief is superficial faith; and who can say that atheism is not religious belief? Atheism kills God, but treats man as God, instead causing greater disasters on earth, is this not the pride of man?　　　　Many intellectuals, including experts and professors, have recognized the importance of faith, especially the decline of moral conditions in China today, melamine, stained buns, lean meat extract, etc. Why is there no moral bottom line in our hearts? Every Chinese will be harmed by the decline of morality inadvertently. The person who sells dyed steamed buns is likely to buy pork with lean meat extract. No one can escape the punishment of moral decline!　　　　Therefore, many intellectuals call for faith, but what do they believe in? The average Chinese person will think of Buddhism and Confucianism. Confucianism is a religious nature of the religion is very light, it is mainly about the world of a set of saint philosophy, the so-called Confucius does not talk about strange and chaotic God, please note that he is not denying God, but the unknown life, how do you know the humility of death, he did not want to talk about what he did not know, but does not deny the existence of God, Confucius speech there are a lot of prayers and other words. Confucianism is mainly a philosophy about the world, whereas Buddhism? Buddhism to some extent can be said to be the traditional religion of the Chinese people, however, Buddhism is essentially the atheistic religion of all things are empty, is a kind of escape from the world, tend to tranquility and ethereal religion, in the face of the great assimilation of the Chinese people's ability to Buddhism injected with a very strong and very deep color of utilitarianism, as mentioned earlier, do not see so many people worshipping the Buddha, but how many of them are willing to leave the world and fall into the empty door? They just use Buddhism as a way to get ahead personally. How many of them are sincere?　　　　When it comes to faith, many people do not want to talk about religion, because there is atheism education and anti-religious heart, there is superstitious religion is ignorant of the mind, but a fact is that materialist philosophers are not as profound as idealist philosophers, atheist scientists are not as high as theist scientists, otherwise many great scientists say that the scientific research in the end is philosophical and religious it? Otherwise why was there a Christian religion first, then human philosophy, then rational science? This is not just a matter of progress of time, but also a matter of sequence.　　　　However, when it comes to religion, Chinese people, especially intellectuals in general, are most reluctant to talk about Christianity. Many university teachers say that people should have faith, but they themselves do not have the exact faith, and I have already heard so many teachers say that people should have faith, and that it is good to believe in religions, but I can't have any religious beliefs, as if we can see from this that the intellectuals in general have the mentality of agreeing with religious beliefs as well as the hidden pride of rejecting religions, and that they are The intellectuals who think that they are rational and have knowledge are unable to let go of the face of that rationality for fear that others will say that his belief in religion is a manifestation of ignorance.　　　　1. The large-scale introduction of Christianity was accompanied by the invasion of imperialism. Li Dazhao said that the Chinese were reluctant to believe in Christianity because of its relationship with imperialism. Is there a relationship between imperialism and Christianity? Of course there is, but what is the relationship? Many people are not sure. Many people have the vague idea that Christianity is a cultural invasion of imperialism and an accomplice of imperialism! Let me tell you, most of the Christian missionaries to China, except for a few, had no direct relationship with the government. Did they come to China to invade? Why did most of the invaders die in China, and why did most of them come to set up hospitals, education, save the poor, and promote the gospel? They abandoned the favorable living conditions abroad, came to China at that time, and lost their lives, even their lives, they were misunderstood by the general public, and were killed in large numbers in the Boxer Rebellion, is this the so-called cultural invasion? The Chinese people hate the foreigners to the bone, but to the evil foreigners with guns and money, but coy, but take the anger to the good foreigners with good intentions of the weak, this is bullying and fear of the hard right and wrong, imperialism owes China, the Chinese people owe the missionaries, without the missionaries, where do you have the modern education, health care and the popularization of culture? Intellectuals, your rationality, your objectivity, where is it?　　　　2. There has never been a savior in the world, but there is a great savior, and there has never been a god in the world, but there is a man-god who is greater than God. Religion is the opium of the spirit, yet many great people are religious, it turns out that they are addicted to drugs, this is why, a group of atheists, and how many dare to say that there is no God in their hearts, and how many of them are more accomplished than those who are addicted to religion. The Chinese are very submissive, and accept without thinking what the powerful teach them, but never think seriously about the most basic questions, where heaven and earth come from, and where man comes from, and where he goes, and if they do not even think about these things, how can they recognize the Christian faith, which has answered these questions, and how can they be bound by their hearts, and those who do not recognize God do not influence the presence or absence of God, but they can influence themselves. Because they become lawless, fight to fight, their joy is endless, harming others and themselves, but not repentant 3, the Chinese are utilitarian, Confucianism is used to rule the people, Buddhism is used to worship God for peace and wealth, Christianity comes in and is eaten by the Chinese, but among them, Christianity is the most difficult to be utilized by utilitarianism because of the teachings therein, so in this regard, the Chinese people are the most reluctant to accept Christianity. The Chinese have no sense of repentance, lack humility, and have a kind of pride and nocturnal arrogance in refusing to admit their faults, and therefore strongly resist the doctrine of sin in Christianity, which talks about sin and repentance, and so the Chinese are afraid! Like a mother who knows her child's faults and wants to discipline him, but the child is afraid of being disciplined, so he runs away from this good mother, and another mother who lets her child make all sorts of faults and doesn't care about them, but supports him and gives him help, which mother is good, may I ask? But Chinese people are like this child, who prefers to avoid the discipline of a good mother who favors him! Also like criminals who are afraid of the righteous police. Rather than run away from the consciousness of sin, the Chinese do not want to admit that they have sinned, that everyone has human defects and sins, that they have done many things against their conscience, and that the Chinese only believe that they can become saints and kings by themselves. With the doctrine of sin, the Chinese are by nature unwilling to accept the Christian faith.　　　　4. The signs and wonders of the Christian faith are another reason why many intellectuals are unwilling to accept it, for it is a supernatural thing, which they cannot accept by reason, but ask, is it still a supernatural act of God that can be understood by reason? Ask, how many things in the world can't be believed by reason? Can you engage in the study of the doctrine of love by the rational method of science? Can you use your limited brain to understand all the mysteries of the universe? God is God, not man, and is the God that man can fully know and understand by himself called God? People who think they have to believe by reason alone are the most irrational of people!　　　　In short, because of the connection between Christianity and imperialism, because of the atheistic education, because of the doctrine of sin in it, and because of the signs and wonders in it, which have caused the Chinese to reject and resent it, so that the Chinese people in general are unwilling to accept Christianity, and those who have really become Christians are really out of the grace and works of God because of man's humility and the putting down of himself.　　　　When it comes to faith, one is not willing to talk easily about religion, and when it comes to religion, one is not willing to talk about Christianity. But the best spiritual discipline under the morality of contemporary China is precisely the awareness of sin in the Christian faith, ask when everyone recognizes their own sins, everyone is humble to admit that there are sins in human nature, admit that they are wrong, ask when those who sell melamine, sell Slim Meat Extract, sell stained steamed buns recognize their own sins, when every Chinese have repentance, repentance consciousness, morality will still fall! When every Chinese person has a sense of repentance and remorse, morality will still be lowered. There will still be stained steamed bread, there will still be appalling tragedies?　　　　However, it is precisely because Chinese people are by nature unwilling to let go of their own face, unwilling to admit their mistakes, unwilling to admit their sins, and unwilling to accept supernatural salvation, that this is also the most difficult thing to achieve.　　　　　　　　However, those who believe must believe in God, and those who believe in God must have humility, and those who have humility will recognize the evils of human nature and their own sins, and those who have such humility will have the discipline of mind, and when the society consists of such people, the society will be stable and harmonious.