[2019-11-25]为什么中国人不信仰上帝呢？

Super Poon , lives in China
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.
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.
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“菩萨保佑”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.

Super Poon ，生活在中国
在历史上，我们找不到任何一个国家比中国人更迷信、也更怀疑、更虔诚、也更理性。也没有哪个国家像中国一样不被教会所控制。
几千年来中国人的宗教信仰可以用一个词来概括——“平安”。当一个中国人一帆风顺的时候，他基本上不会去相信神。我从来没有听说过一个中国人在获得成功时会说“谢谢神”。相反，他会说“谢谢我的父母”“谢谢我的朋友”“谢谢我的老板”等等。
但是，当他遭遇到自己无法改变的困境时，他会比任何人都更加迷信。例如，一个人的母亲得了重病，如果不做手术，可能很快就会死去，没有人能帮助他，即使是医生也不能百分之百确定手术会成功。然后他可能会做一些事情，比如去寺庙拜佛祈求祝福。如果他的母亲能痊愈，他会说上天保佑。(当然他也会感谢做这个手术的医生)但一旦手术成功了，他会感到非常高兴，然后把佛陀抛在身后。

If the prayer is not effective, the Chinese will not think that their beliefs are not sincere, but will blame themselves for the dedication of the gods, thinking that this god is weak and doesn’t have the power to help him, and even throw the gods directly into the river.
Chinese gods don’t need to be worshiped every day or every week. We think they are still blessing us though we don’t think of them often. If we have difficulties, ask them and they will help us. This is the cuteness of Chinese.

如果祈祷没有效果，中国人不会认为他们的信仰是不真诚的，而会责备神对自己的奉献，认为这个神是软弱的，没有力量帮助他，甚至直接把神像扔进河里。
中国的神不需要每天或每周都被膜拜。他们认为这些神仍然祝福自己，虽然不常想起这些神，但如果有困难，问问他们，他们会帮助我们的。这就是中国人的可爱之处。

btw there are 56 nationalities in China and every nationalities have their own gods. Some bad gods in Han nationalities can be considered as good gods in another nationality. So to request all the Chinese people to believe the same god is unrealistics.
Chinese people are not all atheists. Actually, many Chinese believe in Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity or Islam. Most Chinese have several beliefs. Fortunately, it doesn’t bring too much religious war to China.
When Chinese pray, they will not pray for happiness in heaven, but the benefits that can be obtained in reality. But Chinese are not greedy, they won’t pray for some unrealistics desire. Peace and Health are the greatest happiness and belief of all Chinese.

顺便说一下，中国有56个民族，每个民族都有自己的神。汉族的一些坏神在另一民族中可以被视为好神。因此，要求所有的中国人都相信同一个神是不现实的。
中国人并不都是无神论者。 事实上，许多中国人信仰佛教、道教、基督教或伊斯兰教。 大多数中国人有几种信仰。 幸运的是，这并没有给中国带来太多的宗教斗争。
当中国人祈祷时，他们祈祷的不是天堂里的幸福，而是现实中可以得到的好处。但是中国人并不贪婪，他们不会祈求一些不真实的欲望。平安健康是所有中国人最大的幸福和信念。

Emilio Trampuz , Likes Science, Languages, Skiing, Spirituality & more
Asking something like this is exactly like asking: “Why do so many people not believe in Santa Claus? "
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.” (Corinthians 13:11).
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.

Emilio Trampuz ，喜欢科学，语言，滑雪，灵性等等
问这样的问题就像问: “为什么这么多人不相信圣诞老人? ”
很久以前就给出了答案: “当我还是个孩子的时候，我像孩子一样说话，像孩子一样思考，像孩子一样推理。当我长大成人后，我把童年的生活抛诸脑后。” (哥林多前书13:11)。
大多数人相信上帝是因为他们自己的无知和恐惧，或者是因为他们的父母就是这样教育他们的。 但是，一旦你长大并开始为自己思考时，你会发现所有这些圣书都只是关于虚构的超自然“神”的童话故事，他们被认为是无所不能、无所不知的，但实际上这些神从未做过任何事，甚至从未现身。

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.

问题在于，还有数百万人从未真正长大。他们永远不会成熟到将理性和常识应用到他们盲目的信仰中。但是很多人确实长大了，并形成了常识。 不仅仅是中国人，还有世界各地的人们。

Arthur Dayne , studied Economics & Accounting at University of Washington (2009)
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.
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.

Arthur Dayne ，曾就读于华盛顿大学经济与会计(2009年)
一些人试图说的是“中国人是无神论者，因为他们不相信我们唯一的真主和上帝”。
就是这样的。
他们把无神论者定义为不相信耶稣基督、主、安拉、耶和华或其他什么。这是错误的说法，不是善意的。
中国人崇尚精神和实用主义，但不幸的是，一些别有用心的虚伪的人仍然在兜售他们的信仰。
通过这样定义无神论者，他们(编辑: 大部分是美国人!) 暗示着中国的精神信仰和文化是无用的。

Stephanie, studied Medical Sciences
Because the answer is straightforward short and simple (unless you were brought up religiously).
It is not compulsory, either as a human or part of the law, to believe in anything/religion.
There are no rule or law that says they the Chinese must believe in something. It is also not necessary to believe in anything in order to live. It is completely necessary to eat, drink and breathe to live. Believing in anything is not.

Stephanie，学习医学科学
因为答案简单明了(除非你在信仰虔诚的环境中长大的)。
无论是作为人还是作为法律的一部分，信仰任何事物 / 宗教都不是强制性的。
没有规则或法律说他们中国人必须相信什么。为了生存，也没有必要去相信任何事情。为了生存，吃饭、喝水和呼吸是完全必要的。但信仰任何事情都不是必要的。

Faan Louw , former I Am a Retired Teacher.
As a total outsider I see three broad reasons for this this trend: 1) Marxism, 2) Confucius and 3) historical events.
Marx clearly and loudly expressed his utter dislike for the Christian religion. He was right because the praxis of religion was completely different from the intention of region. The church has failed us. So Marx concluded that religion wil not be allowed in his model of communism.
Confucius exulted the Emperor, giving him godly powers, including finding or pointing “the way (道）.” Thus the absolute power of the Emporer was enshrined by Confucius, simply because the Emporer has become the philosopher of the Nation, hence no need for religion.

Faan Louw 、退休教师
作为一个完全的局外人，我认为这种趋势有三大原因: 1)马克思主义；2)孔子；3)历史事件。
马克思清楚而坚定地表达了他对基督教的极度厌恶。他是对的，因为宗教的实践与地域的目的是完全不同的。教会辜负了我们。 因此，马克思得出结论，在他的共产主义模型中，宗教不会被允许。
孔子颂扬皇帝，赋予他神圣的权利，包括找到或指引“方向（道）” 因此，治国者的绝对权力被孔子奉为神圣不可侵犯，原因很简单，因为治国者已经成为了国家的哲学家，因此不需要宗教。

3) 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?
Then came Mao and he used Marxist communism thinking to motivate his revolution. As a Chinese , he was probably educated within the culture of Confucius.
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.

3)在历史背景下，中国人民在欧洲国家的残暴统治下遭受了巨大的苦难，这些欧洲国家为了满足自己的贪婪而侵犯了中国，例如义和团运动。 谁会自愿忍受这样残忍的上帝呢？
然后毛来了，他用马克思的共产主义思想来激励他的革命。作为一个中国人，他可能受过孔子文化的教育。
虽然中国人不被认为是信徒，但奇怪的是，他们也不是非信徒。他们不是活跃的佛教徒，但他们不会错过任何寺庙拜佛的机会，并以某种方式坚持佛教仪式。谈到中国，你一定要谨慎点，不要以偏概全，因为这样你就会犯错。

Jan Krikke , Studied Chinese influence on modern world
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:
"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. 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. 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."

Jan Krikke ，研究中国对现代世界的影响
对这个问题最好的回答来自艺术史学家乔治 · 罗利，他是《中国画原理》一书的作者。 罗利在书的开头写道：
“我们将从精神和物质的基本对比开始。在西方，他们之间的鸿沟已经无法逾越。 对我们来说，精神属于生活中的祈祷和崇拜，物质属于科学的关注。这使得我们的艺术走向了宗教意义和自然主义表现的极端。中国人，由于没有足够的实证方法，未能发展自然科学；由于没有追求精神的本质到最后的唯一神，所以他们从来没有发展成为我们意义上的真正的宗教。相反，中国人创造了一种独特的精神境界的概念，这是一种与物质联系的精神。这意味着他们的绘画永远不会像我们的绘画那样宗教化、模仿化或个人化；这也意味着艺术将成为人类对宇宙奥秘最深刻的思考和感受的主要载体。这种独特的精神与物质观念体现在“道”的观念中。

Cedric, Radar Engineer working on Weapons
Chinese are not true Atheist.... MOST Chinese believe in at least one of the following: Christian/Muslim/Buddhism/Taoism, Feng-Shui, Ancestor Worship, or mix of folklore+superstition.
You had to be immune to ALL of the above to be truly an Atheist, and I find that is a rarity among Chinese
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.
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.

Cedric，雷达工程师，研究武器
中国人不是真正的无神论者... 大多数中国人至少相信以下几种: 基督教 / 穆斯林 / 佛教 / 道教，风水，祖先崇拜，或者民间传说 + 迷信的混合体。
要成为一个真正的无神论者，你必须对以上所有的类型都免疫，我发现这在中国人中是很罕见的。
中国感觉“似乎”是无神论者，这是因为中国人没有强大的、占主导地位的宗教，所以中国的宗教狂热者要少得多。
从历史上看，中国人太理性了，不可能进入一神教社会。 这与罗马早期对基督教的抵抗非常相似。 罗马人也天生非常务实和理性，他们认为只向一个神祈祷不会比向多个神祈祷更有效。

Farnsworth , former Student
the relationship between chinese and god is very different, very much so.
first of all, many, or most of the gods are once very real and very alive. like Guan Gong, who was a general in the Three Kingdoms era. It is the spirits that he represent, in this case, loyalty, that immortalized him among the chinese, but even some worship him, its more of a ritual, rather than a religion.
secondly, some of the gods born in the Chinese literature. like Feng Sheng Yan Yi, a book that based on the war between Zhou dynasty and Shang dynasty, produced a vast number of gods its origin stories. sounds like marvel super hero stories, right? well, it is to a point.
before any ritual had the chance to become the dominate religion, the confusions and many others emerged, as in who we are, where we are, where are we going, whats the relationship between human and nature, spirits, and with one’s inner and outside, relationship between fellow human. their thoughts and its interpretation dominated the thoughts of the Chinese and is kept till this day. so the market for a religion is very limited, even Buddhism, the most visible and religious like ritual, is practiced mostly in practice purpose, instead of anything like Christianity or Islam.

Farnsworth 、毕业生
中国人和神的关系非常不同，非常非常不同。
首先，很多，或者说中国大多数的神，曾经是真实的，活生生的。比如三国时期的将军关公。正是他所代表的精神，在这个例子中，忠诚，使他在中国人中永垂不朽，但即使有一些人崇拜他，但这更像是一种仪式，而不是一种宗教。
其次，中国文学中诞生的一些神灵。《封神演义》是一部以周朝与商朝之间的战争为背景的小说，其中产生了大量的神话故事。听起来像是漫威的超级英雄故事，对吧？ 在某种程度上是这样。
在任何仪式有机会成为主导宗教之前，困惑和许多其他问题就会出现，比如我们是谁，我们在哪里，我们将去哪里，人与自然、精神之间的关系，以及一个人的内在和外在的关系，人与人之间的关系。他们的思想及其阐释主导着中国人的思想，并一直延续至今。所以宗教的市场是非常有限的，即使是佛教，这最显而易见的宗教仪式，大多是实践为目的，而不是像任何基督教或伊斯兰教。

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

皇帝从来没有屈服过任何宗教，至少没有很大的屈服过，换句话说，王朝的力量，也是人类的力量，从来没有被神的力量所统治，神的力量是宗教组织。所以他们没有机会把宗教信仰融进文化里，他们能做的就是通过某种方式施加影响。
所以中国文化是由人类创造、执行和传承的。

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.
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. 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.

Xander Tisdale
这就是中国与不那么中国化的世界之间的巨大差异。
在西方，没有办法将该地区及其人民与宗教区分开来。 每一个西方社会的基础都是宗教，无论是盛行的亚伯拉罕宗教还是任何已经消亡的宗教，它们指引着西方最强大和最有影响力的国家，从埃及的万神殿到希腊罗马的万神殿、挪威的万神殿或琐罗亚斯德的万神殿。
另一方面，中国和受其影响的地区从未真正有过坚实的宗教基础。是的，正如其他答案指出的那样，中国是有一些小的宗教仪式和迷信。但与西方国家不同的是，这些行为已经是他们迄今为止所达到的最高境界了。你在中国餐馆里看到的小祭坛，就是清明祭奠祖先的仪式，还有谈论自然界中的神灵对他们的日常生活造成无法解释的干扰，但这些从来没有真正影响过东方世界的发展。相反，哲学、纪律和尊重填补了这一空白。中国社会更关心的是如何维持他们的生计和提高他们个人的生活水平，而不是关心他们从哪里来，是谁把他们放在地球上。

This very fundamental difference makes both sides equally unintelligible to each other. For westerners,I’ve asked many people and the basic rules always turn up: The only one with a right to take or give life is a superior being that’s greater than us, there is no reason to be alive if not for some superior being who wanted you alive, even if scientific discoveries one day go against scr1ipture it is not a fault or a sign that the religion is wrong but rather that the imperfect humans who wrote the superior being’s words wrote it wrong. But now you go to the east and there’s really no explaining this exact thing to them. I’ve spoken to Chinese people and Japanese people who tell me they understand why the west is so religious but it always falls short of what it really is. To their understanding religion was developed as a collected amount of superstitions that were designed to explain things to a primitive world. Superior beings were shortcuts to explaining phenomena that greatly surpass us like natural disasters. Japan regularly creates fiction depicting religion as a flaw of humanity’s limited understanding of the world around them.

这种非常根本的差异使得双方都同样地难以理解对方。对于西方人来说，我问过很多人，总是有这样的说法：唯一有权利接受或给予生命的是一个比我们更伟大的上帝，如果不是上帝希望你活着，那么你就没有理由活着，即使有一天科学发现与圣经相悖，也会说这不是错误，也不是代表宗教是错误的，而是因为不完美的人写了上帝的话语，却写错了。但是现在你去东方，真的没有办法向他们解释这一切。 我与中国人和日本人都有交流过，他们告诉我，他们理解为什么西方信仰这么虔诚，但总是与真实情况相去甚远。在他们看来，宗教是作为一系列迷信发展起来的，这些迷信旨在向原始世界解释一些事物。而臆想一种高等生物的存在，是解释那些像自然灾害一样远远超越我们的现象的捷径。日本创作的小说里面，经常把宗教描绘成人类对周围世界理解的缺陷。

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. 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. 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.

类似这样的事情也解释了为什么当他们相互描述西方是个人主义而东方是集体主义的时候，所产生的误解。当谈到上帝创造你的时候，西方意识形态似乎把重点集中在个人和那个上帝。另一方面，东方的意识形态深入研究了等级和每个阶层的礼仪，使得他们看起来更关注群体。但事实恰恰相反，你会注意到教会和神权政治的组织，特别要想想被西方世界的教会逐出教会意味着什么。简而言之，这是集体的，你必须遵守大多数人的信仰，否则就要面对政府的否定。另一方面，虽然东方文化教导人们了解自己位置的重要性，但事实上，这些位置则反映了个人的责任。这些责任扩大到集体，但不是因为责任对个人的重要性，而是为了维护社会和平与稳定，这又直接影响到个人。你可以从中国的科举考试中看到这一点。这是任何一个平民都可以根据自己的功绩和学习上升到权力高位的一种方式。

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. 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. 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.
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.

另一个例子优先顺序的运作方式。在西方，现任君主是前任君主的大儿子，然后他会把王位传给在世的大儿子。这就是为什么大多数国家的政府都有一个清晰的列表，列出下一个人选，以防前一个人选死亡。但在中国，情况并非如此。是的，大儿子是很有可能成为下一任皇帝，但这一切都取决于他的功绩。在中国，大多数历代统治者在登基之前，都会凭借自己的行为赢得守旧派的好感。 前任皇帝必须决定他的哪个孩子最有前途，然后任命他为合法继承人。这也是为什么在这种罕见的情况下，发生权力斗争的原因，因为不同的获选继任人会集结支持者们来争夺皇位。因此，尽管西方有一个清晰的家族等级制度，没有人能够越界，但中国是个人证明自己的勇气，并得到现任皇帝及其政权青睐的制度。
所有这些都解释了双方的信仰。你可以简化这种说法，因为西方相信上帝，而东方不相信，但实际上西方相信的是一种凌驾于自身之上的力量，这种力量可以维持系统的秩序。它在每个人都可以遵循的组织之墙后面，保持着一个不断增加的熵世界，因此违背它，你就混乱的代理人，需要被驱逐出去。而东方人所相信的是他们自己建立起来的权利和责任体系，在这个体系中，他们中的任何一个人都可以证明自己的价值，提升自己的权力，然后这个人为这个群体提供一个更好的方式来适应不断变化的世界。

Xamba Yangzoim
It is not true that most Chinese are atheists. Most Chinese do believe a god or God.
However Chinese do not think they are servants of gods, but rather, treat gods as their servants. The service of gods can be bought by money in a temple when such service is required such as funeral, wedding, helping to rain, or helping in making money, etc. After the payment is made and service delivered, Chinese feel satisfied and will go back to normal life.
If a god or God does not deliver the service after payment, the word of mouth will quickly result in reduced patronage. If lack of service becomes persistent over a long time, the god will be soon forgotten. So if a god can survive for millennia, it only means that the god is quite consistent in delivering paid service.

Xamba Yangzoim
大多数中国人并不是无神论者。大多数中国人相信某些神的。
然而，中国人并不认为他们是神的仆人，而是反过来，把神视为他们的仆人。在寺庙里，当需要诸如葬礼、婚礼、帮助下雨或帮助赚钱等服务时，神的服务可以用金钱买来。在钱到账和服务完成后，中国人会感到满意并回到正常的生活。
如果一个神在付款后不提供服务，口口相传后将很快导致赞助减少。如果长期不提供服务，这个神很快就会被遗忘。因此，如果一个神能够存活千年的话，这只意味着这个神在提供有偿服务方面是相当不错的。

Kharon Alpua , worked at Grand Rapids Community College
Fundamentally — they are not. They may not believe in your god or gods, but they have, historically, had many gods, spirits, and philosophers serving to guide their own spirituality. A spirituality which is quite different from the common Western “one or none, all or fall” mentality. Chinese, and other East Asian, forms of spirituality tend to take a very different view of religion than many Western people have traditionally done, and many East Asians practice some form of multiple religious belonging or membership.
To most Chinese people, the idea of a religion being defined by social authority is an external limitation — they have had so many different religious traditions and practices over the centuries that few people follow the traditions and rituals of only one, and they may see religious membership defined more by the practices and rituals of the religion than by the beliefs of the religion. Thus, if the rituals and practices don’t conflict, the Chinese often see no problem with identifying themselves as belonging to, or members of, multiple religions.

Kharon Alpua 在大急流城社区学院工作
从根本上说，他们不是无神论者。他们可能不相信你们的上帝或神，但是历史上，他们有许多神灵和哲学家来指导他们自己的精神。这是一种与西方普遍的“非黑即白”的心态完全不同的精神。 中国人和其他东亚人对宗教的看法与许多西方人传统上的看法大相径庭，许多东亚人实行某种形式的多元宗教归属或成员制。
对大多数中国人来说，由社会权威来定义宗教的想法是一种外部限制ーー几个世纪以来，他们有太多不同的宗教传统和习俗，以至于很少有人遵循一种宗教的传统和仪式，他们可能会认为，宗教成员的定义更多的是宗教的习俗和仪式，而不是宗教的信仰。因此，如果仪式和实践没有冲突，中国人通常认为自己属于或信奉多种宗教。

Paul Myers , IFR pilot, former animator, studying Japanese, anime fan
You're missing the point of atheism. They don't believe in anything. And this isn't like us who have been taught about religion and decided something was fishy about the concept.
But China is a more prosperous country than the United States. Perhaps there is something to being run by a bunch of atheists after all.

Paul Myers ，IFR飞行员，前动画师，学习日语，动画迷
你没有抓住无神论的要点。他们什么都不相信。这不像我们这些被教导宗教信仰的人，他们认为这个概念有些可疑。
但是中国比美国更加繁荣。或许被一群无神论者统治也是有好处的。

English Beginner
Why people should believe something that doesn’t exist?
What benefit you get?
God pay you salary?
God extend your life?

English Beginner
为什么人们要相信一些不存在的东西？
你得到了什么好处？
上帝付你薪水？
上帝延长了你的生命？

Semar Manganov , former CIA agent, Retired
Chinese always tell the truth and believing is considered as liying.
If you ask how the taste of orange is to Chinese, they won’t give you the answer or explanation, they will give you the Orange and ask you to taste it by yourself.
Chinese is pragmatic n realistic, so everything must be proven n experienced then they believe. Chinese won’t be easily to believe anything moreover something imaginary.
Chinese folk religion is merely to respect the anchestors.

Semar Manganov 退休的前中情局特工
中国人总是说实话，盲目相信也被认为是撒谎。
如果你问中国人橙子是什么味道，他们不会给你答案或向你解释，他们会给你一个橙子，让你自己品尝。
中国人实事求是，所以一切都必须先有经验证明，然后才能相信。中国人不会轻易相信任何事情，更不会相信虚构的东西。中国民间宗教只是为了尊重投资者而已。

Siddharth Kathait
I don't know the cultural history of China but I think that one of the reasons behind this is China being a communist country.
And for communists religion is the opium of the masses.
And instead of any religion communists believe in dialectical materialism
Dialectical Materialism is a way of understanding reality; whether thoughts, emotions, or the material world.

Siddharth Kathait
我不知道中国的文化史，但我认为这背后的原因之一是中国是一个共产主义国家。
对于共产主义者来说，宗教是上瘾的药物。
共产主义者不信仰任何宗教，而是信仰辩证唯物主义
辩证唯物主义是一种理解现实的方式，无论是思想、情感还是物质世界。

Mervyn Locke , Decade-long China resident
Chinese are highly religious, and the religion is called “money”.

Mervyn Locke 、住在中国10年
中国人信仰的宗教叫做“金钱”

Erwin Anciano , former Compulsive Writer
Chinese people are generally not atheist.
It’s just that the Chinese (and many Asians) do not have the same concept of religion as a Westerner or a Muslim who grew up in a society dominated by the Abrahamic faiths.
People and cultures that grew up with Christianity, Islam or Judaism have very strange ideas about God and religion, one that is characterized by fear and subservience to a jealous God that will book no tolerance for any alternate belief system.
Chinese religion doesn’t share this unbending belief in a barbaric, jealous and all-powerful God, and instead has a much gentler belief in the heavens and a determinism that is more open to different ideas, along with much laxer “requirements”
That is why they may seem “atheistic” but in truth they simply follow a different kind of life

Erwin Anciano ，前强迫症作家
中国人通常不是无神论者。
只是中国人(以及许多亚洲人)对宗教的理解不同于西方人或在亚伯拉罕信仰主导的社会中长大的穆斯林。
生活在基督教、伊斯兰教或犹太教长大的人们和文化，对于上帝和宗教有着非常奇怪的观念，这种观念的特点就是对嫉妒的上帝的恐惧和服从，这个上帝不能容忍任何其他的信仰体系。
中国的宗教并没有这种对野蛮、嫉妒、无所不能的上帝的坚定信仰，相反，他们对天的信仰要温和得多，对不同的观念更加开放，以及更加宽松的“要求”。
这就是为什么他们可能看起来是“无神论者” ，但事实上他们只是遵循了一种不同的生活方式。

Vishu Menon , former Chief General Manager,
Good thing too. Because they do not believe in God they are a courteous, helpful people who never display xenophobic symptoms.

Vishu Menon 、Vishu Menon前总经理
这也是件好事。因为他们不相信上帝，所以他们是有礼貌、乐于助人的人，从不表现出排外的症状。

Simon Bridge , Life long Atheist and skeptic.
Atheist chinese may follow any of the myriad atheist religions … but generally they do not have some belief that stands as a substitute or replacement for a belief in a diety.
There are lots of other things to believe in, like a political ideology, love, humanity, things like that.
Pretty much anything you can think of to believe in that does not include a deity.
The same is true of all atheists …

Simon Bridge 终身无神论者和怀疑论者
无神论的中国人可能信奉无数的无神论宗教中的任何一种... 但是一般来说，他们没有什么信仰可以代替或取代某种信仰。
他们还有很多其他的东西可以信仰，比如政治意识形态，爱，人性，诸如此类。
几乎所有你能想到的信仰都有，但不包括神。
所有的无神论者都是如此...

Stephen Lefebure , lived in Riyadh, visited Nepal/Philippines, respecting all cultures
Another way of looking at the question would be to compare the history of Europe and China between 250 BCE and appx 1700 when Europeans arrived to colonize China. During that period Europe had constant warfare, particularly after the arrival of the Prince of Peace which precipitated the downfall of the Pax Romana in only 100 years after Rome adopted Christianity. What were the two major belief systems in China during that time? Confucius and Lao Tse provided two contrasting and complementary ways of guiding behavior.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, who prompted the awful period of China’s civil wars — China (to simplify) enjoyed peace for appx 2000 years while the Christians tortured and killed Jews (Inquisition and the Papal Ghetto in Rome) and fought each other constantly. The area and populations are similar but the blood spilled is not. One has to conclude that the Christian belief system prompts endless murder while the Chinese belief systems prompt orderly, calm behavior. Indeed, Jesus did say “I come not to bring peace, but a sword.” Well that is what happened.

Stephen Lefebure ，住在利雅得，访问过尼泊尔/菲律宾，尊重所有的文化
另一种看待这个问题的方式是比较欧洲和中国的历史，从公元前250年到1700年，当时欧洲人来到中国殖民。在此期间，欧洲经常发生战争，特别是在“和平王子”到来之后，也就是在罗马接受基督教100年之后，加速了罗马的迅速瓦解。当时中国的两大信仰体系是什么？孔子和老子提供了两种对立互补的指导行为方式。
在欧洲人到来之前，中国经历了可怕的内战时期，中国享受了2000年的和平，而基督教徒折磨和杀害犹太人(罗马的宗教裁判所和教皇犹太人区) ，并不断相互争斗。地区和人口数量相似，但是流血事件却不同。人们不得不得出结论，是基督教信仰体系引发了无休止的杀戮，而中国的信仰体系则促进了有序、冷静的行为。事实上，耶稣确实说过：“我来到世界不是带来和平，而是带来刀剑。”嗯...事情就是这样。